Matthew Griffin: China learns storytelling from France

Marketing Report was in Munich covering Serviceplan Group’s Innovation Day. Here is what Matthew Griffin, founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, had to say.

Innovation Day took place for the 22nd time on 15 October at Serviceplan Group’s House of Communication, under the theme Explore More. Matthew Griffin looked 50 to 75 years into the future through his work at the 311 Institute, working with many German companies, including Allianz and RWE. He is also helping Walmart work towards annual revenues of $1 trillion by 2030 and advising Google on the future of artificial intelligence. “What I find rather ironic. They’re building it now.”

Everything is changing

Griffin opened with a clear statement: “There is only one thing changing today, and that one thing is absolutely everything.” The alliances Europe relied on are behind us, China is challenging Europe, and a technological arms race is underway.

Most organisations build for the future they can see. Two to three years ago, that meant generative AI; now, it is agentic AI. “The problem is that you only see 30 per cent of the future. That means you miss 70 per cent.” Griffin himself saw the emergence of synthetic content in 2016 and spoke about personal digital assistants in 2010. “And yet, how many of you are working with agentic workflows today?”

Innovation from America, storytelling from France

The most developed part of his presentation focuses on China. Chinese companies are learning from two countries simultaneously: innovation from the United States and storytelling from France. Chinese start-ups tell him they have now mastered the first. “When it comes to innovation, we can now compete with anyone on the planet. When it comes to storytelling, we are still at the beginning.”

The example they aspire to is LVMH. “If you can take a handbag and sell it for $30,000, that is impressive.” China wants to move higher up the global value chain. Its next step is to move beyond manufacturing products towards learning how to market and sell them, enabling Chinese companies to enter European markets.

BYD as a blueprint

BYD is a case in point. The company spent 20 years positioning itself and is now putting pressure on Germany’s automotive industry. Griffin works with the German government and recalls hearing it describe China’s advance in the automotive sector as an existential threat. “It is the only time I have ever heard them say that.”

The shift is also visible in communications. In September 2025, BYD’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme reached 496.22 kilometres per hour at the ATP Papenburg test track in Germany, setting a production-car speed record that has not yet been officially recognised because the run was completed in one direction. The TikTok video showing the record does not look Chinese. “It looks like something created by an Italian luxury supercar brand.”

Griffin expects BYD to enter Formula 1 to gain even more ground. “The Chinese are getting better and better at telling a story. And they have only just begun.”

What is happening in the automotive industry will also happen in pharmaceuticals, beauty and other sectors. Chinese brands are bringing their own marketing agencies with them into Europe. Griffin puts the resulting question to the audience: “How do you compete with the Chinese?”

Agents do not buy on impulse

The second theme is agentic commerce. Since the acceleration of AI-powered search engines in 2023, traffic from search engine optimisation (SEO) has declined by 30 per cent. Griffin estimates that AI agents will influence approximately $5 trillion in retail purchases by 2030.

That does not mean brands will sell exclusively to robots. “The market will remain largely human. You need one marketing strategy for people and another for AI agents, and they are very different.”

An agent does not buy on impulse, whereas impulse purchases account for 30 to 40 per cent of e-commerce transactions. Brand loyalty plays no role, nor does a brand’s media spending. “They do not care that you have spent €10 million on your advertising campaign.”

The agent visits one page, buys one product and checks out. There is no longer a customer journey to track unless a brand partners with AI companies, and the user’s intent remains unknown. “We are seeing the data you rely on to fine-tune your marketing erode.”

Trust and desirability

The marketer’s mission remains unchanged. Brands must still be discovered and sell products. For a customer to buy, they must trust the brand and see that it has a mission, a purpose and values.

“The best CMOs create demand and desirability. That remains at the heart of what you do. How you achieve it is changing: you use new tools, new ways of working and new channels.”

The speed of change is the problem. A new AI model can become available to 4.5 billion connected people within 69 milliseconds. All the opportunities and threats it brings are immediately accessible to everyone.

“You cannot keep up with the future if you do not broaden your view of it.”

From digital to intelligent transformation

Griffin prefers the term alien intelligence to artificial intelligence. Models adjust their own weights, create new knowledge and improve themselves.

According to measurements by the 311 Institute, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro scores approximately 146 on an IQ scale, while ChatGPT has a verbal IQ of 155, representing a 51 per cent increase over three years.

Companies are therefore no longer undergoing digital transformation. “You are undergoing intelligent transformation. You are bringing AI and intelligence into your entire organisation.”

The 311 Institute dismantled and rebuilt itself over six months as an AI-native company. It no longer uses Adobe and creates all its images synthetically. The institute says it now operates 1,000 times faster and at 1,000 times lower cost than its competitors.

Advertising without an audience

By 2040, the 311 Institute expects that 20 per cent of all advertising created by brands will be seen by nobody. This will increase the importance of loyalty programmes and verification systems.

At the same time, content will flood the market. “I can create content for almost nothing and flood virtually every channel with my marketing content.”

The human factor as a differentiator

Fully autonomous marketing, in which AI promotes a business without human involvement, is a misconception.

“If we all use the same AI to create the same content, come up with the same ideas and develop the same strategies, we will all look the same.”

The difference between an organisation producing AI slop and one using AI effectively comes down to people. Diversity of thought is therefore more important than ever.

Griffin concluded by identifying three factors that will shape the future of marketing: mindset, skillset and toolset.

“How ambitious and bold are you? How creative are you? Do you see the future as an opportunity or a threat? You need to think creatively and diversely, and be resilient, because the future is coming at you fast. And your toolset is now making science fiction look pale by comparison.”

www.311institute.com

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