Global innovators who are creating the future of marketing and digital experiences met overnight in New York City this week for the first day of the prestigious SoDA Academy, gearing up for two days of immersive, peer-to-peer learning at the invite-only event.
SoDA is a non-profit organisation, which serves as a network and voice for entrepreneurs and innovators around the globe who are creating the future of marketing and digital experiences, and three members of Aussie digital agency Deepend are in attendance, giving us thought-provoking tidbits straight from the event.
Here is a brief snapshot of the first day from Dan Taylor, director of analytics and insights, Kim Verbrugghe, senior strategist and Noel Smetanig, design director:
Food for thought: We have the responsibility to drive ethical products. Why isn’t Netflix adding a functionality that tells you after three episodes to go outside and play with your kids?
Quote of the day: “Unify the team with a picture of tomorrow – we work for the betterment of commerce and society.” – Bill Fritsch, Vice Chairman of the Board at Digital Kitchen.
Marketing vision: Our dream is to take an issue and drive over a billion people to feel it and believe it.
Dem feels: Every solution to a problem is already possible from a technical point of view. Challenges we must solve are therefore not technical, but human – it’s emotions and actions, such as adoption, fear and value, which must be addressed.
Design thinking: As marketers, our purpose is to insert ourselves into the consumer’s journey in a subtle and useful manner, not block them from achieving their purpose.
Dos and don’ts: Don’t focus on a minimal viable product but instead on a minimal desirable product. If a product is not desirable, it fails.
Strategy FTW: As a strategist it’s important to identify who you want to be: vitamins, which make things better, or painkillers, which make a pain point go away. Be the painkillers and consider the problem that we are not yet fulfilling.
Perfect partnership: To yield the best results, tell your client you can’t solve the problem without them and set the expectation for your work to be collaborative.
Like a boss: Leadership is knowing that there’s always an answer to a problem, even if you don’t have it.
Actionable tactic: Digital analytics is traditionally measurement and not ideation – if we just rely on digital analytics, we are only focussing on the people we already decided to sell to, without understanding ‘why’ those consumers buy from us.
General vs Special: As problems are becoming more complex, it’s crucial we have Generalists and Specialists working as a strategy team. The Generalists should define and oversee the challenge while facilitating the Specialists, who solve the implementation challenges.
Buzzwords: No buzzwords. Everyone hates them.
Deepend is part of a four-agency collective, the Deepend Group. The Deepend Group portfolio includes the leading specialist agencies Deepend (Digital), How To Impact (Innovation), Nomad (Mobile) and History Will Be Kind (PR/Social Media). The businesses cover a breadth of consultancy, with a diverse and talented team of innovators, consultants, designers, technologists and communications experts.
