The Art of Marketing Toronto 2017: Conference Summary

CONFERENCE SUMMARY Toronto | April 3, 2017

CONFERENCE SUMMARY

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About The Art of Marketing

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Ann Handley Content Marketing

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Ron Tite Creativity & Innovation

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Terry O’Reilly Branding & Advertising

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Ryan Holiday Growth Hacker Marketing

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Troy Carter Community & Social Media

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Jonah Berger Influence & Consumer Behaviour

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Bill Williams Closing Remarks

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Sponsors & Partners

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The lines between marketing and sales are blurring.

Technology has changed the pace of business. To succeed, marketers have to be agile and proactive to attract consumers who have more information and options than ever.

Ann HANDLEY

Ron TITE

Terry O’REILLY

Ryan HOLIDAY

Troy CARTER

Jonah BERGER

While creativity still plays an important role, marketing success now depends on how well brands can seize opportunities and make on-the-fly strategic and tactical changes.

The Art of Marketing is a thought-provoking conference that explores the power shift in brand-consumer relationships. It puts the spotlight on how business models are being disrupted and, as a result, how marketers need to rethink how to achieve their goals.

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Ann

HANDLEY Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author and Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs

If your brand removed the label, could your audience still recognize you?

CONTENT MARKETING Hang like a different kind of bat.

Why hang upside down like everyone else? Be the marketer who can think about things with a different point of view. The biggest mistake in marketing is playing it too safe, so be nimble enough to flip your thinking. Think less about quantity and more about quality of content - don’t do what everyone expects.

brand is like to work with. If your brand removed the label, could your audience still recognize you? A distinct voice is what allows others to pick your brand out of the pile.

Look at the data.

There’s always a story to be told, and

often it’s the data that can tell you what it is. Most importantly, the data can help point out what the unexpected story is. Whether it’s looking at the types of posts that perform well, or figuring out where more attention is needed, numbers can open up a whole new world of possibilities for content.

Tell stories with bigger context.

Telling a bigger story puts your business in the context of what people care about. When people begin to care about your brand, they become your squad. Whether it’s giving them an emotional story or elevating customers’ knowledge, good content aims to engage customers beyond the product at hand. That’s true pathological empathy.

Be brave, let your voice ring out.

Your tone of voice is a brand’s greatest asset. It represents everything from what the brand is, the reason why it does what it does, and what the

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VISUAL SUMMARY

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Ron

TITE Co-Author of Everyone’s An Artist, Creativity Expert and CEO of The Tite Group

Your values don’t matter if your actions don’t align.

CREATIVITY & INNOVATION Your customers are far more interesting than you are.

Thanks to low cost of production and global, instantaneous distribution, anyone and everyone can shoot quality content on their handheld device. It’s not about the thing, it’s the about the stuff on the thing. Making compelling messaging is a key goal to successful marketing. Customers know what they want and know where to find it. Be the brand that gives it to them.

smarter. And it can always get bolder. It only takes 10% here and there. Content should have a bigger belief - it should stand for something greater than the product and speak to things that audiences really care about. Your values don’t matter if your actions don’t align.

The revolution will not be televised.

Netflix shouldn’t have stood a chance

against Blockbuster, but it did. And in a big way. Your audience is saying “shut up and solve my problem.” With all the content already out there, people don’t have time to care about everything. So solve the problems that establishments can’t or won’t. Most of the time people don’t notice the issue, but when you fix it in an authentic way, engagement levels soar.

Make a concept car.

If you’re trying to innovate, don’t mess with the assembly line. It’s not always the process that has to change.

Sometimes it’s the thing itself. Don’t be afraid to experiment, reinvent or redefine. Once a brand does that, then they know what kind of creativity works. It’s ok to be the kid with #NoFilter - it means that you’re brave enough to be different than the rest.

Take the 10x10 marketing approach.

Your core should always stay the same in essence. But it can always get

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VISUAL SUMMARY

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Terry

O’REILLY Bestselling Author and Host of CBC Radio’s Under the Influence, The Age of Persuasion and O’Reilly on Advertising

One of the greatest opportunities in business is translating an obstacle into a solution.

BRANDING & ADVERTISING Leave out the brown M&Ms in the contract.

Attention to detail matters. At first glance, Van Halen’s M&M request seemed selfindulgent, but it wasn’t.

The technical nitty gritty is what makes all the parts whole. Strategy behind content has to be as remarkable as the writing of the strategy itself.

can think bigger than the confines you will find success. Doing the odd thing out is usually the way out.

Counter-intuitive thinking should be your thinking.

“This is how we do things around here” is a death phrase. Boundaries are artificial anyway, so go beyond your

defined category. It’s ok to dream and ask, “what if?” The solutions you’re looking for are typically embedded in the problem itself. The Hans Brinker Hotel was so bad it decided to be honest and advertise just how bad it is.

Its occupancy rate went from 35% to 80%. So follow that hunch and create a culture that celebrates bold ideas.

Find the rules and guardrails; then break them.

Before you break them, get to know them. Once you’re familiar, find ways to circumvent them. This isn’t to cut corners and cheap out on quality; rather, it’s a way to be resilient and forward-thinking. Audi didn’t need to build a faster engine to win a race. They needed to build one that needed fewer pitstops than other vehicles.

Take the problem and reframe it.

Ever heard of ballet in a phone booth?

One of the greatest opportunities in business is translating an obstacle into a solution. You might not have a lot of room (like in a phone booth), but if you

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Ryan

HOLIDAY Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author and Renowned Media Strategist

Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come.

