Three of Penquin’s team members headed to Lisbon to attend the most innovative tech conference in 2019. Here are 7 takeaways you can use in 2020 to improve your brand equity and marketing.
From robot dogs to winning on social and the next generation: 2019’s Web Summit, held in Lisbon, Portugal, was packed with innovative ways of thinking, trends to watch out for, and interesting and creative debates from tech experts around the world. Three of our team members (Sean Devlin, Mandy Davis and Nicole Glover) attended last year and came back with some key takeaways.
What is Web Summit?
According to Web Summit’s site, “At a time of great uncertainty for many industries and indeed, the world itself, we gather the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to ask a simple question: Where to next?”
This tech conference was packed with experts from around the world and really inspired creative thought and marketing innovation in our team.
Key takeaways from Web Summit 2019
ARE YOU REALLY CUSTOMER - CENTRIC?
Edwina Dunn, the CEO of Starcount, focused on the importance of using data to get ‘inside’ your customers’ heads and give them more of what they really want.
SHIFT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO BE MORE RETAIL FOCUSED
Research your social media platforms as they are the fastest growing space for retail. On Instagram, for example, there is a R10 million value on retail sales! Using geographic and lookalike audiences, you can start to understand your online communities better. Shift the focus to the customer and not the brand.
AI IS INCREDIBLY POWERFUL
How can marketers keep us human while seeking the holy grail of innovation? Although experts like Bill Gates and Elon Musk have warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI), if it’s used in the right way, with a human-centric approach, it can only help.
One example they gave is bus stations that monitor the temperature. If it hits -7 degrees, any homeless people sleeping under the station are redirected to a nearby shelter. At Penquin, we’ll look at implementing AI with bots and social media but we will make sure we’re doing it for the right reasons - we are all on Team Humanity. We need to embrace AI and it’s potential.
THE ‘EXPERIENCE’ ECONOMY
People are driven by experiences so make sure your brand is providing not just a product, but also an experience they enjoy. After all, people are emotional!
PURPOSE - DRIVEN VALUE
Two out of three people will buy from a company that gives back. So ensure you have a brand purpose - make it known and then live up to it.
PUBLIC SOCIAL MEDIA IS DYING
So says the founder of Giphy, Alex Chung. People are consuming content in a different way - instead of putting everything on Facebook, they’re tapping into Dark Social and sharing content privately rather than publicly.
GEN Z
They are 24 years old now and entering the workforce! Everyone is obsessed with Millennials but Gen Zs are actually our next lot of spenders. They have grown up with tech, are easily bored, and demand the best user experience from a brand. Have you thought about Gen Z with your marketing?
We hope these key takeaways inspire you and get you ready to create kick ass marketing campaigns in 2020!
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