Throughout the life of PLMR, and certainly since I joined in 2015, innovation has been an integral part of the business.
From being the first agency to live stream local elections hustings on Facebook, to the creation of our innovative planning communications platform Mapdragon, our team have always looked to the future of communications, particular in the digital space.
It was with this in mind that PLMR attended this week’s GQ Heroes Summit at Soho Farmhouse. In some way it was a very glitzy affair, with headliners including Ewan McGregor, Rowan Atkinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones. For me however, one of the most interesting elements of this event was the focus on creativity, technology and digital disruption.
A standout interview for me was with newly appointed OnlyFans CEO Amrapali Gan. Despite the company’s recent backtrack on banning adult content from the platform (a failed attempt to reform in an effort to court new investors), it’s clear that the Gan and the organisation are still somewhat unease with the continued association. Much discussion was had about the “varied creator types” that make a living through the platform including “bakers, artists and bloggers”, but with “OnlyFans Star” itself becoming a byword in the press, it will be interesting to see how the brand maintains a diverse user community.
An interesting discussion was also had with Adam Levene of Klarna, the fintech brand that’s currently at risk of being “uninvented” by Apple. With Apple’s latest IOS update providing similar payment scheduling services to Klarna natively within the Apple Pay ecosystem, it will be on Klarna to find a new point of difference that keeps them from becoming “MySpaced”.
It was also fantastic to hear more from fashion marketplace Depop – with fast fashion becoming such an environmental blight, it was fascinating to hear about the ways that Depop intends to revolutionise the way clothing is made and sold in years to come – watch this space.
With so much happening at PLMR, from our growing team of digital specialists to our recent coming together with the fantastic Genesis and Advent, it can be hard to carve out the time to think creatively about the challenges ahead. It was so rewarding to have that time at this event, and to hear from some fantastically creative people who are innovating in their industries and driving the digital world forward.
