A post by Claire Mills, Director of MARCOM
There was certainly a lot of conversation happening at MARCOM 2010. From Keynotes to concurrent sessions, from Roundtable discussions to trade show solutions providers – we all took away new and inspiring ways to focus our marketing communications efforts. We all met new and interesting people.
The overarching theme of Marketing with Authenticity was reflected in many conversations, including all three Keynotes.
Mitch Joel emphasized how important it is for us to worry about today. With social media moving so quickly, we can’t know what tomorrow will bring. What we can do very easily is look at where and how we are currently engaging and consider new online opportunities (even if it’s doing more listening than engaging). Putting our heads in the sand and continuing to do what we have always done won’t work any more. He is not pushing us to engage in social media “instead of” traditional channels, but to engage, along “with” our other tactics and channels and to ask “why” instead of “what”. It’s not what should we do, but why are we doing it? What is our objective – can we articulate that? Bringing the MARCOM community together at MARCOM 2010 sent it home for me. We came together on twitter and then we deepened the meaningfulness by meeting at MARCOM and sharing face-to-face time. Now our online chats will be enhanced! While many have been connecting with Mitch Joel online, nothing could compare to the face-to-face meeting and the long line-up for his book signing! My favourite line was “I came, I puked, I left” as he explained “bounce rate” and the importance of a relevant Web site.
Terry O’Reilly’s message was so clear: help your customer to understand your brand and your message by helping them feel it (in their gut). Feeling something becomes memorable because we are not robots and 80% of the decisions we make are based on our emotions, not our brains. The element of Surprise is critical to keeping a brand fresh. Jolt people out of the everyday. Make them stop. Make them want to go and tell everyone what they saw. He says yes, be consistent, but if you want long term impact, be surprising while being consistent. Good advertising should be a shish-kabob: lots of interesting treats, skewered by a consistent strategy. Jolt people out of the every day and remind them you exist. His wonderful examples of the ORKIN fly paper ad, the shopping cart liner, 3M bus shelter and so many others hammered home his message. There were no wasted words. He cautions us that sometimes advertising can be “too good” and be so emotionally wrenching that we don’t want to see it twice which goes against the need for frequency of messaging to drive behaviour change / sales / action. O’Reilly commented how much he felt the MARCOM audience was with him, listening and enjoying. It’s no surprise that the attendees reflected back what Terry made us feel.
Brie Barker and his Sanitas Playback Theatre actors sealed the deal and drove home the theme through playing back the “Stories of MARCOM” – the stories of MARCOM attendees. (You really had to be there to fully appreciate it which is was the magic they created). The care the team took to listen 110% meant their playback of each story was authentic and appreciated by the story teller. It demonstrated brilliantly that when we are listened to, we feel respected. When we are truly PRESENT and wholly focused on the other person, we make them feel understood and they can begin to trust. Therefore, if we listen to our clients, audiences, customers, we understand their story and are in a much better position to truly serve their needs. Brie helped us feel what it’s like to be heard and put us in our target’s shoes. It was the authentic close to the forum that is still being tweeted about!
MARCOM Community Central provided by Web-Insight allowed the MARCOM attendees to be videoed sharing their stories. You’ll want to stay tuned for these and so much more.
While we catch our collective breaths and go back to our work we can be sure that any of the MARCOM community who shared in this journey will have a new perspective and a host of creative ideas from the many speakers, suppliers, attendees and peers from across Canada.
Your thoughts will be solicited and I promise to be present in reading and sharing all feedback with the team in an effort to keep it relevant, real and meaningful for years to come.
What were your thoughts?
