Marketing Week Live 2019

For the 11th year, Marketing Week Live descended on Kensington Olympia to bring the latest industry trends and marketing thinking to life.

Lucy Miller

Business Development Manager Creativebrief

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For the 11^th year, Marketing Week Live descended on Kensington Olympia to bring the latest industry trends and marketing thinking to life. The headline talk of the two days came from Keith Weed, Unilever’s outgoing Chief Marketing and Customer Officer. In a conversation with Marketing Week’s editor Russell Parsons, Weed talked about the highs and lows of his 35-year career, as well as his thoughts on the marketing universe. To a room full of marketers, he stressed the importance of having fun: “we all need to have more fun. Miserable people deliver miserable marketing. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen”.

Nationwide’s CMO Sara Bennison chatted with Parsons and Philippa Neath, Communications Manager at Marshall Amplification about how marketing is perceived as a career. They also examined what fundamentally needs to change about the industry.

Dr Helen Edwards mediated a conversation about the future customer, and what this means for marketers. The fast-paced discussion was between Cheryl Calverley, CMO of Eve Sleep, Gav Thompson, CCO at Boden and Pete Markey, CMO at TSB. To a packed audience, they debated and discussed how brands and marketers are having to adapt to the rapidly evolving needs and desires of customers, and what they need to think about moving forwards.

KEY TAKE OUTS

Keith Weed reiterated comments he made at ISBA’s annual conference last week on what he refers to as the “seven deadly sins of advertising”: reduced quality, the challenges of influencer marketing, concerns over privacy and data protection, brands inadvertently funding online fraud, fake news, personalisation and bombardment.
Karl Boyce, Head of Digital & CRM, Domino’s Pizza revealed that, in order to remain relevant, what’s essential is to understand transactional behaviour. Understand the limitations of your data, measure efficiently and put in place a better customer experience.
Interactions with real people are still paramount; don’t lose sight of the real human need in chase of technology. Technology facilitates behaviour change but it doesn’t change innate human behaviours. Cheryl Calverley, CMO at Eve Sleep, wants everything to focus on simplicity and delivering a frictionless experience.
The nuance of decision making is more complicated now. It’s important to think beyond product to influence decisions, with increasing customer focus on the social and cultural purpose of a brand. For Pete Markey, CMO at TSB, curiosity is key to building a resonant brand. This is especially relevant as Brexit was a rude awakening that we’re at risk of being in a London bubble, not appreciating that opinions outside of large cities may be very different.
Keith Weed revealed that his love for marketing comes from a unique combination of magic and logic: magic from the potential creativity brings and logic from the importance of using data effectively.

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