Don't worry about missing out on Web Summit, all the best bits from the conference are discussed in this video. The Innovation Visual team break down some of their favourite talks, insights and more from Web Summit 2019.
Start 2020 off on the right foot, with a strong insight into what industry leaders and tech experts are saying.
Transcript:
- Web Summit is an enormous event, and it's all about the digital landscape. So it's called Web Summit, which is a very clever name, because it is all about the web, the internet, digital technology, but it is also the pinnacle of knowledge. Having people like heads of state talk at this event.
- Web Summit was an incredible experience. If you've never been I highly recommend you go. It's 70,000 people. It's very big hard-hitting clever people talking across the whole spectrum of digital technology. It's a real eye-opener in terms of the future and where technology is going, and it really is, well, as the name suggests, the pinnacle of the tech world, so you are hearing about the real cutting edge stuff that's going on, which is, yeah, very impressive and a great experience.
- So one of the most interesting talks I went to was about content marketing and the state of content marketing, which I found really interesting 'cause I do a lot of content here at Innovation Visual. But it was talking about how to stand out in the saturated marketplace these days. So there was an interesting saying that was used, "Content is king and execution is the castle." So what this means, too often people decide "Oh, we're going to make a video," and then ignore, obviously the storytelling and actually what the content's going to be about. Start with the content first, and then decide how you're going to execute on it, basically. So you don't try and fit a square peg into a round hole.
- What really stood out for me at Web Summit was the whole story about brands having a purpose, and making sure that they know why they do what they're doing. A lot of CMOs, so there was like the CMO of Burger King, there was quite a lot of brilliant people there, working in marketing for big companies, who were basically talking about that and saying "You can no longer just focus on profit, "you have to have brand purpose."
- I think that what I was really pleased to hear coming from Martin Sorrell, was the fact that he believes even though he runs the biggest marketing organisation in the world, that now with digital, it's about brains, it's not about brawn. So, clever strategies that we develop for our clients, it is the way forward, and it is the way that our clients can beat bigger competition and actually gain market share. So it was great to hear that from Martin Sorrell.
- Today as a brand, you have to behave like a human being, so you have to be a nice person when you talk to customers, online or wherever it is you talk to them. And so you have to have one personality, you have to be consistent. You can't just change tone of voice all the time, basically.
- In terms of storytelling itself, storytelling is massive these days, so obviously in marketing we're trying to resonate with customers and connect with them on a human level. So really thinking about how you're going to tell stories and connect with your buyers. So, you start with a pain-point, then introduce an element, and then obviously you bring in the resolve. And the hero of the story should always be your audience, not the brand itself, because if it's the brand, it's all about them, you need to think about the audience and how you're going to solve the problem and make them the hero, basically.
- Faster, better, cheaper, so it's being able to be agile, agility at scale is what he talked about, and being agile and flexible and being able to deliver for your clients. And I think the main takeaway that I took from his talk was the importance of intrinsically understanding and knowing the platforms. So whether it's Google or Facebook, and all these tools that we have at our disposal, no matter what size business you are, if you know those platforms intrinsically you can then really deliver for your clients. And for us, things like Hubspot, Drift, and those other tools that we can use to, yeah, provide a fantastic service, and be faster, better, cheaper for our clients.
- It's so big, that when you see the main arena full for a talk, and you walk out and you expect everywhere else to be quiet, it's still busy. That's the scale of the place, over 70,000 people attended in Lisbon this year, and it has to be experienced to be believed.
