Change is So 2015. 2016 is about Evolution.

By Andrew Graff, CEO, Allen & GerritsenI love the New Year—it’s a time for fresh starts, new beginnings and, most importantly, reflection. Reflection is particularly important in the advertising industry, where the pace is fast and circumstances change rapidly. Sometimes, we simply need to stop and say, “Wait, what just happened?” and, “How has it influenced the day-to-day work we do for our clients?”Where 2015 was defined by change and disruption, 2016 will be defined by evolution. So, with an introspective look at last year, here’s my take on the trends that will shape how the advertising world will evolve and thrive this year.Innovation and engagement are inherently intertwined. Agencies that win creatively collaborate with their clients from the start, by determining a compelling engagement strategy, together. And by engaging talent that doesn’t even work on a specific piece of business in early brainstorms, great ideas happen that compel action. It’s when that rich mix of client knowledge comes together with an outside, no-skin-in-the-game perspective that the magic happens.Advertising as a business consultancy is real.This year, there will be even more of an agency emphasis on aligning marketing wins with business return-on-investment. Clients and prospects alike crave a measurable relationship between revenue and brand building. Impressions-centric strategies simply won’t cut it. Instead, agencies must be audience-obsessed and focused on driving clients’ business growth. And, this translates into the earned space as well: public relations programs can’t survive unless they are organized to correlate press hits with business goals with approaches such as the Barcelona Principles.Real-time marketing must be scalable.Brands that can capitalize on key moments in pop culture, current events and breaking news at the drop of a hat are at a real advantage. If you don’t react to relevant narratives within hours (or sometimes minutes), the window of opportunity to insert yourself in the conversation simply passes you by. That’s why success in real-time marketing is really, really difficult. Agencies that empower absolutely everyone to take part in real-time monitoring see big wins. Which means comprehensive, intelligent monitoring tools will be on the rise, and should help brands seize unique real-time opportunities, too.Inventiveness is the new creativity.Agencies that will have the most success in 2016 will spend more time on initiatives that might very well fail. Agencies have to keep innovating—through early, creative collaboration with clients—by creating new products, processes and approaches for engagement with consumers. What’s most exciting in this arena is the rise of the connected world. As access to high-speed Internet continues to proliferate to the point of being commonplace, the Internet of Things becomes an even more tangible possibility for marketing-driven ideas. For instance, wearable devices will emerge as yet another platform through which to reach audiences through mobile targeting, and virtual reality environments will empower brands to bring concepts to life from the depths of their imaginations that may not be feasible in the physical world. Not all of these new ideas will be home-runs, but that’s okay. Because from experimentation and defeat comes great things. And those “next big thing” agencies and forward-thinking clients know this to be true from experience.Storytelling is a craft as old as time, but our methods for story creation, distribution and measurement continue to evolve. And then, once we think we’ve settled on new methods, disruption happens and things change all over again. Which is why I can’t wait to see what happens next.[author]About the Author: Andrew Graff serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Allen & Gerritsen, Inc. Mr. Graff has spent 25 years in the marketing field and has been a member of the executive team at Allen & Gerritsen since 1995. He is a member of the 4A’s Board of Directors.  Follow him on Twitter - @andrewgraff.  [/author]