10 Main Takeaways from the Marquette Digital Summit
1. Conferences = networking opportunity
Hundreds of students and professionals rubbed elbows at the Digital Summit, including participants from Laughlin Constable, Spotify, Google, Microsoft and more. Some Marquette students had the opportunity to get up close with speakers as student ambassadors by greeting them and introducing them. But anyone has the opportunity to network at a conference like the Digital Summit by sitting at a lunch table where you don’t know anyone, exchanging business cards and then following up with a LinkedIn connection or an email. You never know where it might lead.
Credit to Tim Cigelske
2. Keep personality and character in brands
Laughlin Constable practices what they preach by keeping personality in brands. For example, they personalized the face of cancer in a campaign for Aurora, they’re proud of their local roots by transforming a concession stand into a mock supper club, they’re unafraid to tell it like it is when it comes to beer, socializing and college students.
Credit to Tim Cigelske
3. Brands must earn our loyalty
Through the three steps of buying, owning and advocating, Augie Ray stresses the importance of brands earning the loyalty of their consumers. Gaining loyalty is essential because it leads to lifetime loyalty and lifetime customers. Ways to gain loyalty? Connect with millennials through the use of humor, humanization and diversity. Customers are no longer passive beings, but rather empowered consumers who want brands to earn their loyalty.
4. Brands must think like a person
We are entering the age of the empowered consumer that wants brands to be reputable and sincere. Augie Ray stresses that companies must think like a person first in order to understand what their consumers want. As Augie Ray so eloquently remarked, “it is the marketers job to improve customer experience for the company." This means that marketers must think like a person in order to improve customers overall experience. Thinking like a person first increases approachability and overall well-being of your customers and your organization.
5. Emotion leads to action
The importance of connecting with consumers emotionally is that emotion is directly linked to action. For brands, emotional messaging is the key when connecting with consumers, rather than rational messaging. Emotional advertising builds consumers egos, leading to them purchasing products that make them feel good. Consumers bond over emotions and emotions act as the driving force behind what we choose to buy.
6. Storytelling is everything
We as people love to hear hear the stories of our friends, colleagues and family, making storytelling key in marketing. Since storytelling is the fundamental human activity, it is no doubt that advertisers are using this to their benefit. Storytelling can strengthen a brand by creating a story or journey consumers want to follow and join in on.
7. Consumers want direct interaction with companies
With the rise in social media, consumers are turning to companies for direct and personal interactions. Over half of consumers find brands messages more reputable when the representative is interacting directly with consumers. Two-way communication shows that the company is actively checking up on what consumers are saying, and that they truly care about their customers. Direct interaction makes companies more personal, shows there are humans behind the company and promotes engagement.
8. Technology changes behavior
Technology changes behavior by building another way in which brands and companies are able to interact with their customers. As seen above with the importance of direct interaction, technology has allowed for a two-way street between consumers and companies. In addition, consumer trust is put to a new level with reviews of companies and products just a click or search away online.
9. Streaming is the new downloading
Spotify has skyrocketed over the past few years due to millennials connecting with the convenience of having music at the touch of their fingers. Going “cord free” is the next step in convenience for younger generations, making companies like Spotify so popular. With playlists and the ability to share music and moments, streaming is the new downloading.
10. Summits are meant to be shared
Having attended the MU Digital Summit, it is only human to want to go and share what I have learned with others. We tweet because we want to interact and share smart ideas with others. We retweet and respond to tweets to further the conversation. In order to be an active consumer and communicator, it is essential to go and share what I have learned to continue the lifelong learning process.