This year marks the 10th year of IMMAP, so Donald Lim, like he would say, would make things a little bit more challenging. Inviting 161 speakers around the globe, holding it in one of the biggest venue there is, PICC, and making it a 3-day event. It is always inspiring to attend these events, it always brings you back to why you are in this field in the first place.
I would like to share some of my learnings during IMMAP event.
1. There is no such thing as a “Digital Strategy” anymore.
The goal of the digital team in every company is to let the other business units experience digital in their own way. In this way, they would always create a “strategy in the digital world”. There is no longer convincing to use digital as part of the core business.
2. Cash payments will eventually die
For eCommerce 80% of transactions comes from COD(cash on delivery), but when you come to think of it, it is the slowest way to remit money. From the merchant’s side remmitance from 3rd party courier for the payment will take atleast 2 weeks. So if you have an average of 500 transactions per month with average of Php 1,000 per transactions, you have at least P 500,000 on hold for 2 weeks. From the customer side it may be “convenient” for them now to pay COD because of the “trust” issues with online stores. But really the hassle of leaving money at home and also when you forgot to leave money then it where things would go wrong and the experience wouldn’t be as smooth as expected.
3. Collaborate
The thing with digital/online is that it is so big and it is so fast. You sometimes cannotcontrol everything, your competitors, your customers, etc. If your audience is talking negative about your brand , it would be better if they discuss it within your page rather than discuss it somwehere else. You cannot win digital alone, from time to time collaborating with brands to create bigger campaigns will give you big wins. Who would have though McDo, ABS-CBN and UAAP could create an award winning campaign.
4. Be always curious
The only way for you to learn is through your curiosity. It is what motivates us to learn new things, experiment on new campaigns and eventually lead us to succes. Be inspired by others. Observe what can be improved from what we currently have, and from there build the next best product. Check out how KBC bank solve the “GAP” in the market
5. Content is king but…..delivery is queen
Content is no longer enough to engage with your audience, with today’s technology, there are a lot you can do with your content. Some are already experimenting on 360 videos, drone shots, virtual reality and many more. But not all really are succeeding in this space yet. But guess what? The more interactive you deliver your content the more engagement you will have. We have seen increase engagement with videos, gifs, stickers and others.
6. Disruption is inevitable
“Companies have short lifespans… And Amazon will be disrupted one day… I don’t worry about it because I know it is inevitable. Companies come and go. And the companies that are the shiniest and most important of any era, you wait a few decades and they’re gone.” – Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes, Dec. 1, 2013. In today’s world, nothing is really permanent, all the business models we have right now may not be applicable after a few years to come. Sooner or later someone will create a better product, but hopefully your company will be ready to cope up with the innovations that will be coming.
7. Solve a need of a customer, don’t create product for the customer
“Digital era is not a battle of superior technology, digital era is a battle for customer experience. Digital is a bi -product of being focused on the customer, going digital is a bi-product of really having the needs of your customer in mind.”- Carlo Ople.
Digital is about solving our problems, it’s not having the latest technology but it’s how you use technology to solve a problem and make your customer’s experience simpler.
8. Data data data.
Why do we even gather data? It’s actually to optimize the experience for the customer, to make our ad campaigns more relevant to the customer. you CANNOT (under any circumstances) predict your market. You need data. if you don’t have, you’re just another person with an opinion. Data is no longer a numbers game, knowing demographics of your customer is no longer enough, we need to use data to market as an individual customer and not as a group. Every individual has a unique personality, and marketing to a customer group may no longer be effective.
“You don’t have to get a statistics degree to be a data analyst! What’s important is that you’re generally a curious person. You need to be someone who’s eager to know the story behind numbers because there’s always one waiting to be told” – Francis Del Val
9. Content Content Content
Developing a good content strategy ay #parangpagibig? Kailangan ng proper plann
ing and timing for quality engagement. Effective content uses data as a backbone and creativity as its heart. A digital marketer’s job is not to create maximum amount of content but a minimum amount of content for maximum results. More and more brands are
10. Follow your customer.
Do millennial still watch linear/scheduled TV? how often do you watch a movie on HBO and start the movie? For Globe for example, they stopped advertising on newspaper, Why? It is because their audience are not reading newspapers,anymore, and guess what? The sales were still going up and it had no effect. You need to make sure to touch point with your customer when they are about to make that purchase decision. In this way customers are well informed before they take action.
Bonus:
10 Things I learned in 10 years working with digital by Donald Lim
Make sure to comment below! 🙂 share your learnings #DIGIKNOW