It’s your job to bring them in.

GROWTH HACKER MARKETING Get involved as humanly as possible.

Marketers need to expand their role. Better yet, eat your own dog food. This means that you need to understand your own product at every stage. Who is it for? Why would people use it? Why do I use it?

If you’re going to truly be involved, then you need to truly believe in what you’re selling.

early adopters. Your budget doesn’t determine your success. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. It’s your job to bring them in.

Retention trumps acquisition.

A 5% increase in customer mention can mean a 30% increase in profitability.

Incentivize your audience. Customer service is actually great marketing, regardless of if it sounds like it’s included in the package. Think about what makes your brand’s messaging, product or service worthwhile to customers. Better yet, ask what could make your brand irrelevant.

Selling the product has to be at every stage.

Make the product essential to your audience, right from the get-go. Think about what the product market fit is.

After all, virality needs to be engineered.

A product isn’t a hit automatically, it takes work. Think like Amazon and sell the product in imaginary press releases before it’s even a reality. It’ll be stronger in the long run.

Appeal to the right people.

Not everyone can be pleased. Luckily that doesn’t matter. It’s about appealing to the right people early on in the process to build trust with

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VISUAL SUMMARY

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Troy

CARTER Lady Gaga’s Former Manager, Tech Investor in Uber, Spotify & Dropbox, and Founder & CEO of Atom Factory

COMMUNITY & SOCIAL MEDIA You can’t fall off of the floor.

Truthfully, there’s nowhere to go but up.

It is possible to boot strap a company, but you have to be resilient and build community. They will be the ones to help you fight your battles.

Work past the gatekeepers.

Social media created artistic democracy. Just like when YouTube gave unprecedented access to music to audiences everywhere, the shift from ownership to access is very telling. This is where the future is at for consumers, so don’t get left behind.

Your bubble isn’t where industry is happening. The revolutionaries who can step out and be curious are the ones who will lead the way. ideas of our time are usually the ones that made us feel uncomfortable or uneasy. Be humble enough to ask questions because the ideas you don’t understand immediately might just be the genius ones. You won’t always be able to compete with the big players so look for potential and make room for development.

Get it right where you get it wrong.

Is failure a headwind or tailwind? Regardless of how you see it, you need to find your blind spots and talk about them. Challenge yourself to know what went wrong along the way. Sometimes things just come down to timing, sometimes it’s just a bad investment; either way, it’s good to know when it comes to planning for the future.

Start smelling the fish.

Ever hear the saying, “if you work in a fish store long enough you stop smelling the fish”? When you stay in the same place for too long you get too comfortable and too complacent. Your bubble isn’t where industry is happening. The revolutionaries who can step out and be curious are the ones who will lead the way.

It’s ok to be uncomfortable.

In fact, the most transformative

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VISUAL SUMMARY

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Jonah

BERGER New York Times Bestselling Author and Marketing Professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

INFLUENCE & CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR Influence comes in all different shapes and sizes.

Luckily, it doesn’t come down to luck— it’s an old science. For over 100 years, product placement has been used either to encourage buying or deter certain groups from buying specific items. People don’t want to be the odd one out, but they also like to be just the right amount of unique. To find out what they like, people look around them: 99% of their decisions are shaped by their surroundings.

To find out what they like, people look around them: 99% of their decisions are shaped by their surroundings. communicated or represent a certain idea. A product is much more than what it does - it’s importance is in what it means to people. Luckily, marketers can control the signal to influence behaviour by how they associate their product to either positive or negative things. Just make sure the message is still relevant and fresh.

Competition is a great motivator.

It’s difficult to motivate consumers or motivate within an organization, but it comes down to comparisons. So harness the power of peers; human beings care about what their neighbours are doing.

Even if you lose, it can still lead to winning. Loss is something that pushes us to get further the next time.

Optimize your distinction.

In between imitation and differentiation is the ideal spot for a message or product to be. It’s less about the product itself and more about the psychology that surrounds the product.

People are comfortable with familiarity, but don’t want to feel as though they aren’t special. Think like Goldilocks did - not too cold, not too hot, but just right.

People care about what their identity says.

Identity-signalling is how things are

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VISUAL SUMMARY

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CLOSING REMARKS The worst thing marketers can do is play in safe.

Bigger content , braver marketing, bolder perspective.

Everything the light touches is content.

It’s not the thing. It’s the stuff on the thing.

People used to vote with their wallet. Now they vote with their time.

Great artists reinvent themselves. If Barbie can change, so can you.

So, Shut up and solve my problem.

Use counter intuitive thinking to see what is truly possible.

The solution always lies within the obstacle.

Jump your fence.

A growth hacker is someone who pursues one thing—growth.

Anything that gets and keeps customers is marketing.

You need to find the right early adopter cheaply and quickly.

Use failure as a headwind OR a tailwind.

Transformative ideas are uncomfortable.

So hire people smarter than you, give them the space they need to make mistakes.

The higher you go, the lower you bow!

Always be curious.

Because 99.9% of decisions we make are shaped by others.

Spot influence.

Bill Williams Partner, VP Learning, The Art Of

CONFERENCE SUMMARY

To know and not to do is really not to know.

To learn and not to do something with the learning is really not to have learned.

Bill Williams

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SPONSORS

MEDIA SPONSORS

PARTNERS

News, Insights and Jobs for the Publishing Industry

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