Fast Company Innovation Festival | Zhe Han


The Innovation Festival was held at Caldwell Factory and the hub at Union West. Fast Company invited numbers of creative and innovative executives/Artists to speak about their works and inspiration. The topics varies from Art, Management, Finances, Technology, Health, etc. It was a great opportunity to hear the stories behind each industry and learn the insights of powerful leaders. I attended four panels on Nov.7th, which are WW: Legacy Brand Reinvention, The Future of Digital Media, the Importance of Digital Civility, and the Evolution of Campaign Design.

During the panel of Legacy Brand Reinvention. Mindy Grossman (CEO of WW), who is a brilliance leader, talked about the meaning behind reformed weightwatchers. The wellness of human is no longer just about health, it goes beyond physical health and move towards the wellness of mind, body, nutrition, emotion, and community. We can also say, it is about the overall wellness of the human being. The successful stories of the reformed weightwatcher can be concluded as it helps each individual to find the value/wellness of life, and it is also honest to people. Mindy mentioned that in order to serve the people,
A brand needs to marry with technologies and meanings. 
First, technology is the center of next generation, and it is impossible to avoid technology.
There is no line between the physical world and digital world.
-Tami Bhaumik

I found what Tami said is so interesting that almost everything we encountered in today’s world are digital, there is no clear line to distinguish digital and physical world. Technology has become the tool and key for the next generation, we can only find a way to balance it. The power of technology can be used to enrich the brand, and provide a finer result for the users.  In WW’s scenario, applying technologies is to ensure the information this brand provides is accurate, and also to increase engagement between the brand and its audiences. Particularly, storytelling is getting more and more critical for a brand. In order to push the brand forward, the significance of engagement raised.

WW uses the latest technology to make the brand become a life accompany to their audiences. However, technology alone is insufficient to make a company successful, it is more important to define the meaning of the brand. In my perspective, this can also be asked as “What does the people want”. A brand needs to figure out what does their target audiences’ want, what value or purposes they are looking for in their life, and if this brand can offer these values to fulfill their audiences’ expectations through their products. However, sometimes the people have no ideas what they want, and a successful brand is able to find the life purposes and meanings for their people. The success story of the reformed Weightwatchers can be seen as an example. When developing a product or program, Mindy asked
what can we do to have a product that is affordable, and we just keep adding values to it, but not cost? 
So, she operates multiple ways to keep adding values to the programs in WW. As a result, the new Weightwatcher under Mindy’s concepts is a solid success. After hearing her discussions in the panel, I found her concepts of this brands are so attracting and I took a look into Weightwatcher’s finance report out of curiosity just to see how much value has been achieved under her concepts.

According to these two reports, after Mindy Grossman took over the Weightwatcher in 2017. The performance of this company raised to a different level with its power of transferring the brand became more considerable. Meanwhile, a communicator is an unreplaceable gear of this transformation.

The story Mindy addressed connected me to another leader that speaks at the Festival who is Neil Vogel, the CEO of Dotdash. He speaks at the The future of Digital Media with Joanna Coles. During the panel, Neil discussed that launch the new brand should uses limited ads, but deliver good contend and meanings to people. The both leaders emphasized the word “meanings”. Bringing meanings to the audiences is the purpose of the brand. But first, the leaders have to be self-aware and sustain a clear vision of their selves before giving values/meanings to the people. What we did for Scott’s class assignments asks the same 10 questions (We see, We Believe, We Commit, etc.) over and over again. It is a process of discovering self, and what I consider important in my life. “The worst thing for people is not sure.” (Mindy Grossman). We have to be clear headed ourselves, and be clear about what we are bringing to the people or the world.



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