Editor’s note:The Triangle American Marketing Association recently put on its first major event, the High Five Conference, which focused on the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in marketing. Gene Pinderin, writing for the Triangle AMA, offers a recap.
RALEIGH, N.C. - The Triangle AMA’s first-ever HIgh Five Conference may be over, but the buzz is not. With nationally recognized keynote speakers, stimulating and provocative breakout sessions, and a valuable group of conference sponsors, the conference proved to be hit among attendees.
Here are some of the highlights from the two-day event.
The conference kicked off with three roll-up-your-sleeves workshops. Alan Hoffler executive director of MillsWyck Communications, shared his valuable and easy-to-learn secret to effective communications — the Silver Bullet. What is the Silver Bullet? Hoffler said it was relating to and connecting with your audience with stories, regardless of the situation, size or message.
Around the corner, creative consultant Jeni Herberger spent more than two hours providing participants with a number of key insights and tips on how to stimulate creativity and weave it into the very fabric of any organization. Meanwhile, instructors Phil Buckley,
MarkTraphagen and Jon Parks shared their knowledge on some of the latest trends and key ingredients to successful Digital Marketing.
Not to be outdone, the opening keynote speaker, Joseph Jaffe, drew from his latest book and outlined the Z.E.R.O manifesto, a critical look at how brands can blow past paid media and create passionate customers that become repeat purchasers. Flipping the marketing funnel, Jaffe said the focus should be on having customers drive marketing, not the other way around.
The first day of the conference continued to provide a variety of marketing topics and ideas.
In the afternoon, Jim Tobin, founder and president of the social media firm, Ignite Media, shared some never-seen-before insights into the current condition of Facebook advertising, especially compared to organic campaigns. Tobin also said Facebook still doesn’t get mobile and promotions right.
In another breakout session, Sheridan Orr, head of global product marketing at Channel Advisor, shared the latest information on Neuromarketing, while keynote speaker and author, Lane Becker, talked to the audience about research he co-directed that focused on the degree to which luck plays in startup and business success. Becker said that luck plays a key role, but the real key to business success is being fully prepared for luck and spotting opportunities when they present themselves.
On day two, Rohit Bhargava, CEO and founder of the Influential Marketing Group, shared 15 of his trends for 2014 that he think will shape marketing and business. Among them was his observation that “media binging” has become commonplace (where people watch multiple TV segments in one sitting) and “obsessive productivity,” where people are trying to figure out how to cram more productivity in the same amount of time.
In the breakout sessions, the topics ranged from rethinking entrepreneurship to building brands from the inside out and “creating an analytics-driven marketing culture,” presented by two members of SAS’s marketing and creative groups. Author Spike Jones took conference attendees on a fun-filled journey of the power of word of mouth in his highly charged keynote speech. Jones said word of mouth marketing should tap into finding some rallying cry – a singular message or symbol with people can relate. He suggested to the audience that people desperately want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and he shared several examples.
In the final breakout sessions, author and marketing consultant, Stan Phelps, told his audience that true retention will not be driven by traditional lead generation activities, but by doing the little extra things that make a world of difference. Phelps shared some classic examples of companies “going the extra mile.” In several other breakout sessions, conference attendees explored “the lies that consumers tell us,” along with the power of content marketing and accountability in the creative design field.
Finally, speaker Jeni Herberger capped the two-day event off with inspiring words about the importance of creativity and the need build strong brands through design and marketing.
Get ready for next year. It’s going to be even bigger and better.
(Reprinted with permission of Triangle AMA.)
