CONFERENCE RECAPS

 As a person who came from a journalistic background, purpose-driven marketing was one of the few fields where I felt at home. Having worked as a reporter and editor, I talked to executives who loved explaining how their brands go beyond making a profit by taking a stand on important social and environmental issues. I found the concept of brand purpose especially relatable, as I personally believe that it is vital to keep one’s overarching purpose in mind to make it the predominant driving force of decision making. I knew that purpose and financial growth were intertwined, but touching people’s lives has always been one of my personal goals. The Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) virtual “How Purpose Sparks Innovation, Differentiation, and Preference” conference on June 18, 2020, was a great opportunity for me to see how brands question their values and priorities to uncover their core purposes and activate them.  1-Not Every Brand Should Be a Part of Every Conversation It is v

I fully anticipated attending ADWeek 2018 as soon as I moved to New York. I did not expect AD Week 2018 to come to me. I was living on West 70th Street and AD Week 2018 was a short 3 minute walk from my bedroom, so I had the privilege of attending multiple sessions and dropping in and out as I saw fit, able to return home with ease. I attended sessions each day of ADWeek, but attended the majority on opening day. I wanted to get a wide perspective of the industry at that very moment, and was not disappointed. The first session I attended was hosted by Fer Machado, CMO of Burger King. I was sure to live tweet his session, as his focus was on the power of creativity for brands that are not the leader in their category. I left with a refreshed understanding and appreciation of risk, and the necessity of risk with regards to creativity, you cannot be a cautious creative. If your brand wants to stand out, you have to be willing to take creative risks, to get the attention your brand needs,

 This week DXsummit hosted their quarterly virtual conference series, aimed at conquering the digital chaos and delivering game-changing customer experiences.  I was lucky enough to attend the event hosted by Rich Hein, the editor-in-chief of CMSwire and Simpler Media. As an Experience Researcher, this conference is important to me because all of the keynotes are centered around improving the customer’s experience with brands.  I must say DXsummit’s virtual conference is genuinely one of the best UI experiences I’ve had since the world transfered over to virtual conferences. There was so much to do, from networking in their personal slack page to visiting the virtual sponsors’ booth, and of course tuning in for the Keynote speakers, having all these activities placed on one simple to use dashboard was helpful.    As I traveled through the dashboard three Keynote speakers really grabbed my attention. The first was Telisa Yancy, the chief operating officer of American Family Insurance wh

“The sun’ll come out tomorrow!” a famous line sung by one of the most popular Broadway shows, Annie.  A perfect way to describe the virtual conference, The Business of Broadway, held on April 21, 2020.  Hosted by the Center of Communication, a non-profit organization that connects students to creative opportunities, I excitedly grabbed the chance to join through my overworked laptop.  Lead by Willie Reale, the Executive Producer of the 52nd Street Project, he interviewed four reputable panelists: Julia Levy, Executive Director of the Roundabout Theatre Company, Vivek Tiwary, Founder and CEO of Tiwary Entertainment Group, Aaliytha Stevens, COO of SpotCo, and Eva Price, Founder and CEO of Maximum Entertainment. The first topic to take front and center of the virtual stage, was no other than the infamous COVID-19.  When asked to compare the average daily routine in the world of Broadway then and what it is now, award-winning Vivek Tiwary explained that his job has and will always be to en

Retail Innovation week was all about what’s important in innovation and how to implement it in the day-to-day retail environment. Some of the experts on the day I attended were Judy Bersten from The Yes, Ben K from Camp, Megan Higgins from Avalara, Ranjan Roy from Adore Me, Ram Iyer from Microsoft and etc.      One of the speakers I really enjoyed was Ben K from Camp. I enjoyed it because prior to the pandemic, Scott took our Brand Experience class to visit Camp in Hudson Yards. We had such a good time just being adult kids in a playful environment. The thing I questioned the most is how does a retail store sustain that is heavily experience based like Camp, when stores can’t have people in them to intake those experiences. Ben had a fascinating and creative way he embraced this change. When covid-19 hit, he decided he would take the Camp experience online. They created online birthday parties for quarantine. They celebrated 10,000 kid’s birthdays. They did so with gifts and brand part

 The year 2020 has definitely been a game changer for our society and as a result of these changes, the 2020 Brand Film Awards and Workshop were broadcasted through a webinar event. The awards were transmitted live on May 7, 2020, by Campaign US and PRWeek US. The event highlighted the best brand films and showed three significant workshops with distinctive professionals from the production, communication, advertising and marketing industry.   Building Brand Love into Organic Creativity was the first workshop presented. The workshop was hosted by James Gregson, Head of Lego Social Studio and moderated by Lindsay Stain U.S. Editor for Campaign US. James spoke about how Lego has transitioned from the physical product and store to a more digital world that aligns with the changes that we are experiencing nowadays. He explained that Lego wanted to support their consumers who were facing the stress of lockdown by providing them with content that will inspire them to create at home. They cre

