The entertaining speech from Havas CEO Fernando Rodes Vila was a highlight for many delegates. He was giving his views on the future of brands.
Here are his 10 most interesting points:
1 The party of hyper-consumption is over. People are not going to consume again as they did before 2007.
2 For the first time since mass consumerism was introduced at the end of World War 2, consumers are individually, not just collectively, conscious that consumption does not lead to happiness.
3 The new comms paradigm is citizen communications. It is no longer mass communications.
4 Consumers are leading a revolution, armed with masses of information available on the internet. The ‘childish’ model of a brand selling a message through a mass media channel to a consumer, who will then buy the product as a direct result, its over.
5 Press, newspapers and TV will still exist in 20 years. The big change is that TV is losing its previously central role to brand building.
6 CMOs are becoming an endangered species. In the US the average lifespan of a CMO is 2 years, a CEO gets 5. ‘The CEO can shoot two CMOs before dying himself,’ he quipped.
7 Social demographics will no longer be used in campaigns. ‘We all knew they were pure fiction, but because they were the only fiction, they were real,’ he said. Instead the focus will be on communities.
8 Social capital will be key to building a brand. We will return to old ways of building brands. Imagine trying to sell a brand in a small village in the 1920s. Listening to the customer, tailoring your product for them and being open and trustworthy were the key principles. These will be the same in the future.
9 Brands won’t produce products, but benefits for consumers. He argued that some brands such as Nike already understand this and sell more because they sell what the consumer wants.
10 Corporate communications will be one of the marketing disciplines that will increase in demand. Sports marketing and events will also become more important. ‘Everything that connects one to one with a consumer will do well,’ he said.
