Six need-to-knows on 'MarTech'

The latest in the uncomfortable breakfast series in 2017 was held at the Infiniti Lab – a workshop where Infiniti helps encourage start-ups who are changing the world. A suitable place to discuss a topic that is changing the marketing world at an ever-quickening pace – MarTech and the automation of marketing.

The panel for the morning consisted of Ravel Lai, regional digital & IT director for Pizza Hut & KFC, Giovanna Melfi MD at Metamorphosis with a luxury fashion background and Joyce Pondrano, chief client success officer from CLiX whose previous experience was client side in banking and finance. Three compelling speakers from three very different categories but who are all affected by how technology is drastically changing the marketing landscape.

There were a lot of learnings to take away from the panel discussion and the group sessions afterward but below I’ve highlighted the key insights that resonated with many people on the day:

Competition & pace of change are increasing faster than ever before

Thanks to technology in all walks of life –not just marketing – consumers now have more choice for products and services than ever before. This means anyone using marketing to sell a product has more competition than ever before – up to 300 times more than 20 years ago according to Giovanna. This means you can’t rely on your product just selling itself. Someone else will get in there ahead of you.

That means staying ahead of the competition. In order to do this you need to ensure that everyone is up-to-speed with the latest tech and digital tools. No easy task when transformation is happening on a weekly basis! However, the first step is to admit that there’s a lot to learn out there and encourage everyone in your team or organization to keep learning about the newest MarTech developments – or face getting left behind.

Social & Mobile are key customer communication channels

Social CRM is becoming ever more important. Those still focused on e-mailing their members on a daily basis about offers, sales, new products and more will find this becoming ever more ineffective. Especially in China where our panel of experts confirmed that “Nobody reads e-mails anymore – especially from brands!”

Be where your customer is. A great example was Ravel’s use of mobile for Pizza Hut. “I came into work one day and it was raining. So I said, let’s send a message to all our app users saying – Come to Pizza Hut for lunch and stay out of the rain! – This instant approach to communication led to a 7% increase in sales that day compared to a normal rainy day”

Be Bold and stand by your convictions

One key theme of the morning was how to overcome the hesitancy and apprehension that many c-suite executives and marketing directors still have about diverting everything to automated digital tech.

The answer – be bold, be brave and stand by your convictions. As Ravel said, “If it doesn’t work you can always fire me!”

A bit extreme maybe but this was summed up by my favourite quote from the day again from Ravel, “When people talk about calculated risks too many of them focus just on calculating. They forget about the part where you actually have to take a risk!”

Resource & Skillsets are critical

Whilst everyone agrees that digital automation is becoming more prevalent, we still need talented and knowledgeable people to carry out and execute that transformation well. 

As Joyce said on the panel, any new process requires the correct number of highly-skilled people to deliver it. 

That doesn’t mean lots and lots of digital lackeys. 

Sometimes it only needs one or two skilled team members who can gain useful insight from data and apply those insights to easily deliverable solutions to make a huge difference.

Transformation needs to come from the top

Following on from the above point, another key topic was about companies walking the digital transformation walk rather than just talking the talk. Whether it’s from an agency, consultancy or client perspective we’ve all heard marketing managers talk about innovation and then shrink away from it when it comes to the crunch. In order for marketers to really progress in this automated age, the buy in needs to come from the top. This gives all client-side employees license to pursue and test new things and gives agencies the confidence to make new recommendations as opposed to the all-too-common “last year’s plan but cheaper” approach.

Therefore, find the right sponsor, someone who’ll back you when it comes to digital automation and be prepared to sell the idea in to them over several months. It’s unlikely any CEO/CMO is going to accept a complete transformation to a way of working the first time it’s presented to them. 

Be realistic

Finally, this all takes time.

Expectations should be realistic. Any new digital process is going to take time before it works well. Results should improve gradually after several rounds of testing and learning. Also, don’t be too ambitious. It’s easy to get lost in a world of digital complexity.

Instead, marketers should focus on one key objective.

One step they can take. Then deliver on that step.

By Duncan Bell, senior strategist, Havas Media, Hong Kong.