Dentsu launches Brave New Normal report on 2021 creative trends

This report was created by a team of strategists, creatives and technologists from across Dentsu’s global creative offering including experts from award-winning agencies Dentsu McGarryBowen, Isobar, and 360i and other global award-winning agencies including Taproot Dentsu, Merdeka LHS and many more. In it they draw on their experience as partners to some of the world’s biggest brands as they navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic and evolve their businesses to be future fit. The report includes case studies from across the globe including insights and case studies from Dentsu Inc’s world-leading innovation teams.

Jean Lin, global chief exec of creative at Dentsu International said, “Despite its' challenges, 2020 has provided marketers and agencies an opportunity to reset and shift the paradigm of business and brand building.

"Brave New Normal presents new imagination for growing businesses in the years to come- reframing the potential for brands and encouraging them to embrace a new creative canvas to delight, connect, inspire, and empower their customers. Technology unlocks the power of connected creativity and this is the greatest opportunity our industry has ever known.”

The report provides guidance on navigating this new landscape with each chapter outlining why these developments are important, key examples of the trends in action, why businesses need to be aware of them, and how they can take advantage of their positive potential. The five key trends for 2021 are:

• The Virtual Experience Economy

• The Real ‘We’

• Human Contactless

• Me Myself & AI

• The Urgency of Allyship

Patricia McDonald, chief solutions officer, creative at Dentsu international said, “It’s tempting to see 2020 as a story of polarisation. Yet in many ways it has been a story of radical collaboration. Faced with unprecedented problems, businesses came together as never before.

"As we locked down, we were forced to open up to new possibilities. As our physical worlds became anxious and constrained, virtual experiences were charged with emotion. Able to touch less, we found ways to feel more.”

The report builds on Isobar’s recent Creative Experience Survey 2020, which revealed that 64% of CMOs have “completely or moderately” changed their Experience strategy in response to the Covid-19 crisis, with one in five having ‘completely’ changed their approach.

Among those CMOs who have changed their strategy, investment in innovative new products and services is the most popular strategy among businesses of every size and scale, adopted by 45% of all CMOs, and 49% of CMOs of larger organisations.