Top 5 Takeaways from BCAMA’s Digital Speaker’s Event
A couple of weeks ago, Ana and I went to the BCAMA’s Digital Agency Panel Speaker’s Event. The event was a Pecha Kucha format followed by a panel discussion. There were about 6 speakers with only about 10 minutes each, but a lot of big ideas were thrown around in a very short period of time.
Here are our top 5 takeaways from the digital-centered event:
1. “ANYTHING THAT MAKES LIFE EASIER”
Technology and marketing are inevitable tied together, with technology usually dictating the path the partnership takes. In the same way that technology helps to make anything in life easier, marketing is moving towards achieving the same goal for their customers. For example, Beacon technology is much like GPS, but it’s able to track individual’s locations to the millimeter, a technology in which marketers can leverage location-based apps. Imagine receiving a phone update for a sale just as you walk into a store. Amazon has also released an augmented reality app that allows customers to recognize tens of millions products they see in stores so that they can compare prices right at the point of purchase (more on the augmented reality).
There are countless other technological advances that marketers will be able leverage to make lives easier for customers: 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, and the list goes on.
2. BECOME ESSENTIAL
“Pampers taught me how to raise my child”
That’s what one speaker said, referring to the website Pampers created that taught parents how to be parents. With the plethora of information available on the internet, it is essential that brands become as essential as Pampers has been for parents (or, at least, useful), or else they’ll be forgotten. In the same wavelength, marketers must learn more and more how to be publishers in order to compete with all the useful content that’s already available to the public. Nobody wants to hear marketing messages anymore, they want useful content that will improve their life.
The speakers via BCAMA.com
3. SPEED IS EXPECTED
The population of “Digital Natives” is increasing, and is only going to get larger. They grew up with technology, and they expect brands to be as fluent in it as they are. This makes speed a significant factor in their deciding whether they support a brand or not.
4. PEOPLE DON’T JUST CHOOSE BRANDS, THEY JOIN THEM TOO
As #2 mentioned, if a brand useful or essential, it will receive attention from customers. However, if a brand is unable to connect on a utility level, it can also on a values level. As mentioned in #3, “Digital Natives” are increasing in size. They also tend to be social advocates that prefer to that align themselves with brands that share the same values as they do. This can be everything from religious beliefs of the organization’s CEO, to basic principles from their Twitter account. This can be tricky, though. If a brand wants to connect with their customers on a brand values level, they must ensure the values are communicated consistently throughout the brand. However, if successful, they will gain supportive fans that not only choose – but join – their brand.
Please check out some related links of ours:
– How To Build A Tribe Of Brand Followers
– How To Improve Your Organization’s Communications
5. PERSONALIZATION IS PARAMOUNT
The oft-mentioned paradox of the digital world is that although it has made us all globally connected, it has also, in turn, made our relationships more distant. Thus, a major factor for marketers in the digital world is personalization. One of the speakers told the story of how his daughter received text message advertisements from Rogers about roaming packages, without the daughter ever indicating to Rogers that she was to go on a trip soon. It turns out that Rogers was scraping the daughter’s text messages, and thus knew of her future plans. All in all, the daughter was disturbed by the act, however, she still purchased the roaming packages because of convenience. In a world where we are exposed to up to 20,000 different brands and 5,000 advertisements per day, personalization helps organizations cut through the noise and provide customers with convenient and timely offers right when they need it most.
Please note that these were just our top 5 takeaways that came from the event, as there were many great points regarding humanization, forming cultures, flexibility, and much more.
In case you’re interested, here was the Speaker line-up at the event:
Jamie Garratt, President & Strategy Lead, Idea Rebel
Dean Elissat, VP Client Engagement, Engine Digital
Sandy Fleischer, Owner and Managing Partner, Pound & Grain
John Ounpuu, VP Strategy, Blast Radius
John Hossack, President and Founding Partner, Cardinal Path
Darrell Hadden, President, Graphically Speaking
A comprehensive overview of the event can be found on the BCAMA blog.
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