This years Marketing Week Live got all the right people in the right place. Over two days Olympia played host to some of the most insightful marketeers and a whole host of suppliers pushing new platforms, tools and items to enhance customer loyalty, in-store purchase, consumer insights, online marketing and a whole lot more. The event offered some great information into the sprawling pockets and overlaps in the world of marketing.
Marketing Week Live especially excelled at it’s centre stage, which hosted a number of marketing professionals taking to the spotlight to share valuable learnings and experiences. Coca-Cola’s Market Activation Director Zoe Howorth shared some great insights into the importance of real world experiences and physical interaction with consumers.
An outspoken and frank Mark Ritson opened the stage on Thursday with the talk ‘Lessons from Luxury Brands’. Ritson, pulled no punches about brand management, and offered educative and frank guidelines to the do’s and dont’s of brand management.
Although there was much talk of Vanilla ice cream, which just made me feel awfully hungry, some of his key do’s and don’ts worth a mention for me were: Do remember the roots of your brand – know where it came from – you can’t manage a brand without knowing it’s history; Do understand brand codes; Do balance heritage with modernity. Don’t follow the same old formula – brands need to adapt to the time and market to stay fresh; Don’t let the brand manager speak for the brand – customers aren’t interested – let the artisan do the talking.
Upstairs in the in-store show area, Bob Burgess from Heineken shared some very interesting perspectives on Heineken’s position on the customer purchase journey. Burgess spoke on “Closing the gap between the chore of purchase and the enjoyment of consumption” and what this meant to a category such as Beer, stuck in what he described as “category Hell”.
Marketing Week’s anonymous Secret Marketeer took to the centre stage (albeit on a blurred screen) to close the show and prove that although a mystery to most, he certainly knows a thing or two about marketing.
As a specialist experiential agency, it’s imperative for us understand consumer behaviour and really grasp what brands want out of us in order to first, achieve the best possible working relationship, and second, drive the greatest engagement towards the brand. Mr. SM, highlighted several key points concerning what he believes agencies ought to understand:
1. Who the customers are and what are they thinking?
2. Who are the brands competitors?
3. How does the company operate?
4. How to make him look good!
On a separate note Mr. SM followed up by praising agencies who partner with others agencies. Agencies who know how to work with others are attractive to brand marketers as this helps them to create an effective eco-system of management and ensure that the right people with the best expertise are involved to effectively cover each area of the campaign. Choosing the right partners with a clear overall vision is key to managing successful integrated campaigns. This is a theme that we have discussed on our blog a while ago.
MWLive 2012 was a great event and hosted many interesting marketing professional, all bringing to the table great insights and innovations driving the industry foreword. See you next year!