Weathering the Storm of Change: Beyond the Age of ‘Germany Moments’, Accenture Song’s Refreshed Leadership Sets Ambition

The sun is visibly shining through the windows of the Hamburg Accenture Song Germany (ASG) office on a Tuesday afternoon. New creative lead Laura Müller-Rossbach and chief creative officer Thomas Knüwer join a virtual call to talk about Laura’s new position and challenges the creative lead team wants to work on.

Laura thinks not only the creative industry is vastly changing but “the whole world”. She is mainly talking about digital transformation in the form of social media, artificial intelligence and short-lived trends. So, agencies around the world are currently weathering a storm. Holding onto their client accounts, they may hope to land in Oz or Kansas but mainly just somewhere safe.

The statistics for the advertising industry globally look everything but negative. The global advertising market reached approximately $1 trillion in 2024, marking a significant milestone for the industry, according to the marketing intelligence platform WARC. For 2025 the media investment company predicted a 7.7% climb to $1.1 trillion overall.

While digital change and innovation in technology might not have impacted revenues badly, it has disrupted workflow and traditional campaigns.

Thomas chuckles thinking back to the advertising industry at the start of his career. “I still have old textbooks about classic television campaigns.” Through vast change in technology, creatives like him have had to find new ways of storytelling.

While linear TV advertisement is still in use, especially over Christmas, digital video advertising was expected to surpass linear TV in the 2024 report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, with digital video accounting for 52% of video ad spend. Future trends seem to predict a continuation of the TV ad downward curve. At the end of 2024 GroupM predicted global TV advertising (both linear and streaming) would grow just 2.4% on a compound basis from 2024 to 2029, and that in 2025 linear TV revenue will decline by 3.4%.

Laura adds: “We used to have a long meeting about campaigns and then something called ‘digital extension’.” Digital extensions, internet marketing for the traditional campaign mainly, used to be super short compared to the rest, she says. “Now the whole meeting is a digital extension.”

The investment in online campaigns is paying off. Global internet advertising revenue is projected to grow at a 9.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), reaching US$723.6 billion by 2026, according to the PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook report.

Laura also sees a big change in consumers' touch points with brands. “They now get push notifications instead of watching an advertisement on TV. Or we have to tell big epic stories in 45 seconds [on social media]. Those are big challenges.”

As a creative, Laura says she wants to be involved in business decisions. She wants to develop ideas and solutions for complex issues. “The products are so closely tied to the business itself. It’s almost impossible to pull them apart… that is why I want to be part of the creative process but also talk in front of the board and be involved in the business side of things.”

That is one of the main reasons she joined ASG. Laura says: “When I first talked to Thomas I saw a silver lining and felt like a gospel choir was singing… We hit it off from the start and talked for hours about challenges in the field and possible solutions and bouncing ideas off each other.”

Thomas agrees: “We can’t just pray for the complexity of the modern world to vanish and we definitely can’t put our heads in the sand. Back in the day we used to have ‘Germany moments’. Moments that used to move the whole Germany and those campaigns used to unite us all.”

The big “Germany moments” Thomas talks about are mainly linear television ads most Germans remember from watching a show with their families. Most remember the feeling of singing jingles and speaking the dialogue with the ads in between a beloved film at prime time. For the curious, here is a compilation of some famous German advertisements.

Thomas thinks it's both a shame and an opportunity that those big “Germany moments” don’t exist like that anymore. He thinks those big moments happen in subcultures now. “There is a diversity of subcultures and submovements on socials and a TikTok trend is only popular for a couple of days.”

He continues: “You can have the biggest vision but if you don't pick up the consumer from where they are, it doesn't matter.” For that reason, both say that Accenture Song wants to collaborate with different departments like data and tech on creative solutions.

As a professional service firm, marketing and branding is just one of Accenture's arms. Under a corporate umbrella, the parent company Accenture combines consulting, technology, digital, operations, and creative services. With the variety of expertise in the company, collaboration is key.

A common vision for collaboration and innovation is what Thomas and Laura share as creative leaders. She says: “Creativity can find new solutions with collaboration. Sometimes we fall into the trap of creative arrogance but we need to work with data specialists, scientists and people from different fields in order to create the best solution for the customer.”

But Laura also thinks collaboration has to go both ways. “We as creatives might not understand the full ins and outs of the supply chain or a business dilemma but we know what is important to our consumers and how to develop unusual ideas.”

Thomas laughs. “Yeah, we see creativity as the Tabasco sauce of innovation. Let’s say you have a fantastic product or app or something and then you bring a creative to the table and add some spice to make it even better.”

Because of the ever changing industry and constant technological innovation, both think creativity should stay current and go with the flow. Thomas says: “It’s important to stay up to date. We don’t want to stay chained to how we have been doing things before.”

Both say they use their gut feelings to navigate hardship as creative leaders. Laura says there is not a right or wrong. She mainly likes to focus on finding new ways of thinking. “Going with the Zeitgeist and working closely with clients and organisations is key for that.”

Thomas agrees: “It is super important to stay humble. We don’t always have the answers.” He says both want to have a hand on the pulse of time and observe new trends, changes in consumer needs and preferences.

Laura and Thomas have decided to stay curious, humble and passionate. Laura laughs: “Yeah, of course it is hard. But I want to do it… We don’t know how the world will look in five years and the same goes for the advertising industry… We are up for the challenge and that is what counts.”