As we head into what is set to be a seminal year for the digital industry, NDA has been talking to leaders across the market to hear their thoughts on what 2020 holds.
Laura Jordan Bambach is chief creative officer at Mr President and a creative powerhouse in the digital and ad industries for the past twenty years. She was previously a president of D&AD and is co-founder of SheSays.
What has been the most important development of 2019 in the digital industry and your professional highlight of the last decade?
I don’t think it’s ever right that there’s only one important development in a year – but I’m incredibly pleased that we’re finally starting to have conversations about the ethics and bias of AI. This is going to be even more important going forwards.
My professional highlight of the last decade has got to be being elected as D&AD president. One of the first women, and one of the first ‘digital’ presidents (after the amazing Simon waterfall and Sanky).
What an honour.
What are you most excited about in digital in 2020?
Rather than framing it as digital, I’d like to think about 2020 in terms of creating experiences.
There’s so much untapped opportunity to create experiences across all channels, and I feel that’s where the most exciting work of next year will come.
Why should advertisers be excited about digital in 2020?
Because we’re seeing a growing understanding (take Adidas for example) that the obsession on measurement and performance hasn’t delivered the results we’ve been led to believe, and there’s more room for brand-building in the digital space.
We are seeing a plethora of new companies entering the space. Other than your own company, who are you most excited about?
In the broader space, I’m super impressed by everything that Uncommon are doing this year – they’re on a roll.
On a more digital front, there are some brilliant adtech partners that are genuinely providing more ways to be creative through data – like A Million Ads for example.
And in the consultancy space Utopia, they’re incredible change makers that champion inclusion & diversity and creativity.
What is your one Christmas wish for the digital industry in 2020?
That we collectively get our mojo on and take ownership of being the creative ‘pirates’ of the industry again.
