#MissionDigital2021
20 communicators open up about their organizations’ digital culture
What this is
#MissionDigital2021 is a series of talks I’m having with 20 pioneering communicators and creators who are shaping their organizations’ digital culture. The goal is to get 21 takeaways from their real life experiences that can help fresh or seasoned marketers.
We’ll talk about things like:
- How they come up with their big ideas
- How they get them approved in organizations that aren’t quick to embrace digital innovation
- Heat they’ve taken for their decisions, and how they defend them
- How their audience’s responses to their digital marketing has impacted company culture
- How they stay motivated when things don’t go as planned
Why I’m doing this
I get to interact with marketers as their animation and digital design partner pretty often, and I often notice something. There are lots of marketing managers whose amazing ideas for engaging their audience get stuck in organizations, because for those in charge, they feel risky. I’m interested in what makes some successful and others not so much, to see what takeaways can help other companies understand, engage and grow their audience.
Caribbean companies trying to make a digital shift are experiencing a digital culture change. Although small businesses like restaurants are pivoting to online orders and delivery, most use digital technology to do exactly what they’d always been doing. They are missing a golden opportunity to use their online order data to understand, communicate and deliver what people want. I’d love to share how others are doing this at varying scales, and succeeding with varying levels of initial resistance.
What I hope to see
For companies of all sizes, digital content marketers are often at the core of this customer centric process. They serve as an instant communication touchpoint between employees and customers.
They are comfortable with experimentation. They use digital tools to connect with others, collaborate to create solutions and deliver measurable results. For some companies, digital content creators and marketers can help to influence the rest of the organization’s mindset, boost their responsiveness using digital technologies and build their brand.
How I’ll do this
- There are people I’ve invited that I’m interested in hearing from. I’m also inviting readers to suggest marketers whose stories they’d like shared, via Twitter mentions.
- This post will grow over time to anchor the series. So I’ll list the interview links and the takeaways as I gather them. Oh, and if I get any feedback I’m gonna go ahead and log them too, plus the changes made to reflect them.
- I’ll aim to release the conversations weekly, on Thursdays. For now, we’re publishing on Medium but not 100% sure this will be its final home. We’ll see.
- If you’d like me to send interviews to you weekly, let me know how you’d like to be notified: by email, by twitter or by some other means other than carrier pigeon.
- I can’t draw, but I love to journal. So my brilliant team will cringe while I share sketches like the one at the top of the conversations that arise.
Interview links
- The Central Bank has Entered the Chat- with Tony Morrison
- The Central Bank has Entered the Chat Part 2- with Tony Morrison
- Getting Buy-in #ForTheWin- with Nicole Pandohie
Feedback and changes
“What I like about this concept is that it exposing the thought processes (or absence of them) that is behind the brilliance we see. You are putting light on the unshone.”
“Perhaps the problem is with the word ‘marketer’. I don’t like it. The word connotes a commercial and self-serving purpose. Tony is correct that this is about how to communicate effectively for the times, including the tools that are used.”
Fair point. Everyone interviewed so far calls themselves a communicator, which fits the core of why we do what we do too. So I changed how I described this series to conversations with communicators.
“This interview was captivating. I loved the humor, the humility and the blessing of genius.”
#MissionDigital2021 is a project of ListenMi. We’re an animation and design partner for pioneering marketers and creators who are changing the way companies in their industry connect with their audience with storytelling and technology. To work with us on your next illustration, web design or animation, just click here. To chat more on Twitter, shout me @keniamattis. Thanks for reading!
