WebSummit 2018 highlights

Known as the best technology conference on the planet, WebSummit really is the place where you can meet some giants of Internet and technology industry and learn very useful stuff. To prove you I am righ, here are some special highlights from WebSummit 2018 – Lisbon:

 

Stephen Kaufer – CEO tripAdvisor

What is the future of trip

• we are looking at taking all of customers reviews and bring it all together = insightful opinions in your travel feed;
• People are getting more adventurous when away from home;
• Trips on tripAdvisor are very short (3-4 days). That’s why we need to make smarter recommendations;
• A bad review? Someone might have had a bad day. Please read many reviews, not just one. So you can have an idea;
• The star rating is not outdated, people are happily giving reviews in order to help others;
• Video content is inspiring, so we use it on SM;
• Headache of travel is to figure out what you really want to do in a trip, so our challenge is to make great recommendations.

 

Christina Miller – Cartoon Network & Boomerang
Molly Battin – Turner
Shalini Sharma – Thrive Global – moderator

• Making emotional connection with your fans matters. You need to make connection and sharing;
• TV is still a massive reach vehicle, but you can’t depend on it 100%. Bringing it in real life and make customers part of it is a huge challenge;
• Kids are spending time on multiple devices (when watching Cartoon Network);
• People who are coming to brand events do have a great brand affinity;
• Create something that is fan centric and you’ll get value all around;
• How much do you lean on data when making a decision?

We are very insight driven when it comes to decisions. Listening is a great tool when it comes to decision making, but this is not the only tool.

We keep creating a personalized experience and test it. But we need to have a balance between what fans are saying and what we want them to experience.

• Metrics: we are looking at how people are consuming, how long are they watching and when are they coming back. Basic demographics, audience segmentation (what are they watching, for how long, audience profiling). At the end of the day we want to understand them.

 

Alex Tew – CEO calm

A calm mind is a creative mind.

• 10% happier & Man search for meaning – books I recommend;
• If you are struggling to get asleep, think about a few things you are grateful for.

 

Oliver Robert Murphy – Universal Music

• if your idea doesn’t have an impact… what’s the idea???
• In a world of globalisation you need to stay cultural relevant;
• National Geographic – one strange rock (planet Earth seen from far) – their recently campaign – they came with #lovelettertoearth. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/one-strange-rock/
• Everyone is looking for engagement. In the meantimre we are creating emotions, we are looking for reach;
• What is the end game? Always think about this when answering to a brief;
• The good idea will always give you emotion. So in 10 years we will judge creativity the same way – a good idea is always a good idea;
• You can never get right or wrong, but with collaboration with your team you can beat subjectivity.

 

Sameer Dholakia – SendGrid
Martin Henk – Pipedrive
David Steinberg – Zeta Global

• start small, with a pilot;
• Building a solution for a specific problem is getting noticeable;
• The human touch still matters, but we use the AI platform to build a scoreboard for a customer and predict his next step. The ability of doing this within a second is the biggest thing;
• The more valuable a consumer, the more we feel to engage.

 

Joe Orton, David Schneider – That lot

• Facebook has the best targeting options because it know a lot about us 🙂
• Not all content are relevant. Not everyone want to see your content;
• Everything is shoppable. That’s why you need to align business goals with objectives;

Business goal: promote new product

Objective: awareness

Metrics: ad lift recall, video views, impressions

• Users should not be able to make difference between ads and content;
• Think about formats and placements – video is no longer a video. Is real valuable content.

 

Santiago Lyon – adobe

• We measure the importance of a visual by how quickly it gets viral and how many people really appreciate;
• Everybody is now a storyteller;
• SM is so much more than just a tool. It reflects the world around us and it inspires us. We don’t have to guess things. We just know it, because everything is on social media;
• Up your game with movement (video, photography, cinemagraphs);
• We don’t create because we have to. We create because we love to;
• Engagement goes up 72% with carousel images.

 

Susan Credle – FCB Global

• My idea should become our idea and be a part of someone else’s idea;
• The important part is knowing when to say “we have it!”;
• We are humans, we need to work with emotions. Be vulnerable and transparent.

