On March 20th, Marquette University hosted the Insight Summit Series with a focus on digital advertising. This was the first summit I have attended at Marquette and I found it to be exceptionally enlightening. Every speaker was extremely knowledgeable about digital media and each presentation caused me to think about the field in new ways. I would highly recommend anyone to attend these summits whether or not you are in the field of advertising or public relations.
The first keynote speaker of the day was Casey Flanagan from Laughlin Constable. Casey’s phenomenal presentation on “Branding in the Digital Age” lead him to be my favorite speaker of the day. Flanagan presented on 7 ways to succeed in branding. The two points I found most compelling were point numbers three and six. Casey stated brands need to “focus on find-ability” and they need to “do it different” in order to succeed in branding.
While talking about “doing it different” Casey pointed out that “pretty good”, is not the same as great. In order to be a successful you have to do something different with your brand that no one has ever done. Casey pointed out that a great example of this is Anton Berg Chocolate and how they created the idea of the “generous store”. Instead of paying for the product in cash, they promised to do good deeds in return of a box of chocolate. When they purchased chocolate, the good deed they committed to was published on their Facebook wall, so their friends could hold them accountable. This idea was a huge success and it was all because Anton Berg “did it differently”. I had never heard of Anton Berg before, but knowing that they did this campaign would make me be more inclined to buy the chocolate. The other point I enjoyed was when Casey said brands “need to be findable”. He defined findable as shareable and searchable. If your brand is findable, it will have an advantage over the competitors. As an example of a brand that was findable was Dove’s Ad Make Over Campaign which also integrated Facebook and their consumers, making the campaign more widespread a searchable.
One opportunity I discovered was from Chick Foxgrover’s presentation on “The Intersection of Creative and Technology”. Chick expanded upon the field of creative technology, which I had not been very familiar with prior to this presentations. There are so many different opportunities for people who want to be creative technologists. For example, Chick mentioned GranataPet Snack Check where people check into the GrantaPet from Foursquare and dog food will come out of a billboard in front of the store. This idea integrated advertising, social media and technology. There are unlimited route to take in this field from pet food to cars. Creative technology was fascinating for me and pushed me to research this topic even after the summit ended.
One key take away from the Insight Summit Series is that digital media is an ever changing, ever growing field. It is extremely competitive and in order to stand out, your brand needs to be engaging and connect with consumers. Brands are all about relationships and the quality of your relationships will determine how loyal people are to the brand.
The only thing I did not like about the presentations is that the speakers presented within five minutes of each other and it was difficult to find a good seat if you had to change rooms. The constant chiming of metal coat hangers was a bit distracting at times as well. However, besides those minor details, the 2013 Insight Summit was a huge success and I am looking forward to attending more summits in the future.
AshleyKPerez 