Connect the Dots – Now and Next

The Digital Day Scotland 2024 was hosted on a grey, wet day, but this didn’t dampen the spirits of the hundreds of Marketers who arrived at the Science Centre, Glasgow for many engaging presentations and conversations. Speakers delved into the challenges and opportunities currently defining our digital landscape and future trends to look out for. Sharing insights on emerging technologies and shifts in consumer behaviours across the globe also gave rise to thought-provoking insights.

The Unknown Digital Media Landscape in Asia

Setting the scene and the bar high was Carol Chan, Founder of Comms8. Through integrated marketing solutions, Carol’s marketing agency empowers brands to expand overseas, attracting customers and investors worldwide. Her experience and expertise on this subject shone through as she discussed the contrasts between Asian and Western consumers and, to a greater depth, the difference between Asian consumers across South Korea, Japan and China. A key difference in how brands advertise within Asia compared to Western countries is that brands don’t just use social platforms to reach their consumers, as they do in the UK and the US, but use them as an ‘identifier’ and ‘partner’. For example, Burberry collaborated with the social media platform Line to target its Japanese audience, incorporating the platform's mascots into its ad. This example of localisation goes beyond following brand identity and works to truly engage and talk to a demographic with different cultural behaviours that Burberry genuinely understood. This utilisation of social media platforms follows similar but different techniques across South Korea and China, homing in on cultural characteristics. Carol emphasised that just being able to describe your audience isn’t enough; you need to understand who they are, their thoughts and feelings and how they engage with advertising.

If it’s not Measured, did it Really Happen?

Data and marketing are a partnership made in heaven, right? According to Michael Sani, Chief Exploration Officer at Play Verto, not everything is as it seems. Sending out a ‘traditional’ survey may only see a 20% to 30% completion rate, meaning the accuracy of your data is lacking. So, when brands base all their marketing efforts on these results, are they really talking to the right audience? For the last fourteen years, Michael has worked to get real value from data, leading to gamification driving the most valuable results for brands. Working with some of the world's biggest brands, such as Walls, Michael has seen gamification increase completion rates by three times. And this is down to individual agency. ‘When you connect people in a creative and playful way, you get deeper engagement and more heartfelt responses and authentic, actionable insights.’ Play Verto worked with Walls on ‘The Happiness Project’ and shared the success that they received from incorporating gamification to engage with 17k consumers. Through this action, they worked to gain a greater understanding of these consumers, and as a result, Walls was successfully able to grow into new localised markets.

Building Consumer-Centric Brands: Brand Transformations

Ruchika Kalra, Brand Director at lastminute.com, opened her presentation with, ‘A brand that speaks to everyone, speaks to no one.’ This statement clearly wraps up the message that both Michael Sani and Carol Chan shared in their talks, whether through defined localisation or using various technologies to get in the minds of a brand's consumers. Ruchika shared a few key points during her talk that, as marketers, we should follow.

1. Know your consumer like you would a friend. Describing a brand’s consumer segments enables marketers to target effectively with accurate advertising.
2. Define the brand message and personality. As marketers, we should know what our brand is and is not.
3. ‘Master the medium’, Ruchika described this as breaking the clutter and engaging with others.
4. ‘Landing the message consistently across all touch points’ involves the complete picture from online and in-store audiences to employees – each and every person needs to understand who the brand is.
5. ‘Bringing a brand transformation to life requires clarity, resilience and empathy’; ultimately, this comes down to being bold and owning the message.

Each of these points demonstrates that uniformity and consistency are essential. With this, a brand's story can unfold and develop with clarity.

The Era of the Multiplayer Brand

Zoe Scaman, founder of Bodacious, explored how brands have evolved to become ‘The creator economy’ we know today, where consumers are very much part of a brand's identity. However, this sense of ‘community’ on social media has also changed. No longer are we in communities formed from the people we know, but algorithms are splitting us into networks built around people we’ve never met and brands we may have an affinity with. This evolution is giving rise to ‘The Cosy Web’, where individuals can be authentic and create meaningful connections in closed communities or encrypted messaging platforms. In contrast, Zoe also touched on democratised creation and generative AI with the example of Grimes using Elf Tech, which enables others to create new songs with her voice. This exploration into new technologies is crossing boundaries, all driving the concept of ‘The Multiplayer Brand’.

In Conclusion

Digital Day Scotland 2024 truly did work to ‘inspire, accelerate and connect’. The breadth of speakers and the topics covered provided an abundance of insights and experiences that all who attended could learn from.

Written by Josephine Canning, Junior Marketing Manager at Equator.

Published on 3 May 2024