HERALD: What does your agency do, how different is it from the others?
CAMERON WORTH: SharpEnd was set up as the world’s first agency dedicatd to helping FMCG/CPG brands embrace the Internet of Things. We are 3.5 years old and I see the main point of distinction being that we have a laser-sharp focus on the IoT/tech innovation whereas the industry right now is still very much set up, and focused on, what is referred to as digital(generally apps, websites and social media)
HERALD: Do you plan to enter the Indian market?
CW: We are working with a lot of the leading global brand owners in FMCG/CPG (Nestlé, Unilever and British American Tobacco to name a few) and India is suggested as a key pilot market for some of our ongoing programs. Additionally, we are having some preliminary discussions with some brands out here which are looking very promising so am sure you’ll be hearing more from SharpEnd. The India market is incredibly advanced when it comes to leveraging the smartphone as a key device for communication and engagement and I put that down a lot to the fact that India is a mobile-first market (where you largely skipped desktop and straight to mobile).
HERALD: How is artificial intelligence changing the advertising game?
CW: AI is following IoT as the latest buzz term, but there are already some clear ways that AI is revolutionising the ad game such as media planning. In my space (IoT) AI is certainly an area of interest but as we’re early on in our journey we’re still very much focused on putting the foundations in place (sensors, connectivity etc) and then we can look at the application layers and then how AI can be leveraged. What I would say is most of the time I see the term AI it’s used out of place and usually so that tech suppliers can charge a premium
HERALD: How do you visualise the advertising business will be in five years given the explosion of new technology?
CW: I have a saying which people seem to like which is ‘in the connected future the brands who advertise less will be the most valued’ and this comes down to what I see as the reduction in ‘messaging’ opportunities and forcing brands instead to look at how they ‘behave’ around consumers instead (and how technology is used as the enabler to deliver these services). So in short I see brands being built around being useful more than interesting in the future.
