The Art of Marketing Presentation Summary

I had the pleasure of attending an incredible conference monday put on by The Art of....Marketing.


I took detailed notes from all the speakers, which are too lengthy to include on this email but I've posted them by speaker (see below). Where possible, I've linked most of the references to the acutal videos, commercials, photos, websites and articles that the speakers spoke about. It's difficult to summarize an entire days worth of knowledge into one email, but I'd like to try and pass along my take home message from the conference.

We are living in the future. Brands that don't adapt to this will go extinct and to be competitive, you have to be able to fascinate your audience. I've often thought the best example of this is the Sony Walkman. When I was growing up, the Sony Walkman was the dominant portable music device. Sony owned the market and should have developed the iPOD, but they didn't. In light Sir Ken Robinsons talk, I believe it's because Sony didn't foster an environment of creativity in their organization and didnt learn to communicate with their customers.

This digital revolution isn't over, rather it's just begun. For marketers, the best time to start figuring out this new world is now. Ironically, we can do this by going back to old values. Get involved and contribute to your (online) community. Be respectful of customers...they're interested in more than just the latest sale price or financing offer. We can no longer use mass media exclusively to pound our own agenda. We have to invite conversation and communitcate on the platforms that buyers are using ie. twitter, facebook, Yelp, blogs, review sites. Our brand is no longer what we say it is, its what Google say it is....The truth always wins.

The internet gives each person and business the opportunity to become their own 'channel' with the same distribution scale as any major media outlet. As consumers, our opinions matter and our opinions can be amplified. As marketers, we will not have to make a choice between the old ie. Radio & new, but rather find a way to make the new media work in with with the old.

The bottom line is that marketing today is what it's always been about...communication.    More specifically its not just how many we communicate with, but who communicate with.



We adapt to this new world with a few simple principles.

1. Do an intellectual audit of our own companies - what do people know?

2. Promote creativity - how should we interact with customers?

3. Encourage Innovation - how do we apply & reward creative solutions?

4. Get involved - sign up for twitter, facebook. See what it's all about and learn the new marketing language.

5. Learn how to make change - rider direction, motivate the element, shape the path

6. Get excited! - it make you more fascinating, and fascinating wins