What We Learned At Dmx Dublin

Almost every presentation we took in at DMX stressed the same message. Digital marketing needs to get better. Lego’s VP of Digital Consumer Engagement, Peter Kim, challenged the audience to ‘make digital great again,’ while others pointed to the growing use of ad blockers and the industry’s reliance on dubious metrics.Consumers are fed up of being interrupted with clutter and irrelevant content. Brands need to work harder to earn their attention, or they will be blocked and ignored. That’s where creative PR has an essential role to play.

Consumers are fed up of being interrupted with clutter and irrelevant content. Brands need to work harder to earn their attention, or they will be blocked and ignored. That’s where creative PR has an essential role to play.

Here are some other things we learned at DMX.

  • You don’t need to be small to be a challenger brand. It’s about having the right mindset. We should all adopt a challenger mindset to future proof against people challenging us.
  • Check out Brewdog for a great example of a challenger brand succeeding today.
  • The snappy data we glean from digital analytics has led to short-termism. Some of this is mere vanity metrics. We need to look at longer term brand building campaigns which are 2-3x more effective. Digital results must always ladder back up to the business objectives.
  • People love drama. Brands should infuse their work with drama to gain cut through. When people meet up with friends, they don’t necessarily share a story about the best thing that happened, they tell the story that’s the most dramatic.
  • Lego’s top three types of content for use on all channels are:
    1. Make me laugh
    2. Make me cry (emotional connection)
    3. Make me famous (put the consumer on a pedestal – involve them through personalisation or user generated content)
  • We are in the midst of a digital revolution as we move from an industrial world to a digital world. The only thing certain is the uncertainty, so we need to build people and organisations that can thrive in change. This requires a culture shift.
  • Succeeding in the digital age is not necessarily about having technical skills. We don’t all need to become coders. It is about having a digital mindset, attitude and structures. We need the ability to constantly learn, unlearn and relearn.
  • Culture matters. You can offer a great product or service, but consumers will still choose the company that has the better culture. Look at the hit Uber has taken recently.
  • Purpose matters too. It’s not just what you do, but why you do it.
  • Always rethink your value and what you have to offer. Organisations should monetise their greatest assets. People may be willing to pay you for things that are outside of what you’re actually selling at the moment. Look at how media companies are now selling their content creation skills to brands, where they once only sold advertising space.