My takeaways from DigiCon 2019

I’m still feeling giddy after DigiCon 2019. There was just so much food for thought and exciting prospects in the digital space that it has taken me a while to collect my thoughts and really sit down to write my takeaways.

2019 marks the fourth year of DigiCon, the largest annual gathering of marketing practitioners, that brings together brands, marketers, publishers, as well as anyone interested in tech and digital marketing. I have covered the last three of these four years and I have seen how DigiCon has continued to keep pace with developments in digital marketing.

This year’s theme, LEAP (short for Lead, Explore, Apply, and Practice) builds on the themes of the past. In 2017, it was all about building a culture of transformation and the consumer experience. In 2018, the Experience Economy went mainstream with everyone talking about feelings and making consumers have the most memorable experiences.

This year, the LEAP tracks featured over 75 visionary speakers. The LEAD track focused on upgrading leadership skills and thinking at every career stage; the EXPLORE track unveiled state-of-the-art technology for brands and marketers; APPLY saw participants roll up their sleeves and dive right into interactive workshops; and PRACTICE focused on tech trends for specific categories and industries.

Among the speakers were Patty McCord of Netflix, Pratik Thakar of Coca-Cola, Myki Slonim of Vice Media, Sea Yen Ong of Spotify, Yeo Siang Tiong of Kaspersky Lab, Hanz Lopez Vito of BBDO, Wendy Clark of DDB, Dexter Ong of Wattpad, Roger Yuen of Clozette, Derek Tan of Viddsee, Bhavna Suresh of Lamudi, Tanya Wilson of The Unusual Network, Anthony Thomas of MYNT, Matt Sutton of Whalar, Hazel Savage of Musiio, Raiford Cockfield of Bitrep.me, and many more.

Much as I would have wanted to attend all the talks, it just wasn’t possible since breakout sessions were being conducted simultaneously. However, I focused on a few topics that resonated because they applied not only to digital marketing or leadership but to life in general.

Here are some of the valuable insights and takeaways that I came away with from DigiCon 2019:

Takeaway 1: Transformation in a company involves looking at what you want your company to achieve in the future from a campaign and working backwards to put together the right team NOW that will make all that happen.

Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer of Netflix, spoke of many HR concepts but the one that struck me was how transformation in a company happens. It is not just about putting a team together that is expected to work on a campaign. Rather, it is the reverse. She says it means looking at the outcome, maybe 6 months or longer down the road, envisioning a successful outcome, including the reaction of customers, and asking “What did we do then that we are not doing now?”.

By asking that question, the goal TODAY then becomes putting together the right combination of people that will get to that point down the road. Her approach is not very common because from my own past experience, most organizations tend to try to put together a team of achievers in the company. Many times though, having a team full of achievers does not work because you have too many people with their own bright ideas who insist on certain ways of doing things. Patty said that oftentimes, we miss including in the team that quiet person who seldom speaks up but when he does, has a brilliant idea.

A good leader needs to be able to spot the right skills, personalities, and attitudes that make up a winning team. In my mind, it is very much like a great dish. The cook does not just throw in expensive ingredients but has to be familiar with the taste, texture, and combination of ALL ingredients. Even a pinch of salt, if missed in the recipe, matters between success and failure. The same is true with a winning team.

One last note on Patty McCord. She made me look at the word “empowerment” differently.  I always thought that was a powerful word until she said it was her least liked word.  To her, empowerment meant that our power had been removed from us and that someone had to give that power back. “Like a magic wand”, she said. That actually got me thinking and agreeing with her. We all have the power. We don’t have to empower each other; what we need to do is remove all the obstacles that take away our power.

 

 

Takeaway 2: It’s how a team works together that matters, not who is in the team

The words of Martin Gonzalez of Google also struck me as he talked about what it really took to have a high performance team working well together and it was not about WHO was on the team but about HOW the team worked together.

