#DigiMarConWest
Digital Marketing Conference West 2019
Written by: Joscelyn Bowley, PS&M's Digital Director
PS&M recently attended DigiMarCon this past June. This two-day event is the largest conference series in the world for digital marketing from Los Angeles to New York to Sydney to Dubai and everywhere in between. The DigiMarConWest series was hosted at the beautiful beachfront Loews Hotel in Santa Monica right behind the iconic Santa Monica Pier.
The first day one highlighted modern visual content marketing, uncovered convictions in brand building, social media marketing strategies, and the value of video marketing. The team noted that the key theme to digital marketing is to be AUTHENTIC, be PERSONAL, be EVERYWHERE and be CONSISTENT. Consumers now expect to co-create experiences with brands they purchase from. The three modern visual marketing techniques learned:
1. User Generated Content (UGC)
2. Short-Form Content
3. Influencer Content
UGC content drives trust and authenticity, it is the #1 source of trusted visual content. We learned that, UGC is so important because 37% of consumers purposefully seek out UGC content during their shopping/discovery journey online. Even more so for active travelers! More than 84% of Millennials plan trips based on social content and 45% of vacation planning research is on social. More UGC = more interactions = more conversions.
“The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world.” -Toni Collette
We strive to put our clients’ audiences first because the audience is #1 and the creative is #2 in the modern world of digital marketing. The depth of relationship with audiences is more important than follower counts. So how do brands define their digital consumer? Who are they and what do they want? At the conference we learned to focus on users’ MOTIVATIONS, QUESTIONS, STATES OF MIND, and MICRO-MOMENTS (touchpoints). We learned to leverage the answers to discover your users’ needs and find the problems in their way.
Day two at the conference was filled with an interesting panel series about the “marketing abyss,” digital marketing trends, reinventing content marketing, and how to bring your “real world” brand to life online. Cisco translates their customer journeys from the customers’ points of view and defines micro-moments by using big data from machine learning to map the likelihood of “jumps” in a customer journey. These quick spans of time are when customers are likely between steps in their shopping journey and the perfect opportunity to serve offers to them.
How to Succeed in Brand Marketing:
Understand today’s consumers
Reassess brand voice
Use micro-moments & trends
Create memorable experiences
Micro-Moments are becoming increasingly important in digital marketing. According to USC’s Sr. Brand Manager Jantal Delane, it is the time when customers want to throw money at a brand so we must BE there, BE useful, and BE quick. More than 73% of consumers say that consistent and useful information is of high importance. Thus we believe that reaching them is not the challenge of digital marketing anymore, it’s being able to successfully connect with them. Thus, creating better experiences and personalizing ads for micro-moments along the customer journey results in stronger brand loyalty.
