CONFERENCE RECAPS

On last Friday, April 20th, 2018, I attended a conference, Strategic Advertising Forum, which organized by the Grassroots Professional Network at Condé Nast, One World Trade Center. This forum was sponsored by Google and MV Digital Group, discussing the best practices, strategy, engaging case studies, and overall thought leadership. The forum was begun by Beth Heller, Google Partner Enablement Manager, talking the video views trend these days. She pointed out the extremely low view duration, which is less than nine seconds, and marketers should figure out a way to capture their audiences’ attention in such a short period. She also pointed out advertisers only pay if people read the ad through. If they skip, the advertisers don’t pay for it. On Youtube, it focuses more on target interest instead of demographics. The best way to get to your target is to reach the undecided, not the uninterested. Thus, marketers have to identify the warm leads and retarget them from the past ads ...

At mid-morning on Friday, April 20th, a number of BIC students converged at a modest conference at One World Trade. Held in the offices of Condé Nast, the Grass Roots Professional Network organized a series of talks and panels that addressed current trends in advertising. The first speaker, Beth, began by illustrating how scarce attention is nowadays. "A person's attention span used to be 12 seconds. Goldfish have nine seconds, we now have eight seconds." So how do you capture the attention of your audience within a short window of time with video content? She went on to explain that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and that its users spend at least an hour a day on the mobile version alone. According to Beth, people are three times more likely to pay attention to an online ad than live TV ads. Why? Because humor or empathy helps gain attention and can be executed in 30, 15 and six-second spots. Luckily, for advertisers, you only pay for an ad...

April 18, 2018 – On a breezy sunny day in New York City, FutureComms hosted by Social Chorus began bright and early. Upon arrival, I was treated with complimentary Social Chorus accessories and provided the agenda of the day.  As I walked up the spiral stairs, voices of enthusiasm and constant laughter were heard. Excitement came over me as I saw a diverse crowd of professionals and students with welcoming smiles. One smile can start a new friendship, but the breakfast buffet smiled at me first. I for sure you that plate was full.  After a tasteful energizing meal, we moved into the conference room where the public speakers of the day go through their brief, yet intriguing presentations. As much as I would love to give you a rundown of every speaker, you just had to be there to feel their emotions and passion for the roles they play within the marketing and communications industry. Purely moving and heartwarming to experience individuals who represent the organizat...

On April 13th, I attended the Michigan Media Fashion Summit. The summit was a one-day conference focused on fashion, retail and media at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Growth Marketing Conference Summit is a three-day, live, virtual conference that teaching bottom-line-driving growth strategies and tactics presented by speakers who have had extensive experience with growth and marketing at reputable companies.  I attended the third-day conference on 5th of April, focuses on discussing the brand marketing strategy, after the first two days concentrating on product growth and performance marketing. The conference was broken into several speaking sessions and a panel discussion, bringing out by the experienced industry experts.  At the beginning of the event, it was led by Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners, talking about "Ending The War Between Branding And Direct Response." There is a war going on in marketing departments between the guardians who insist on orthodoxy and brand purity and the maverick direct response teams that willing to try anything. In the session, Tim Ash stated: "Brand is a shortcut to your thinking!...

The Black Entrepreneur Summit (BE Summit) serves as a stimulus for black marketers, businesses, and entrepreneurs around the New York City area. The event’s purpose is to help build strategies, relationships, and expertise to accelerate the growth of Black businesses. This event displayed and brought together innovate thinkers, business owners, industry thought leaders and industry influencers for a full day of learning, networking and growing theirs and other like businesses. The BE Summit was broken up into different panel discussions and breakout sessions that were both immersive and taught valuable lessons on how to build growth within black-owned businesses and black communities. How to build an irresistible brand was the 1st-panel discussion that included Kendall Glaspie of Big Review TV, Tammy Williams of Imena Collective, Nicole Williams of Nicole Williams Collective and Mia Hall speaker, writer, sports, and career strategist. Hall introduced the idea and spoke on how...