On the top of his list was Psychological Safety. Team members have to feel safe, knowing they would not be embarrassed, rejected, or punished for speaking up, giving feedback, or making mistakes. I think this is very important in any team effort. Each member needs to feel that his team is a safe space where he can think freely and creatively and even learn from one’s mistakes.

He went on to explain the other crucial factors: dependability (In my team we watch each other’s backs); structure and clarity (I know exactly what we want to achieve and what to do to get there); meaning (My work is appreciated); and impact (What I do aligns with what the company does and I can see the impact of our work).

Takeaway 3: In marketing (and even in leadership), the great leader is able to convert odds against his/her favor into something positive and successful.

Wendy Clark, Global CEO of DDB Worldwide, spoke about 3 things that any leader faces: how to be brave in spite of the odds, excelling when one is being underestimated, and standing up for the beliefs and values of one’s company.

BRAVERY – Clark used, as an example, their campaign for Johnson & Johnson (Project Free Period by Stayfree), a project that used the period days of women in India to teach them livelihood skills. A woman’s period, a subject taboo in certain regions of the world, took center stage. Due to the bravery of the brand, the video created awareness of what women feel about their period but more than that, how the brand took advantage of these days to teach them life skills. Over 700 trainers enrolled in the project. 3,060 days of periods were turned into learning. The video garnered a reach of 20 million. But more importantly, the project transformed so many lives of women. Watch the video.

 

BEING UNDERESTIMATED – All of us, at one time or another, has been underestimated. And that did not feel good at all. Wendy Clark said that being underestimated is an opportunity. When we are underestimated, slay it, do an awesome job, prove them wrong, and take on the next challenge. She narrated the challenge of turning a boring product like car brakes into one that grips the audience. The marketing team focused on making a ‘fail video’ and showed what the Polo’s car brakes did to ‘unfail’ the fail video. Boring? Not at all. Gripping was more like it. Watch the video.

 

VOLKSWAGEN: POLO ‘UNFAIL’ – TIRE TUBE from RIOT on Vimeo.

BELIEF – Consumers know when a campaign is truly sincere and reflects its beliefs and culture. Wendy Clark said that in McDonald’s, about 60% of store managers were women. So a couple of years ago, to celebrate International Women’s Day, McDonald’s stores in the US turned their iconic golden arches UPSIDE DOWN in honor of women. The flipped arches also showed up on McDonald’s social media accounts.

McDonald’s action was a reflection of its company’s belief in its women employees

I joined a small media group to interview Wendy Clark after her talk and she impressed me even more as a CEO who did not just represent women able to reach executive positions but as someone who knew the business and led it effectively by using the feminine qualities of empathy, sensitivity, compassion and the like in a business where tugging at emotions is the key to success, not cerebral strategies.

Takeaway 4: Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories are successes because they give people the power to express themselves

Stories, which combine videos and photos with text, stickers, show that short-form, short-time videos that are playful, interactive, and ephemeral (24-hour life) allow people to express themselves in the moment without the post becoming permanent on their social media accounts. From being used by individuals, it is now a platform as well for businesses. 60% of businesses now use stories as another messaging platform.

Takeaway 5: Innovative apps let you earn real money just by being yourself and sharing what you love

I listened to app developer Roland Ros talk about his app, Kumu, made for Pinoy millennials and GenZ and how some of them are earning just by livestreaming themselves.

While most apps are meant for a global audience, Kumu was designed specifically for Filipinos around the world, incorporating features that allow the culture of Pinoy millennials and GenZ to flourish. This app has game shows, Pinoy-focused quiz shows, karaoke, and more.

But the clincher is the income-generation opportunity the app provides. For livestreamers like musicians, DJs, artists, educators, and just about anyone, they can share their talents, knowledge, or life stories through their own livestream channels and get paid for it. One can also win cash prizes by playing live game shows, or make money participating in various promotions run on Kumu.

The app also brings together Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) who are homesick and allows them to form communities within their country of work.

Creating a “Kumunity” of young people while providing an income stream just by doing what you love is a great way of maximizing an app’s potential for young people and is a great economic equalizer.