 The End of Marketing Humanizing Your Brand in the Age of Social Media and AI   Speaker: Carlos Gill This was a very enlightening lecture because it provides an answer to a question that I had personally struggled with for a long time. Why is there low engagement on social media, and how do I make people care? Carlos Gill makes it a point on several occasions to mention times when he had brought up ideas to CEOs about better engaging with customers and how important the human psychology behind it is. He was of course shut down in many of those instances, however, his predictions seemed to be right on target for today’s market and we can now see examples of those tactics from a few select “brave” brands that have seensucces from this less conservative type of brand action. “People are brands. People buy from people. People want to be engaged, not sold to” This was a very interesting quote because when you see it, it’s one of those “Duh” moments, but ironically it isn’t so obvious to mos

Session: “Smarter Social Storytelling | Gary Vee Interview” | linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/ Notable Quote: “Stay Agile: be ready to pivot … Be Human: focus on being empathetic … Serve: be of service to others … Play more: experiment; explore; worst thing to do is to not try new things” Gary is already so well known for this expertise in media strategy and his raw, unfiltered delivery, but this particular interview gave me a much stronger understanding of how he thinks and why his mind is so valuable. One of the most noteworthy things that Gary shed light on is how he is able to land on his insights that often feel near psychic. He explained that his main strategy is to study cycles of human habits in order to predict what should be expected in the future. The example that he gave was in response to why he so heavily advocates for collecting baseball cards. Gary’s explanation is that if you look into the generation that collected baseball cards, you will notice that they are now beco

The Brand Film Awards and workshop took place virtually on May 7th, 2020 hosted by Campaign US an PR Week. The program was divided into 3 Brand Film workshops followed by the Brand Film award ceremony.  The first session was Building Brand Love into Organic Creativity led by Lindsay Stein, U.S. Editor, Campaign US in conversation with James Gregson Director, Head of Social Studio from The LEGO Group. The discussion was focused on The LEGO Group's evolution over the years- the role that LEGO's Creative Agency and social media content has played in LEGO's story and how it will continue to shape its future.     How Lego has been handling COVID 19 situation so far? James stated that for Lego as a brand, they are uniquely positioned to be able to support consumers in this difficult time. When there are tons of industries who are suffering heavily, the toy industry is particularly doing very well.  “For Lego, it is crucial that they are supporting their audiences who are stuck a

It’s been almost a month since COVID-19 made the America stay at home. A lot has changed in the past month: more virtual experiences are usurping the real life in-person experiences; E-commerce and home delivery have filled the void left by closed brick and mortar stores; streaming video has rounded up the audience from its cinema competition. The questions is, when the crisis passes, will people revert to their prior ways, or will some of the crisis-induced behaviors persist? How will this recovery differ from prior recoveries? These are the questions every marketers are asking. On April 23, The ARF brought researchers from various institutions to share their views on these questions throughout their Virtual Town Hall Series: What Behaviors Will Stay After the Crisis Passes.   The speaker Claire Tinker is the Principal from ESL Insights. She has a career in technology services where her responsibilities included operational support and utilizing metrics to improve operational performa

In today's fast-paced and constantly evolving retail industry, it's important to keep up with the latest trends and developments. I was lucky enough to attend PSFK's annual Retail innovation week 2021 and listen to experts talk about it. Especially the fastest growing e-commerce trend. One of the most critical factors that businesses have to consider when it comes to online shopping is the ease of doing business. For retailers struggling with technology issues, Coulter Lewis, who owns the gardening company Sunday, for example, advises investing in new equipment.     Benjamin Kaufman, believes that every child should have an experience that is fun and interactive. That is why he founded Camp, a store that aims to provide a variety of fun and interactive activities for the whole family. E-commerce is becoming more social, with companies like Amazon integrating it into events and birthday parties. "We integrated e-commerce with birthday parties, interactive videos for all

The COVID-19 Difference: In this Town Hall, Cliff Young and Trevor Tompson show how Americans are faring in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Both compared current attitudes with other major American events including, 9-11, the Kennedy assassination, Hurricane Sandy, and the Great Recession to see if there are similar sentiments. The major takeaway I had is that the difference between this pandemic and previous significant events is social isolation. Before, despite the hardships, we were able to interact with family and friends to help curb the event’s impacts on mental health. But with COVID-19, we have to distance from each other and be social through other means like social media and phone conversations. This is contributing to higher levels of anxiety and worry amongst the sample polled. “Friends and family were cited most frequently as the source people turned to for help! With that, the need for people to self-isolate in the current crisis may make it harder for people to get the h

Video is now one of the most popular ways for marketing, it helps both customer and sales success. Today's conference is to help marketers to create and use video in exceptional ways to truly connect with the audience, earn their trust and motivate them to share stories, engage with the brand and love the brand. In this conference, Renee Teeley talked about different funnel stages and personas align your personal brand and video work with your business and brand. She said, "develop an influencer strategy to build credibility for your business and build trust with video, especially live video.” As we all know, in order to attract new business and gain new audiences we should build trust and credibility. People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. People also like to follow influencers who show their real personality and unique style. Secondly, she pointed out “use data to change your strategy and repurpose content and turn video engagement into business re