Weekly News: Marketing Conference
Which social media and marketing conferences will you visit this year?
Marketing is constantly changing and attending conferences and forums is one of the best ways to stay up-to-date with the industry. From content marketing to brand management to SEO, there are numerous marketing topics you as marketers can learn about. In today’s digital society, it’s important for marketers to get face time with like-minded individuals and leaders who understand how marketing is evolving.
Viral Access compiled key takeaways from some conferences this Summer.
VidCon and The Future of Social Media Platforms
The 10th annual VidCon was just held in Anaheim, USA. VidCon caters to online creators, their fans and the brand marketers and entertainment companies that want to leverage their influence. If you want to understand teen culture, influencer marketing and the future of social platforms, this social media conference is exactly for you!
Here are five key takeaways from the event according to Techcrunch.
- TikTok is blowing up among Gen Z with much more diverse features and creators than other platforms. Brand marketers are still figuring out their place in the TikTok ecosystem, but some early adopters (like Chipotle) have had extremely strong results.
- Top creators are now talking openly about mental health and how exhausting it is to constantly churn out unique and high-quality content. They’re encouraging new creators to seek more stable platforms (less algorithm-dependent) and try not to measure their self-worth in metrics.
- Creators are increasingly careful about brand partnerships and many are choosing to launch their own products. Many creators have business managers to handle production or can do it online easily. If done right, this yields higher revenue and a warmer reception from fans.
- Five years ago, digital creators aspired to be celebrities. Now celebrities aspire to be digital creators. Actors and athletes may soon be more famous among Gen Z for their digital work than for their real jobs. Read what kind of digital skills we think will be beneficial for you here!
- With new tech that democratizes content creation, everyone wants to be an influencer. VidCon has shifted from a pure fan event toward more of a strategic business conference, with aspiring influencers seeking tactical tips and new connections to grow their careers.
Read the complete report here:
Four Takeaways from Experiential Marketing Summit 2019
As the world’s largest industry conference, the Experiential Marketing Summit was attended by more than 100 speakers from some of the world’s most recognizable brands all gathered in one space to share valuable insights, learn trends impacting the live event space and connect with peers.
There were plenty of fantastic conversations to be heard but here is a summary of some of the key themes happening in the conference provided by the ImmersiveTech team.
People, Presence, and Performance
At the core of every experience, the focus is always around people. From connecting to small business owners on leveraging Facebook to artistic installations, the core takeaway was to center all your decisions around the people experiencing it. Marketers need to factor in every step, touch-point and interaction the audience has in an experience including the emotions we want to suggest they feel when interacting with content, collateral or messaging.
Experience strategy for the win
Companies that focus on providing experiences that are seamless and intensely consider the whole experience will find success over companies that focus on traditional metrics that typically disregard or gloss over the audience experience. Focusing on and delivering an experience that creates authentic, human connections will be far more impactful and leave a lasting impression worth remembering.
Play is underutilized and undervalued
Play can be used to drive engagement but unfortunately, the experiential world at large was still slowly waking up to the potential behind the concept. Agencies, brands and government organizations need to realize that engagement is not as simple as a photo booth or art piece to take selfies with. Marketers need to encourage authentic reactions, emotions and actions by the audience and not just another impression to be counted.
Technology is not a priority
While new technologies are worth knowing, the primary concern was not using more of it but to better understand how marketers engage the audience and create more impactful experiences. It’s clear that the nature of the industry today is consciously looking at the core of what makes experiences memorable.
Three Takeaways from Forrester’s CX Event
Forrester CX Conference is an enlightening two days full of presentations from industry thought-leaders, inspiring breakout sessions with like-minded peers, and valuable networking.
Customer Thermometer have pulled together what Forrester highlighted as the biggest Customer Experience transformation challenges.
- Customer Experience is stagnating
Forrester data demonstrates that over the past two years there has been no improvement in customer experience figures. The standing hypothesis is that growing consumer expectations have created a new “sound barrier” for Customer Experience (CX) improvements. Businesses therefore need to radicalize their approach if they really want to drive transformation.
The most effective thing companies can do in the face of this plateau is to identify their business-specific critical experience, dubbed the “X1”, and exactly how that impacts the business. So Forrester encourages organizations to decide collaboratively: What do customers really want and expect from our specific product? What has the greatest impact or causes the most frustration surrounding their experience, and what aspect will drive the most loyalty?’
2. The rise of value-based marketing
Demonstrable commitment to brand values that resonate with the audience is essential to growth and maintaining loyalty. Emotional connection with brands is becoming increasingly important. Forrester research shows that 71% of consumers know their values and 55% buy from those with shared values. Forrester defines this as the rise of “values-based customers”: a growing number of consumers who will choose, switch and boycott brands based on its ethical/social justice stance and feel that they are supporting a greater cause by choosing to buy into their product.
Companies should consider which of their values will resonate with their consumers, what will motivate them to choose or abandon a brand? Forrester advises all CX professionals to work with their companies to consciously decide how much they should integrate their values into their business model, and how much they will highlight those values to consumers. This is a crucial initiative for staying relevant in an increasingly value-conscious society. Learn more about the importance of CRM here.
3. Customer Experience should be tied to revenue growth
According to Forrester, one of the common missteps in tying Customer Experience to revenue includes over-reliance on NPS as the only metric. Instead, he argues, use VOC data to build hierarchy of needs and understand what’s going to move the needle. Businesses are now being urged to look to other sources and take a more proactive approach. Collecting feedback at the point of sale is an important data source when it comes to tying CX to revenue.
In order to see retention improve over time, businesses should collectively prioritize which elements of CX matter most to their brand and use this data insight to drive and deliver on product road-maps and customer service initiatives. Secondly, how should companies use that data to make a difference and increase revenue growth? How you prioritize which fixes to make first depends on the relationship between Customer Experience and revenue, and this is why getting mass, accurate data is key.
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