Leaders from diverse backgrounds representing brands, agencies, digital platforms and content providers discussed the future of marketing, media and research under theme of Bolder. Braver.
Over the course of the three-day event common conversation strands emerged including:
The importance of consumer centricity
By understanding what audiences want, communicating with authenticity and building trust. During The Summit, CNN Digital’s Executive Editor, Inga Thordar, discussed the importance of explaining ‘the why’ to audiences as well as ‘the what’ while Kantar’s Jane Ostler shared recent research from our ‘Getting Gender Right’ report that revealed how brands can build trust through purposeful positioning and warned of the dangers of stereotyping.
Powerful industry collaborations
Whether it’s measurement, marketing activation or content production, stakeholders across different organisations are working closer together to address some industry’s biggest issues. During The Summit, we heard how Channel 4 and Sky are partnering to tell the evolving story of TV audiences in the UK, while we also learnt about collaboration in China to measure online video viewing with iQiYi, Tencent and Kantar.
Connecting data sets creatively & consistently
We heard impactful stories of how cross-platform TV and video measurement is being used in Norway and Spain, with connected datasets used to better understand viewing habits across screens. The call for consistent online video metrics, however, remains central to the industry debate which continued at The Summit featuring contributions from Facebook, Google as well as a host of advertisers and agencies.
Doing more with less data
One year on from the implementation of GDPR legislation in Europe we discussed the importance of protecting consumer data, while improving marketing effectiveness. Key takeaways from The Summit included how marketers can make better use of publicly-available data (e.g. adjusting campaigns in real time due to weather events, breaking news) – but also how marketing teams can deliver greater impact by focussing their energies on acting upon the insights from existing datasets, rather seeking new sources.
No substitute for Bold & Brave ideas
While data is crucial to the planning and measurement of campaigns, we also discussed the importance of creativity in determining success of campaigns and programming. Among the Boldest & Bravest ideas shared at The Summit included Cancer Research UK’s world-first ‘Live from the Inside’ campaign with a video ad of a live operation as well as the hit-show – while we learnt about innovative commercial opportunities around ITV’s hit Love Island.