Takeaway 6: Mobility apps address a transportation problem with a multi-modal solution while incorporating brand advertising in commuting suggestions.

The transport crisis has mushroomed and affects everyone in Metro Manila, whether one has a car or commutes using public transportation. Philip Cheang, co-founder of Sakay.ph app, pointed out that while there are navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps that give recommendations for routes, these were developed for formal transit systems found in developed countries where public transport has fixed routes and timetables. They do not take into consideration the various informal transit in developing countries like the tuk-tuk in Thailand and our very own tricycles, electric scooters, motorcycles, etc.

Sakay.ph is the only transport app so far that is live and made for commuting through both formal and informal transit routes. One improvement that the development team is testing is the integration of brand advertising into commute suggestions. Think about this. When we give directions, we normally name a landmark, right? Like “Turn right when you see <name of fast food outlet or store>”. Now imagine if the Sakay.ph app, seeing that you are commuting close to lunch, suggests that you first drop by the fast food outlet, presents a selection of food items on promo, and suggests you eat  before continuing your trip? Philip Cheang says there are many more possibilities that one can incorporate into navigation apps like Sakay.ph and they are looking into these down the road.

Takeaway 7: FinTech apps will continue to mushroom as channels for digital financial transactions; technology will fuel innovative user interfaces; banks can innovate if they use data well; data privacy and data ethics are major concerns.

The FinTech talks by Doc Ligot and Adeline Kim, Visa’s Head of Products for Southeast Asia, reinforced the trend towards digital banking. People will use their mobile phones increasingly for mobile banking.

Doc Ligot said that the consumer interface is now moving away from face-to-face interaction in branches to digital banking. The trend, in fact, shows that interaction with depositors is also moving to mobile more than web-based banking. Interfaces with customers now include conversational chat bots and it is not too far into the future that we will see more augmented reality and reality editing interfaces.

At the heart of a bank is data. Consumer data, payments data, credit data, transaction data, and other kinds of data are valuable assets of a bank. It has become so valuable that Ligot considers it the “new oil”. However, for banks to become truly innovative, they need to use that data better. He says banks should think like Apple or Android, not Blackberry.

Adeline Kim of Visa also painted a picture of the future of commerce. She presented a hypothetical illustration of an ordinary day in the life of a consumer using the Internet of Things. Biometrics, QR codes, contactless interaction, ecommerce are just some of the growing trends in the digital world.

 

The breadth of FinTech apps operating in the Philippines, as shown below, tells us that it won’t be too far into the future when most Filipinos will be transacting digitally from their mobile phones. We already see that in existing apps that offer digital payments, remittance, investments, and alternative finance. Ligot says that beyond just privacy, banks also have to be concerned about data ethics. This reminds me of issues lately in the news about abusive online lending apps that violated privacy and harassed debtors behind in their payments. The FinTech industry and regulatory agencies need to address this issue as well with closer supervision and regulations.

 

While not a digital marketer, immersing myself in DigiCon talks has been enlightening and rewarding, to say the least. Listening to digital marketing gurus speak, I appreciate even more the extent to which they help brands address consumer needs (like mine) more and more.

Yes, new issues crop up as digital transactions become more intertwined with our daily lives, such as cybersecurity, privacy, and ethics, but the future looks bright for the industry.

DigiCon 2019 can probably be summarized using the talk of DDB Group Hong Kong’s CEO, Andreas Krasser:

• It’s not about ‘digital marketing’; it’s about marketing effectively in a digital world.
• Strategy in the digital world is about achieving “age-old” marketing goals with the help of digital tools.
• Strategy is long-term and an overall plan. Tactics are short-term, helping to bring the strategy to life.
• Consumers are actual human beings, not data sets, social media handles, or hashtags.

Technology is enabling a lot of possibilities. But behind it all, there are consumers — humans. A successful brand will know how to wield its tech tools to best serve its human consumers.