Sam Cadman: What Is The Future of Advertising...

This question seems to hang over us with some weight – not what your favourite flavour of ice cream is, I’ll explain that in a minute, but what the future of advertising is likely to be.

And there’s a seemingly infinite supply of experts ready to tell us. Top execs and creative gurus who seem to have the answers all figured out, telling us in a stream of industry jargon and future-speak that’s as thick as molasses, and from which I’ve usually drifted miles away from within a few clicks.

With this in mind, I thought I’d put the same question to the entire crew of my last production, from the security guard to my producer, all 126 of them. It struck me these were voices one rarely gets to hear, that aren’t featured all that often, yet are at the advertising coalface almost everyday.

The favourite flavour of ice cream was simply to try and hold their attention, as it was certainly a tough and unrelenting shoot. That said, I was pleased to discover I’m not alone in loving mint-choc-chip, a seemingly trashy choice that I always feel rather embarrassed to be ordering.

But back to the bigger picture, what is the future of advertising? Of all people our production PA seemed to catch the general mood; “Rocky Road (both for the industry and choice of ice cream)”, and our asst production supervisor also spoke for many; “Online advertising and digital (coffee)”, although my hunch is no one really knows what this means.

Our second AD felt the same; “Online content is the future. TV commercials are often fast-forwarded through. Although I do watch a lot of live sports, so I’m stuck watching commercials sometimes (mocha almond fudge)”. I share his frustration, although it’s an unsettling experience to be fast-forwarding through your own business.

I had a lot of affinity for our production supervisor who believes, “The future of advertising is in small crews, run-and-gun, in the furthest reaches of the globe (coconut)”. This is how I got started and the energy and authenticity it captures is compelling. Whilst my producer sounded like burn-out was fast approaching; “Continuing to sell people shit they don’t need (chocolate almond)”. I know she was joking.

Grip and electric only had two things to say; “A.I. advertising droids (vanilla) and “kill-bots (avocado)”, which only confirms my theory that this is truly the darkest corner of production. It’s why they always wear shorts and are so smiley, to try and hide the bleak voices that haunt the insides of their heads.

The PA department had several contributions. Given this was likely the youngest sector of the production, I was particularly interested to hear what the dreaded Millennials had to say: “The future of advertising is in emotional entertainment that tells a story and doesn’t include much of a commercial feel (mint choc-chip)”.

Another PA: “Virtual Reality (avocado)”. And a third: “Minority Report (chocolate chip)”. Hmmmm, not sure if these are reassuringly ironic or worryingly apocalyptic. And avocado is now an ice cream?

Finally, the most fascinating contribution came from, of all places, craft service; “Relevant to the industry of film workers, I believe the way the trickle down effect works (Client$$$$$$ > Agency$$$$ > Producers$$ > Contractors$) will change!

If the power to the people movement continues, and the clarity of financial dependency of all the parts becomes more transparent, and unions continue to fail, then we will see unrest among all involved. Ideas are only worth the quality of work that are put into them. Ideas will suffer and people won’t believe in products (chocolate)”.

Ideas are only worth the quality of work that are put into them – how true! At the end of the day isn’t this the juggling act everyone in advertising is trying to sustain? It’s the root of all anxiety and elation within the process, it’s what mattered most in the past and will continue to hold true in the future, wherever the work will be seen.

And this from the guy making sure we didn’t run out of red liquorice, wheat grass shots and peanut butter stuffed pretzels - It’s always the quiet ones.