 

Eyal Baumel – Yoola
Reza Izad – Studio71

• influence is organic reach;
• We choose those influencers who are telling a story;
• What works with an influencer is gonna become the campaign for the brand;
• You, as a brand, must be part of the storytelling he is doing with his audience.

 

Gail Heimann – Weber Shandwick

• We all must be the problem-solvers.

 

Susan Credle – FCB Global
Sairah Ashman – Wolff Olins

• Creativity is about problem solving
• SM is becoming very judging
• You should be consistent, or else youwill be diagnosed psychotic
• Nowadays, it is not enough to press like and share. You must memorize a story and perform it to your friends. So, it should be a great story
• Brands are at the intersection of logic, function and emotion.

Adam Petrick – Global director of Brand & Marketing PUMA

• Our philosophy is helping consumers to transform their desires into actions. Becoming storydoers;
• We work only with influencers that marks our values.

 

Mădă Seghete – branch metrics

• Anger (in your message) will get more clicks. Joy will bring you more likes;
• Best incentives are not % off. For example, you can add a vip badge to the first 100 customers.

 

Sarah Bird – Moz inc.

• organic drives 20x times traffic than paid search;
• SEO is like building a fortress. Is gonna take you a long tome to do it, but is paying off;
• Google is changing from a gateway to a destination;
• Google is now not sending you to another destination, but keeping you there and offering a lot of information on the first page;
• Google is your first impression. Make it count;
• Moz.com/blog maturity model;
• SEO is a competitive sport team.

 

David Rusenko – Weebly

• give someone your trust, ask them to help you grow and then shut up. Let them make their job;
• Understand the problem of every customer, propose solutions and implement them.

 

Jan Rezab – SocialBakers

• A single social media post have around 150 metrics

Food trends are confusing – Danone (video) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taoYhFliORY

 

Vincent Stuhlen – L’Oreal
Catherine Wong – Domo

• In cosmetics industry – we work a lot with influencers’ skills;
• Sometimes we do a lot of pre-tests of our creatives and decide which one will work better before starting a campaign;
• Is very difficult for us to keep up with trends and platforms. We need one up to date dashboard and a lot of skills;
• We are looking for multiple approaches in getting customer’s feedback and empovering our own employers to make the right decision at the right time;
• We are doing constantly background checks because we can understand our customers better this way. We manage performance in real time – data is changing the way we operate;
• All we do is to show respect to the end consumer and customer satisfaction.

 

Colin Kavanagh – global VP Malibu & Kahlua

• The really brave call is not to change the strategy and stick to it but try to innovate your way of thinking;
• Be proud of your product and use it wherever you want;
• The behaviour is changing so we need to adapt continuously;
• What is the role our brand can play?
• Have a flexible wow (way of working), this is how you can avoid crisis;
• Speed is incredibly important in what we do. We want to keep up with the times;
• We need to give our teams permission to experiment;
• Progression comes when you have the courage to ask yourself questions.

 

Andy Wilman – Executive Producer The Grand Tour

• Why did you choose amazon play? We knew VOD the new world is where we have to go. We never had a video conference – we were so conservative, but we first did it with amazon. The first episode was in a tent, like a religious meeting. On the first meeting with Amazon we asked Jeremy not to mention the tent, but he did;
• We are living in a world of car enthusiasts, but we are not going to be glossy about it;
• My car sits outside, costing a lot of money and losing its value – do i need it? I can take an uber — thats why we made this show. To teach young people how to really use a car and know everything about it.

 

Larry Kim – MobileMonkey

• Be somewhat delusional – you need crazy creative people;
• Gains usually don’t persist – the only lead will disappear;
• Find your unicorn growth hack;
• Try PR stunts relating to globally trending events;
• Don’t think everything you do is an unicorn. You might have a donkey;
• Clone your most successful idea = make unicorn babies;
• Be an unicorn in a sea of donkeys.

 

Constantin Elis – Casper
Jill Layfield – Tamara Mellon

• If you want to win, have a direct discussion with your consumer;
• When promoting regular prices, our conversion rate is going down.