In between the networking and cocktails, our team of account service heavyweights learned a whole heap of new stuff from marketers in different spaces.
We're fortunate that our clients are marketers themselves, so we get to mix with like-minded spirits from different industries. Sure we have our differences, but we’re pretty much united in a singular challenge, which is how to remain focused on the intangible and difficult to quantify 'top of the pipeline' (brand).
Brand is how people feel about you
This is one of the big things I learned. I’m with Marty Neumeier (author of The Brand Gap) who said, "Brand is not what you say about it, it's what they say about it."
And while it's true that innovation provides us with new tools that tell us more about our audiences, it's also true that 'gut-level' brand storytelling and aesthetics are becoming more and more important too.
Data should inform your decisions, not make them
A highlight of the three days for me was listening to Michael Laxton (Fairfax) talk about the heavy lifting he has to do brand-wise, in the face of the fake news phenomenon. Now, more than ever, people prioritise how they feel about a brand, because they are flooded with information and increasingly time poor.
Michael and his team are experts at content marketing and have access to phenomenal analytics and data. But ultimately, he believes data should only inform decisions as a marketer, not decide them.
He talked about younger marketers raised in the age of the dashboard, and how they need guidance to become more instinctive marketers who use their 'tummy compass'. Plus a lot of other stuff that got me thinking.
If you’re curious about what else we learned at Mumbrella 360, you can read all about it in our report.
David Hayward worked in the business development team at Dave Clark Design.
