The next frontier of marketing lies not in digital screens but in the physical world, and that artificial intelligence and creativity will define who wins there, says Tim Armstrong, founder and chief executive of digital connection company Flowcode.
The former AOL and Google executive described n this conversation with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan how Flowcode is helping brands bridge real-world experiences with digital engagement, while pushing the ad industry to rediscover “big creative ideas” in an era dominated by data and automation.
Connecting the real world to the digital one
“Eighty-one percent of the economy is in the real world,” Armstrong said. “Flowcode basically brings software to real-world touchpoints that help brands and consumers connect.”
The company, best known for its custom QR technology, enables instant interactions between people and brands — from NBA arenas to retail shelves — through scannable codes that link directly to digital content or commerce.
“Our mission is to instantly connect fans and brands in the real world,” Armstrong said. “If you’re the NBA, you’ll see Flowcodes in arenas from New York to Dubai. They work like the internet does, but in the real world.”
Beyond QR: Identity and data integration
Armstrong said Flowcode has evolved far beyond its origins as a QR generator, now building infrastructure that ties real-world engagement to brands’ data ecosystems.
“Most Fortune 500 companies have around 14 major touchpoints between digital and physical,” he noted. “They’re strong digitally but often neglect real-world ones. Once we helped activate those, partners asked, ‘Can we connect these users to our ID stacks and CRMs?’”
Flowcode now supports a proprietary identity layer that lets companies link offline engagement to customer profiles, helping them retarget audiences across digital platforms.
“We essentially create real-world audience segments that plug right into their digital systems,” Armstrong said.
AI’s role: From data to ‘connected creative’
Armstrong sees artificial intelligence as a transformative force for both businesses and consumers, and one that’s advancing faster than the early internet.
“With 800 million to a billion AI users already, and trillions being invested on the business side, the combination is happening much faster than before,” he said.
At Flowcode, AI is embedded throughout the product: improving consumer interactions, optimizing campaigns, and powering what Armstrong calls the rise of the “connected creative.”
“AI isn’t just about data,” he said. “It’s about creativity. We’re entering an era where creative becomes connected, where ideas, data and technology merge.”
Advertising needs bigger ideas again
Despite the data-driven progress in marketing, Armstrong believes the industry has lost its creative spark.
“I’ve never seen a bigger time of smaller ideas,” he said bluntly. “Advertising has become back-end heavy: obsessed with targeting and measurement. But the next breakout companies will put the consumer and creativity back at the center.”
He described this as his “four Cs” framework: Consumer, Creative, Connection and Conversion.
“The industry has gotten tipped toward the last two,” he said, “but the real opportunity is in the first two.”
Rebuilding trust in a fragmented media world
In a world of hyper-personalized feeds and single-serve content, Armstrong argues that transparency will be key to rebuilding trust between consumers and brands.
“Every person is getting their own version of the internet,” he said. “If consumers don’t understand why they’re seeing a piece of content or an ad, trust erodes. Brands should be more transparent about why they’re serving what they’re serving.”
He envisions a future where “trust stamps” or “transparency stamps” accompany media and marketing messages, helping audiences verify the source and intent of content.
Signal confusion among marketers
Armstrong also warned that marketers are misreading “signals” in their audience data. In a recent Flowcode campaign, he said, the company found major disparities in performance across channels.
“Some of the platforms we thought would perform best turned out to be the most expensive and least effective,” he said. “And one of the best performers was a so-called old-school channel: newsletters.”
His takeaway: marketers must return to fundamentals.
“You’ve got to start with the C: the consumer,” Armstrong said. “Things don’t grow unless the consumer is growing.”
Road ahead
For Armstrong, the future of advertising sits at the intersection of creativity, trust and the physical world. Flowcode’s mission, he said, is to make every physical interaction as measurable and meaningful as a click online, while empowering brands to think bigger again.
“Creative is the place where there’s a huge opportunity,” he said. “We need to go front-end heavy again. Big ideas are what move people, and that’s what moves business.”
