That “advertising in the future won’t look like advertising” is recognized by brands, agencies and platforms. However, the most progressive work that we celebrate at festivals often remains a sideshow to the main output of our industry.

At a time when there is more seismic creative change and opportunity than ever in marketing history, advertising is not evolving fast enough. What to do?

This piece has taken inspiration from one of the great post-pandemic pop culture heroes, “The Mandalorian.” Mandalorians live by a code of honor, and those who adhere to it use the mantra “This is the way.” They believe that “The foundlings are the future,” nurturing youngsters into great warriors. In foundlings—including the gifted Din Grogu, aka Baby Yoda—there is already immense power, which gives us a fitting metaphor for our industry.

The extraordinary work we celebrate but have not yet scaled represents our creative foundlings— work with the potential to shake up and redefine our industry. Our collective task is to support and nurture them because they drive growth more powerfully than legacy advertising alone.

Here are five ways to focus on new ways of thinking, working and creating:

Change datasets to change mindset

The biggest impediment to our collective success is mindset. Looking beyond the datasets we habitually rely on is fundamental to shifting how we think—is an insight from the work of John Rudd, a professor of marketing at Warwick Business School. For example, brands still overinvest in paid media, although consumers spend more time with media that is not.

Brands need to be a meaningful part of consumers’ lives across the entire world of media, not just the ad-supported part. Brands can change their mindsets by looking more purposefully into culture, sports, music, entertainment and gaming, examining data that is not currently used. How much are they investing in non-ad environments that prioritize entertainment and value creation over interruption?

Look at what Mercado Libre did with its Black Friday promotion. Instead of adding to the influx of Black Friday deals shown on ad breaks, it built its promotions directly into the TV shows viewers already loved. The “Handshake Hunt” offered a discount related to the content shown every time a handshake—which just happens to be Mercado Libre’s logo—took place. The retailer had its best-ever Black Friday, with an 80% increase in sales. 

Don't interrupt the things people love, be the thing people love

Al MacCuish of the Sunshine Company came up with this iconic summation over a decade ago. People often don’t care about brands and products as much as we’d like them to. They care more about what’s happening in their lives. How your work resonates depends on how well you understand and respond to this. Don’t push out content you think they should care about. Instead, find ways to delight and inspire around the things they are already interested in. 

Heinz did this by turning past failure into a viral success. Its first attempt to launch Kranch, a combination of ketchup and ranch, had failed. But when Taylor Swift was spotted eating chicken with those sauces, it launched a new product, Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch, in one day, with the product hitting Walmart shelves two weeks from launch.

The brand capitalized on Taylor and boyfriend Travis Kelce’s star power and the memes surrounding the moment. Without any direct connection with the couple, Heinz was mentioned in 63% of coverage about them, earning six billion impressions and a 52,987% return on investment.

Work with people who can do things you can’t

Changing the way you work changes what you make. The advertising and marketing industry is still largely siloed with creative, media and multiple agency and marketing divisions separate from one another. This legacy structure is inefficient, complex and slow. Integrating streamlined operating models is a priority for all businesses, but forming new project teams is a fast-track hack, bringing together people with different skill sets.

Reach out and look for partners who can do things you can’t. You might be the best in your field, but collaborating across disciplines and industries always creates far more progressive and unexpected results.

Door Dash’s Titanium-winning Super Bowl experience did just this, combining media, tech, data and e-commerce expertise to take viewers by storm. Instead of advertising its own products, it tagged on every other advertiser’s offering, creating a presentation so gripping it caused some viewers to willingly miss some of the best touchdowns. The campaign earned 11.9 billion impressions, 111.8 million influencer video views and a 457% increase in engagement volume across social. 

Listen to the kids

As business wakes up to Gen Z’s profound influence and future spending power, it has exposed an intergenerational gap between those who grew up pre-internet and those who live natively online. If you want to engage Gen Z, start by transforming your intimate understanding of everything the generation cares about. Advertising is a young industry, with most workers in the U.S. aged 20-34. Make use of this community, talk and listen to them in your workplace and get their opinions and input.

CeraVe tapped Gen Z audience’s love of social, ironic entertainment and celebrity by turning actor Michael Cera into a skincare influencer, fueling rumors that he was the brains behind its products. The campaign stole the Super Bowl, going viral amid a storm of conspiracy theories of the star’s involvement, with 30 billion earned impressions, a 25% increase in sales and a 2,200% increase in searches for the brand.

Change what you measure to change what you make

All of the above will have no effect if measurement is not transformed. Our industry remains hamstrung by an ad-centric measurement mindset. The definition of madness is doing the same thing—in this case, measuring all ideas as if they are ads—and expecting a different outcome. It is too easy to make what we can measure. The future will be won by looking beyond these confines, innovating and marshaling new data to find new ways to evaluate and scale our best work. At its simplest, changing what you measure will change what you make.

I hope these principles provide useful stimulation. Combined with your wider collective learnings, successes and experience, these can provide the foundations to reimagine a far more successful and enlightened future. Find the foundlings, nurture and grow them.

This is the way. This is the future of creativity and growth.