Johannes Ehrenwerth in the Handelsblatt Rethink Work podcast
Dusseldorf As so often, it started with funny pictures on the Internet. Sebastian Galla and Johannes Ehrenwerth, both advertisers, were looking for an outlet to get rid of their frustration with the exploitative everyday life in the advertising industry. The Instagram account “Agentur Boomer” was created, which uses memes to tell about a world in which fruit baskets and glittering job titles are supposed to make up for bad working conditions.
However, there was a quick response to the topic, which went far beyond the world of advertising, says Johannes Ehrenwerth in the podcast Handelsblatt Rethink Work. “People were so hungry to tell us what was going well and what was wrong in their office,” says Ehrenwerth.
Today, Agency Boomer is a branch of the Dortmund advertising agency “Brandneo” and advises companies on Internet culture with a focus on Web3, i.e. the Internet based on blockchain technology. “You can still see that large companies and corporations are being coached by very large management consultancies on digitization. But then I always think: digital should actually have been the STANDARD for ten years, we’ve come a long way.”
From his point of view, the much-discussed metaverse is not the most important change, but above all the most visible: “Many think that soon we will all only be on the road with Mark Zuckerberg’s VR glasses and paint some 3D pictures. I don’t think it’s that at all.”
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From Ehrenwerth’s point of view, however, the completely new way of dealing with communities will significantly change the world of work – a development that he can already observe on the advertising market.
While until recently influencers were the most popular advertising partners on Instagram, a whole new generation would suddenly become interesting, organized in a decentralized manner in the Metaverse. “These are people who, with teams that sometimes consist of ten people and no more, pound huge business ideas out of the ground within weeks and months and then implement them digitally. And which can then also build up enormous relevance in their bubble within weeks,” says Ehrenwerth.
Accordingly, the recruiting of workers will change in the coming years, not only in the advertising industry. Ehrenwerth is certain: “Hardcore gamers are the employees of the future”.
Johannes Ehrenwerth explains in the current episode of Handelsblatt Rethink Work why he still sometimes advises companies in his agency to record funny rap videos for social media and to what extent the advertising world has now arrived in New Work.
More: You can hear the previous episode of Handelsblatt Rethink Work here
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