Forecasting 2014 with... Astrid van Essen

Having previously worked at Media Monks’ Amsterdam base, back in November 2013, Astrid van Essen moved to London as the new managing director at MediaMonks UK. With in-depth knowledge and awareness about the company and its digital origins and ethos, she is excited and ambitious about her plans for the company which shines through.

Here she talks about keeping up with an ever-changing industry, maintaining Monk momentum and her own integration into London culture.

What are your predictions for the industry in 2014?

2014 is going to see the digital production process become increasingly integrated. We already produce interactive films alongside games and mobile; as well as working with out-of-home installations, wearable technology and Xbox Kinect. With everything gradually going digital, there are more and more options to get the right content to the right people, at the right time and place, and perfectly tailored to the right device.

What would you most like to see happen in advertising over the next 12 months?

We’d like to see a concerted effort to keep improving the quality of mobile and tablet campaigns. Our office in Singapore is providing interesting insight into the mobile market – first with internet users across Asia, which is set to grow by up to half a billion handsets this year alone! Hopefully, 2014 will see the end of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to digital advertising. Most of our campaigns are already carefully tailored to make the most of mobile and tablet capabilities – I’d like to see this become the standard this year.

What are you most looking forward to personally over the next year?

Discovering more of what London has to offer. I’ve been working in the city as managing director since November, and I’ve barely made a dent in its culture. I live in Soho, so I’m lucky enough to have some of the city’s finest restaurants, bars and galleries on my doorstep. But now it’s time to explore a little further afield.

What will you do differently this year that you didn't do last?

I plan on visiting our offices in Singapore and New York. Many of our clients in London have sister offices that work alongside our teams in Asia and America. I’d like to take a look at our other operations and strengthen the connection between each office, in the name of further improving how we all work.

What media/technology/platform/campaign do you think will shine this year?

Everyone is currently talking about a rumoured release for the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift. I approached our passionately nerdy R&D team, who have told me that they’ve already been playing around with the system’s development kit – so public availability could mean very exciting things. Imagine fully immersive, 360-degree campaign environments that your consumers are free to explore as they please…

What effect do you think this year’s World Cup will have on the industry?

Our company is good at event-based campaigns; we produced fourteen different projects for the Euros two years ago whilst I was in the Amsterdam office. We’ve already completed our first for Brazil 2014 alongside Tribal DDB Amsterdam for the official World Cup ball – the Brazuca, by adidas.

Where will you go on holiday this year and why?

All I ask for is a country that can offer me a warm climate, good food, a reliable internet connection for my laptop and signal for my phone. Almost certainly not in that order…

What's your New Year's resolution workwise or other and do you think you'll stick to it?

My number one priority for the New Year is maintaining our momentum. 2013 was quite literally our best year yet as we made our way into the FWA Hall of Fame and won our first ever annual FWA People’s Choice Award, as well as more than 60 other awards across institutions such as Cannes Lions and the Webbys. We'd like to add a D&AD Pencil to the trophy cabinet but we're yet to register and the deadline is looming, so that is a target for 2015. Other than that, I think it’s also time to join a gym! British beers are more than twice the size of their Dutch equivalents. No harm done yet luckily, but pre-emptive action may be necessary if I am to continue drinking pints.

If you had one hope or request from the client side this year, what would it be?

Keep up the hard work! Many moons ago MediaMonks took the decision to work solely with advertising agencies to produce cool stuff. Tired of slow-moving strategic meetings, we graciously bowed out to focus on the process of building digital campaigns. We're therefore happy if our agency-partners continue to tackle the intricate and essential details of brand strategy, whilst we focus on the interactive and technical elements like HTML5, WebGL and Flash.

And if you had a piece of advice for the creative industry in 2014 what would it be?

Be bold. There are lots of changes afoot for digital technology, and we could see many of them in 2014. It is better to be at the forefront of the field holding a brave brief than safely on the sidelines watching your competitor score.