The future belongs to the innovators

Ideas are the currency of our times and powerful creative is the strongest component of any corporate arsenal.

The future belongs to the innovators.

Hi, I’m Christine Clarke, founder of Studio 55 and this is a vlog about the importance of brand, visual communications and marketing in current times. It is called ‘The Future Belongs to the Innovators’.

I’ve been in this industry now for almost 3 decades and in that time I’ve seen a lot of change.

I started in a downturn. Then I experienced the highs of the early 2000’s and then the GFC crash of 2008, and of course the impact covid is having.

I know that for a long time, the intangibles like brand, creative, marketing, and PR, they were considered extras, not really necessary, certainly not important.

In hard times they were the first to go. In good times they were a bit of fun maybe but never a focus. Creative services were largely about design, and for a long time design was largely just about creating pretty pictures.

These were times before social media, when the internet was not really established. The marketplace was local, the business it was done face to face it  was primarily based on personality.

Output, mostly average. If you wanted to compete on quality and price, well there was room to do so. No one really had to make much of an effort with their businesses. A likable rep, that was all that you needed to get by.

Fast forward now to 2020 and the business landscape is completely different.

Web and social media have changed everything. Now the internet is your shopfront, and your once local market is global. Competition has increased exponentially. A good product and service are expected as standard. Personal relationships they do not have the power that they used to. Your company personality, that’s what matters now.

Consumers are no longer dictated to by ad agencies. The consumer now has the power and they control your fate in the marketplace. If you are inauthentic, confused or full of shit they will sense it and they will reject you. With digital marketing being so accessible and low cost, there is now a glut of bad promotional material everywhere you turn. People are drowning in confused clutter and they are sick of it.

So, with this in mind, how do you succeed going forward?

Easy. You go to where the opportunity is. In this case the opportunity is in innovation.

As I just mentioned, people are drowning in clutter, but they are starving for entertaining, clever, intelligent visual communications that cut through.

So why are so few people taking advantage of this? Why is there so little high-level work out there?

Maybe because it requires innovation.

Innovation in strategy, innovation in brand, innovation in creative marketing materials. But innovation is a rare resource. Even rarer are those people who are equal parts innovative and strategic.

I say innovative and strategic because to hit the spot and rise above the noise you need both. To stay relevant in these times you must lead. You cannot follow. Not in the age of innovation. Everything must be done intelligently and with specific intent and purpose.

Remember we’re talking about the commercial environment here. The business world. Innovation without the framework of strategy is fanciful, random and unstructured.

There is no place for that in a corporate environment. By the same token, strategy without innovation is likely to be boring, repetitive, pedestrian and lacklustre. But when you have both, magic happens.

There is no danger of everyone doing it as these attributes cannot be taught and they’re hard to find. A person who is an effective innovator in the commercial world must possess boundless creativity, imagination and originality. But on the other hand, they also need seemingly conflicting traits of a strategic, analytical and logical brain.

These people are usually intuitive as well. They have the unique ability to form new ideas that will be highly effective in a commercial world. And now is the time that they are needed more than ever.

Studies show that only 2% of people have this skill set so the leading organisations of the future will be those companies who recognise that relentless innovation and high-level strategy are the things that will ensure they rise above the noise. And they will actively seek partnerships with innovative strategists to propel their brand forward.

As a result, they will almost certainly be the stand outs because they will be achieving maximum impact in their brand, marketing and visual communications.

So, you can see why these are the most exciting times to be in business. Your brand is your asset. Your asset to own and leverage. Innovation and strategy are available to you.

If you understand the power of that and harness it, you will do more than rise above the clutter, you will absolutely fucking dominate.