Agencies are fighting against algorithms flattening brands, dentsu X’s Bruce Williams says

Today, it’s harder than ever for brands to stand out. Almost a decade ago, Netflix’s Reed Hastings famously said the streaming giant’s main competitor was not another company, but sleep. Everyone and everything are fighting for our attention 24 hours a day.

And as algorithms fine-tune our world, looking for 3% to 4% gains, brands are flattening. At least that’s what dentsu X’s new CEO for North America, Bruce Williams, argues.

Williams broke down how data can be used to help brands stand out and how to fully unlock sports partnerships, in a conversation with The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik just ahead of his promotion from chief media officer.

What’s your most unpopular opinion about advertising?

It’s that everyone thinks that it is easy. I would argue it’s getting harder every single day, despite what we’re seeing with AI, despite what we’re seeing with automation and just the expectations there. Advertising is getting much, much harder.

Is the difficulty due to complexity?

At dentsu, a lot of the things that we talk about is we’re living in the algorithmic era. Algorithms are taking control and just flattening brands. Everything we’re having to deal with in terms of how do you make sure you’re cutting through, you’re designing experiences and making opportunities that are going to be bold for clients, plus cut through and resonate with consumers.

This phrase “flattening brands” is so intriguing. Tell me more.

When you think about what algorithms are doing, they’re optimizing everything to a mean value. There’s a lot of an argument out there that it’s about audiences and data that are all just common. If you’re working with a platform that’s using the exact same audience and the exact same data, that’s going to be used by multiple brands, where’s the opportunity for your brand to stand out?

Where’s the opportunity for your brand to cut through and be able to resonate?

When you think about what that means and you think about the opportunities that the platforms have when they are doing that, it really is this idea that brands get flattened they get regressed to a mean. In yesteryear, we have said sea of sameness.

All of those types of things that are just happening out there as a byproduct of the platforms that were operating the platforms or engaging with. And it goes back to the opening question, it’s getting more difficult to actually stand out in this world of automation and algorithms.

So what is the antidote to that? How do brands stand out today?

One of the opportunities is really think about your unique assets and how you’re leveraging those most impactfully. How are you thinking about your data and your understanding of your customer? How are you using that in order to push your information into the platform to take control back?

One of the biggest opportunities you have is think about what your unique assets and how you’re putting them in. It’s not just data, it can be creative. There’s different ways in which you think about how you’re using all of your uniqueness to go into the platform.

That’s where you’re going to find you can steer the algorithm and you can control it to deliver those experiences you want with clients.

Along these lines, a chief media officer, a chief marketing officer and a chief creative officer walk into a bar today. What do they talk about?

Well, they’re going to start off by talking about AI. What’s your plan for AI to deliver efficiencies for your business in the next six months? That’s probably going to be their opening comments. All of them right now are all looking at the same things. It’s a challenging climate.

In today’s marketplace, I go back to again where we started. It's not easy out there today. And they’re going to be talking about what do they have to do to meaningfully move the business. How are they understanding where their customer is going to be in three months, six months, 12 months?

Dentsu and Snap recently came out with a study about interest in women’s sports and found that 62% of sports fans follow women’s sports. Is there an insight from that study that stood out to you?

The number one thing is sports is not just a moment. It’s not just the event itself.

For us, oftentimes it’s not just about buying a sponsorship. It’s not just about buying a spot in a big game. It’s not just about thinking about a logo slap. It’s the entire experience.

You have to think very purposefully about how you engage in pre-event and post-event. And going back to the research itself it’s one of those where if you can tap effectively into the athletes, there’s a real platform to tell a story and really tap into those moments that can have a much more permeating effect than just that moment of sports.