Mastercard is looking to offer consumers experiences that are once-in-a-lifetime. One pitch: they enabled cardholders to be in a Lady Gaga video.
“This was a real money-can’t-buy opportunity for card holders,” said Kerry Elsdon, SVP, global head of digital marketing and MarTech at Mastercard. “It is simple. You give people what they want closest to their passions that is truly unique.”
One-of-a-kind experiences, capturing attention and using AI as a tool, are just some of the things that brands in the UK are thinking about. At the Brand Innovators Marketing Leadership Summit in London this week, leaders from across categories shared case studies and insights around the latest marketing trends live from WPP’s headquarters on the Thames.
Suvit Yeung, marketing manager, UK & Europe, The Hershey Company said that he is focused on attention as a metric. “How we can prioritize attentive reach instead of having raw reach, reaching the maximum number of consumers, focusing on eye-catching creative,” he explained during a fireside chat.
“Not every engagement is worth the same and there is a reason you pay more for an out of home execution,” he continued. “Think about all of the TFL ads. You are a captive audience for three minutes before the next train comes. You are essentially a captive audience.”
Many of the brand marketers on stage spoke about AI. Alex Thurgood, digital operations director, Canon Europe, who is having success using AI, stressed: “AI is not a solution to a problem, it is just a tool,” he said. “It is not a magic bullet, we have to learn how to use it.”
Still, Cannon has used AI for video translation and audio dubbing and is saving time and money doing so. He also says that AI tools are always evolving, so not to give up if it doesn’t work perfectly the first time out.
“Just because it doesn’t work the first time, don’t give up, it gets better every day,” he said.
The creator economy was also a topic of discussion. Hamza Ayub, chief marketing officer, Subway Switzerland, pointed out that 60% of 13-21 year olds want to be influencers when they grow out. This is very important for brands looking to reach younger audiences, as they should be partnering with influencers.
“People trust people and not faceless corporations,” said Ayub. “Because people trust people, people buy from people.”
Ayub, who won a body building contest after only eating Subway for a period of time before joining the brand as CMO, said how important it is not to try to write scripts for influencers.
“I cannot stress the importance of a customer centric approach,” he said. “The more you doctor their content, the less authenticity you get. I would rather them talk the way they usually talk, the second it is off, people will know someone wrote this down for them to read.”
Lisa Kirkbright, strategic lead for customer, Skoda is also focused on the customer. The car company is looking to build loyalty, which relies on surprising and delighting customers, using insights gathered from customer surveys and data from connected car accounts.
“We want to make them feel a little bit warm and fuzzy,” said Kirkbright.
“Part of our loyalty program is to interrogate the data. Do you want tickets to a fancy gig? They told us, ‘No, I want more money off of my car.’ Do you want free coffee? ‘Yes.’”
“We tweak messaging regularly to make sure it resonates with them,” she added.
Lenovo also looks at a lot of data to make sure that they are listening to customers with marketing and product innovation.
But Guy Rogers, senior strategy manager, EMEA media team, Lenovo, said there is still a place for using your gut.
“As marketers, especially as media people, we’ve got to have the rigor and we’ve got to have the data,” he said. “But how do we make sure that if the opportunity comes up for something great, we are open to testing it out.”
