Discussing the global advertising outlook at the Media Guardian Changing Advertising Summit, Buhlmann said: "Instead of an image, brands need to create ideas that will allow them to spend time with consumers."
He said that effective ways for brands to do this can be by creating branded content, branded utilities and conveying the business behind the brand. "As media is more social and transactional the need to do this is only going to grow."
"Brands should see media as a way of spending time with their consumers." he said.
His comments echoed those made by David Jones, global chief executive of Havas Worldwide, speaking earlier at the conference, who said that in this post-digital age, advertising should be about reality rather than just images.
"We are in the middle of 20 year media revolution. Key events like the advent of 4G mobiles and the growth of IPTV will create significant changes in behaviour and nature of relationships with consumers and media," said Buhlmann.
He explained that because of the way it has changed, bought, owned and earned media creates a new model and metric for performance. "Ad spend as a proxy for the industry will have to change where there is not much growth," he said.
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