In November 2024, Digital Marketing Lead, Hope Holman and Creative Lead, Miriam Gooch, attended Web Summit’s renowned conference in Lisbon, where the tech world meets. In this blog, they highlight some key takeaways, including innovative updates in the landscape of content creation and AI, and the importance of brand authenticity in a crowded market.
About Web Summit
Hosted in Lisbon, Web Summit is one of the largest Marketing and Technology events in the world. With tens of thousands of attendees, sessions from tech giants, and hundreds of talks from leaders across various industries, it’s a place for industry leaders, startups, investors and marketers to connect, exchange ideas, and inspire change. This year’s event featured speakers like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Revolut founder Nik Storonsky, and renowned author and psychotherapist Esther Perel, discussing the pivotal role of artificial intelligence (AI), sustainability, and digital transformation and what this will look like in the future of digital marketing and consumer-decision making.
Top Takeaways from Web Summit 2024
1. Personalisation: The New Era of Shopping
In today’s digital landscape, consumers made up of younger generations have come to expect highly personalised and seamless experiences when shopping. Personalisation has become the new standard, and it's no longer just about using people’s names on emails or product recommendations. Shoppers now expect to see more elaborate, innovative features such as virtual try-ons, interactive quizzes, and tailored recommendations as part of their entire journey. AI and data insights have moved from being optional to essential tools in crafting these custom experiences for consumers.
However, this means the real challenge for marketers is ensuring that personalisation feels meaningful. It’s no longer revolutionary to just send your consumers a selection of generic product recommendations; it’s about creating an entire experience that resonates with the end-user. To achieve this, working with first-party data and using tools that integrate seamlessly into e-commerce platforms is key. However, while personalisation is crucial, it’s equally important to respect consumer trust when collecting and using their data. People are more than willing to share information if it results in a better, more customised experience, but they expect transparency and security in return.
Discover 5 ideas to use personalisation in digital marketing
Going further in streamlining consumer experiences, the rise of platforms like TikTok with one-click checkouts has shifted shopping behaviours. Social platforms are now not just discovery channels but purchase platforms. This trend places traditional e-commerce sites under pressure to match these frictionless experiences. For marketers, this means rethinking social strategies to drive engagement directly on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, integrating features that bring social-style interactivity into brand-owned channels. The goal is to merge the convenience and immediacy of social commerce with the more curated, controlled experience of a brand’s website. By offering personalised features, like virtual try-ons, that can’t be easily replicated on social platforms, brands can incentivise purchases through their own sites. This creates a seamless, end-to-end shopping journey that meets the expectations of today’s consumers. Find out more from our latest blog on maximising revenue for e-commerce websites in a competitive market.
2. Content Strategies and Social Listening: Prevent “Brand Thirst”
In the rush to stay relevant, some brands have become what's known as "brand thirsty" - jumping on every trend just to be seen. But here's the thing: people can see right through it. They can spot when a brand is trying too hard, and it doesn't sit well. An interesting talk over the 3-day conference made a powerful point that instead of chasing every fleeting trend to try and stay relevant, brands should double down on creating meaningful connections with their real audience.
So, what does that mean for marketers?
- Know Your Audience: By analysing customer behaviours and preferences, you can uncover what truly matters to your audience. Different generations have different shopping habits, and if you're not tailoring your strategy to these differences, you risk blending in rather than standing out. Understanding these shifts is crucial for crafting relevant, engaging experiences that resonate with your target demographic.
- Create Content for the Platform: Recycling identical content across all channels may appear efficient and has been a quick solution for some time. However, in today's competitive landscape, this approach is no longer as effective. Every platform has its own format of content that users will be looking to engage with, and your content needs to fit seamlessly into the experience. It may seem productive to repurpose the content and share it across all social platforms, however, this isn’t going to result in high engagement, nor return on investment. Instead, make sure you’re spending time producing content that is native to each platform and you will remain authentic.
- Prioritise Impact Over Speed: It’s easy to feel the pressure to produce endless amounts of content just to keep up with trends or stay relevant, however, have you ever considered that this could be doing more harm than good? Audiences are savvier and recent terms like “brand thirsty” can be used to describe companies that desperately jump on every trend—even when it has no real connection to their product, service, or audience. Rather than flooding your channels with average content, focus on creating less, but higher-quality content that resonates with your audiences. A single post or trend that genuinely aligns with your brand and audience is going to be far more impactful than a series of forgettable posts. Authenticity always wins over quantity.
- Reframe Friction: In today’s content-saturated world, cutting through the noise can be harder than ever for brands. But sometimes, a little friction can be a good thing. Content that creates thoughtful pauses in the customer journey—like requiring users to engage before accessing something exclusive—can make your offering feel more valuable and rewarding to the end user. A key takeaway from this talk highlighted an important message: by adopting this strategic approach to your content, you can foster meaningful engagement and, in turn, create memorable content that truly stands out. Remember, not everything has to be instant; creating moments of engagement can leave a lasting impression and build stronger connections with your audience.
