Unilever don’t do digital marketing

“Unilever don’t do digital marketing,” I tweeted from the Global Conference, during Nicola Mendelsohn’s thought-provoking session on why connections are people-shaped, “only marketing in a digital world”. Yes, I thought, the notion of digital marketing is dead! Consigned to history. We’re living in a brave new world. Through the fourth industrial revolution. It’s even better than the Jetsons, Nicola!

Satisfied with my latest contribution to the internet, I sat back. But moments later, I felt the familiar buzz in my pocket of a reply. “Do people really need to say this in 2016? Fifteen years ago, maybe”[1] came the challenge. And it’s a fair one. But I believe we do need to say this, and more importantly, we need to do this.

How many companies still have a digital department? A Head of Digital? A digital budget? The separation of activity which is considered to be digital from everything else drags on, and it does so at the detriment to customer and client experiences on a daily basis. And that’s why days like the Annual Conference are vital to continue to challenge us to be better marketers, and for us to challenge our organisations to be better at serving our customers and clients.

So what does marketing in a digital world actually mean for us? For me, 3 things stood out:

1. Connectivity is the key to being relevant. The theme for the conference was connectivity – indeed, its title was a reference to Facebook’s finding that we’re all separated by not 6, but 3.57 degrees. Those connections are transforming how we interact with each other - through multi-screens, our wearable devices, the internet of things - providing access to more consumer moments than ever before, and creating the biggest opportunity for marketers since the invention of commercial television. And despite Trump’s best intentions, as Parag Khanna pointed out, globalisation is set to only accelerate, due to this exponential connectivity.
2. Digital disruption can be a force for good. We all need to stop being distracted by new digital technologies and stay focused on how they can help us be more relevant to our customers and clients, who are increasingly looking for purpose and meaning in the brands they associate with. Mark Wilson, Aviva’s CEO, talked about how digital has changed the way they do business – for example, using big data has allowed them to do what they do for 30% less than before – but not the business itself, which is about helping people defy uncertainty, and always has been.
3. Digital must be at your core - in the make-up of your proposition, and in the spirit of your delivery. Joe Wicks, the Body Coach, talked about how he connects with his audience in a format they love, using social media channels from Facebook Live and Instagram stories to his YouTube channel where he posts free workouts. It’s how he went from handing out fliers for his bootcamps in Surbiton, to turning over £1m a month with a global client base, built from a business on his mobile phone.

So those were my takeaways from an inspiring day. Now how to summarise that into 140 characters for my next tweet…

Amanda Gabb is Head of Marketing for Barclays Wealth UK

@mrsamandagabb