Our theme for the sixth edition of the C2 Montréal international business conference is Ecosystems. Throughout this new leg in our journey at the confluence of commerce and creativity, we will contemplate the complex networks and interconnected systems we are part of, and embark on an in-depth exploration of the trends and transformations that are having a growing impact on business and on our hyperconnected world. In particular, we will be diving into five intertwined networks of content: Talent, Marketing, Entertainment, Cities and Moonshots.
Here are a few ideas and reading (and watching) suggestions to get the conversation started about Marketing.
What is the new role of the marketer in increasingly complex ecosystems?
Getting the customer’s attention is no longer enough: they have gotten too good at blocking the noise. Broader social and economic issues are impacting not only business strategy, but fundamentally shifting consumers’ views of brands and the role they play in society. Marketers can no longer be focused simply on selling products and services. They must broaden the prism they use to define consumers and speak to them as citizens: it’s no longer about creating messages for the masses, but about creating messages with meaning. This also means that marketers must keep seeking that “big creative idea” and stop waiting on the next tech gadget or social media platform to solve all woes.
At a time when the reliance on predictive data and algorithms rises and becomes more ubiquitous, and consumers are less trusting of traditional marketing, we will hear from those who found their own big idea and try new ways to reach and engage today’s empowered consumer.
- What today’s marketers must deal with: The attention economy and the implosion of traditional media – Fortune
- Algorithms are the new newspapers: Journalism in the age of algorithms, platforms and newsfeeds – FIPP.com
- Data with purpose: Making data analytics work for you – instead of the other way around – McKinsey Quarterly
- Social media as curator: Social media finds new role as news and entertainment curator – The New York Times
- A mathematician’s view of big data and its dark side: Don’t trust that algorithm – Harvard Gazette
- A great content hub on robotics and machine learning: The automation age (Harvard Business Review) – scan it for revealing intersections with marketing and marktech. For example: Customer automation software is the new CRM
- How Watson could be both an oncologist and a marketer: IBM is counting on its bet on Watson, and paying big money for it – The New York Times
- It’s not about algorithms – brands still need people to talk about them: Ad algorithms might choose you to be a paid product promoter – Technology Review
- How “culture technology” can provide a way to go global from the start: What marketers can learn from Korean pop music – Harvard Business Review
From the Minutes
Here are a few insights from previous C2 speakers about marketing, media and storytelling:
- Print vs. digital: Rumble in the newsroom – Olivier Royant, Editor-in-chief of Paris Match & Éric Trottier, Vice President of News and Deputy Publisher, La Presse
- Making rather than telling the story: Hypertelling it like it is – Mike Yapp, Founder and Director, The Zoo at Google
- Why we should get used to chat bots: The (ro)bottom line – James Cooper, Head of Creative, Betaworks & Chief Creative Officer, Poncho
- Today’s media world is a meritocracy: Earning your community – Elisabeth Tobey, Head of Community Engagement at Medium & Tara Hunt, Founder of Truly Social
- There is no such thing as digital marketing: Concrete propheteering – David Shing, Digital Prophet of AOL
- Marketing in a mobile world: The unstoppable rise of mobile – Carolyn Everson, Vice President, Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook
- Why CMOs need a new approach (and a hug): Who’s your data – Jonathan Martin, Chief Marketing Officer at EMC
- Trust, intimacy and quality: Marketing pow wow – a conversation with some of the world’s top CMOs
You may also find a few interesting facts and figures in this collective timeline for the future of media, gleaned during C2 Montréal 2016.
These reflections will evolve in the next weeks and months. As we share them with you today, they are destined to take on a life of their own. What have we missed? How would you like this conversation to unfold? Who absolutely needs to be a part of it?
Let us know on Twitter and Facebook. We are just getting started.