This was a really interesting talk and one we’ll be taking with us to apply to our clients. The takeaway here is don't fall into the "brand thirsty" trap. Stay intentional, focus on your audience, and create content that builds trust and authentic connections. That's how you stay relevant without losing your brand’s ‘why’.
Learn more about how to build trust and authenticity in the new digital age.
3. Innovative AI Technologies for Content Creation
One of the standout sessions from our time at Web Summit 2024 was a talk from the founders of Lip Dub, a company revolutionising content creation with AI-powered lip-syncing technology. The founders shared incredible insights into how AI is rapidly transforming the marketing landscape and can now be used for tasks from automated content creation to enhancing predictive analytics. They showcased their tool Lip Dub, which uses videos and AI to seamlessly match audio to visuals, while maintaining emotion, intent and relevance to the content, allowing brands to repurpose their offerings and create engaging, high-quality videos at scale, without the need for extensive video production resources. AI technologies like these drastically reduce the time and cost involved in content creation, enabling brands to produce more with fewer resources while maintaining high-quality standards.
This is fascinating to see in the digital landscape and gives us an insight into the future of content creation. However, a critical takeaway that was reiterated across many of our talks is that AI should be used to complement creativity, not replace it. While AI can improve efficiencies, automate repetitive tasks and provide valuable insights quickly, it is still the creativity behind content or campaigns that will resonate with consumers. Brands should use AI tools as enablers, a way to make processes efficient and scale efforts without losing sight of the brand’s purpose and authenticity. It’s likely consumers will become savvy of reproduced AI-content so it’s important that any AI-generated content remains human-centred and aligned with the brand to maintain consumer trust. Remember, people buy from people.
Watch our Digital Marketing Answered episode on unlocking the power of AI in marketing
4. Standing Out Means Taking Risks
A talk led by Sairah Ashman, Global CEO of Wolff Olins quoted that theThe average consumer is bombarded with 5,000 marketing messages daily, but did you know 90% of these go unnoticed? Whether we’re consuming social media ads, email campaigns or even branded billboards at your tube stop, the volume of content we consume daily is overwhelming. So how do brands cut through the noise? This engaging talk explored the concept of bold marketing decisions, suggesting that brands which prioritise purpose over purely ROI-driven choices when crafting content or launching campaigns can ultimately stand out. While such an approach may initially attract criticism, it could prove to be the key to achieving long-term success.
Algorithms narrow minds: curiosity broadens them.
The talk also referenced brands such as Lloyds Bank following their modern but authentic re-brand, to the initially controversial 2012 London Olympics logo and Dove, all of which have created bold campaigns over the years that align their messaging with deeper societal values. While this may not appeal to everyone, memorable campaigns are rarely the ones that try to please and in fact, brands should focus on building a stronger connection with those who do connect with the brand. As a brand, you shouldn’t try to sell to everyone.
What This Means for Marketers
Web Summit 2024 emphasised the rapidly evolving landscape of digital marketing and technology. To thrive in this competitive environment, marketers must embrace innovation, harness creativity more than ever, and remain human-centred to achieve lasting success. Here is a summary of our key takeaways:
- Use AI Carefully: Use AI tools to enhance, not replace. Human-centred content still has a place, and AI should be used to increase efficiency while preserving authenticity.
- Foster Trust: Uniqueness, transparency and data ethics will set apart the brands that succeed in making data-driven decisions that benefit the consumer and maintain consumer loyalty.
- Use Creativity to Take Risks: Create campaigns that prioritise long-term impact and align with your brand over immediate but forgettable, results. Algorithms narrow minds: curiosity broadens them.
- Holistic Thinking: Consumers don’t see channels—they see brands. Create seamless journeys that integrate online and offline experiences.
The future of marketing is brimming with opportunities. By staying curious and embracing innovation, we can ensure our clients remain relevant and compelling in this dynamic landscape.
Looking Ahead: Bringing Web Summit Learnings to Our Clients
Web Summit was an invaluable conference for our team and reinforced our knowledge of several key pillars within our digital marketing strategies, while giving us new insights from leveraging AI tools to creating authentic brand experiences, to the psychology behind consumer-decision making. The summit reinforced that the future of tech is one of collaboration, where the importance of staying curious, embracing technology, and prioritising human connections is key.
As a leading digital marketing agency, we are passionate about helping our clients achieve their digital marketing goals and are excited to incorporate the latest insights from Web Summit into our clients’ strategies.
If you’re looking for a trusted partner who can help your business grow and stay abreast of constant changes, Innovation Visual can provide just the expertise you need. Get in touch today to start the conversation.
