Last Monday I went to Stratstock where lots of interesting people were speaking.
The format was pretty good with 9 speakers spread across 3 stages, with each of them speaking twice. This gave the whole thing a more relaxed vibe with speakers and those just watching all able to discuss what they’d just seen between presentations. However, perhaps a bit of a bigger room would have made things easier. David Bain (BMB) is a big man with a big voice and could therefore drown out the other stages at times.
Anyhow, the speakers I saw were all good fun even if most also had that slight hint of the sales pitch that inevitably lingers around events such as this. Simon Wilden from Goodstuff spoke about how any distinction between brand and channel behaviour is meaningless and he was absolutely right. Although the participants we research are increasingly marketing savvy they can’t distinguish between the two. The channels a brand uses are a vital part of their DNA.
Sam Noble was billed as talking about Sales Promotion but actually produced a far more interesting talk than this suggested about the need for brands to do good stuff and make the consumer’s world a better place. It is only through being a brand that is able to do this he argued that a brand can ever hope to help people buy.
Both of these speakers and Paul Gage of Proximity all had the same key thought; it’s all about understanding people and the world in which they live. This may sound simple but it was reassuring to hear clever people saying it. All of them highlighted this and how it has only increased in importance now that we’re entering an economic downturn. Now, without meaning to leave the odour of a sales pitch lingering on this blog, the key to gaining this understanding is using the very best research available!
David Bain talked about the energy and diversity needed to give a start up momentum in the first few years. We’ve worked with BMB and he’s true to his word they had energy and a diverse bunch in their planning department.
Finally I decided I should go and see Guy Murphy from JWT talk about Global advertising networks, even if only because I’ve been writing a global debrief this week for a project JWT are involved in and have met their people in Kuala Lumpur and Australia in the last month. It was good fun listening to Guy, he’s a funny chap and he basically communicated all the reasons I love the international element of my job. International work allows you to find out about people with completely different reference points and preconceptions about brands. By doing this they then make you question your own preconceptions; ‘Where do they come from? Why does brand x mean this to me, there’s no reason why it should?’
(Of course doing all of this while travelling Business Class and staying hotels you couldn’t afford to have a coffee if you were paying yourself is nice as well!)
All in all an enjoyable way to spend a drizzly Monday, and as a bonus I bumped into an old school mate and a friend from my APG course. Only criticism; the segments of lime were too big and tricky to get into the bottles of Corona.
Andy
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