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I don’t know if it’s in 10 years, five, or sooner, but change is coming. And it won’t trickle in gently; it will sweep through like a wave, leaving behind an advertising industry stripped of everything it once held sacred.
We are heading towards a future where consumers, empowered by technology, will no longer need to be persuaded, influenced, or lured.
Advertising, as we know it, will cease to exist. Because the consumer will finally have their own gatekeeper: an app, an AI tool, a personal algorithm. Call it whatever you want, but this intelligent, autonomous system will rewrite the rules of consumption.
The app takeover
Think of a day when you don’t have to browse, scroll, and certainly not sit through ads. You input your preferences — organic for groceries, linen for clothes, a price bracket for everything you buy — and the app does the rest. It curates, compares, verifies, and even orders.
Your decisions are driven not by billboards, influencers, or celebrity endorsements, but by authenticated data and pure utility.
Brand loyalty will still exist, but it will be earned, not crafted.
Advertising can no longer spin a mediocre product into a bestseller. Performance, value, and trust will decide who survives.
What does this mean for brands?
The role of creativity in advertising will shrink. Not disappear, but transform. Brands will no longer compete for attention — they will compete for algorithms.
The consumer’s AI will sift through options, discarding fluff and retaining only the best. To make the cut, brands must get three things right:
* Quality — A product that lives up to every claim it makes.
* Trust — Authentic reviews, verified ratings, and zero tolerance for gimmicks.
* Relevance — A sharp understanding of consumer preferences, needs, and timing.
No amount of celebrity sparkle or influencer charm will make a difference if the product itself doesn’t deliver. So, is it the death of influence, or its reinvention?
An influencer won’t just promote a product — they’ll have to test it, and prove its worth. Reviews will become the hammer of influence.
Brand building
The smart algorithms of the future won’t take celebrities at face value. They’ll fact-check. A thousand likes won’t matter; a thousand verified purchases will.
For celebrities, no more scripted love for shampoos and watches; endorsements will need to be credible to count. A celebrity’s name will appear on the shortlist because the algorithm deemed it worthy — not because of brand budgets.
What about brand building?
You won’t build brands on emotion alone any more. You’ll build on experience — how they perform, how they serve, and how they’re remembered after the sale.
A brand’s story will matter, but it will have to be true. The flash, the jingles, the clever campaigns will take a backseat to something far more fundamental: reliability.
Brand building will become less about grabbing attention and more about earning trust — a return to basics in a way.
A strong product, delivered well, will outlast the noisiest campaigns.
What will it mean for agencies?
The shift is seismic. The work we do — crafting messages, building campaigns, pushing creativity — will face a reckoning.
New role of agencies
The window for storytelling will shrink. Brands will no longer shout at consumers; they’ll whisper to algorithms. And the algorithms will whisper back to the consumer.
But creativity won’t die — it will adapt. Agencies will perhaps need to focus on building deeper, experiential campaigns, and help brands cut through clutter with truth instead of persuasion.
We will be forced to strip away the excess, the gimmicks, the smoke and mirrors.
The future is not bleak. It’s different. If this sounds like the death of advertising, it’s not.
It’s the death of bad advertising — of wasteful, mindless noise.
The future belongs to brands that are worthy. To agencies that embrace simplicity, honesty, and relevance. To influencers who deliver proof, not platitudes. To consumers, who finally have the tools to take control.
This isn’t a loss. It’s a reset. And if we’re ready, it might just be the best thing that happens to advertising. Because, when the dust settles, one truth will remain: great ideas will always matter. Great products will always win.
And the consumer will finally, truly, be king.
(Prathap Suthan is Managing Partner and chief creative officer at Bang in the Middle)
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