Writing effective communications plans for the holiday period

Approaching year-end many of us are focused on the upcoming holiday period for our audiences and communities. This period is a time when many like to rejoice and relax. Executing your communications plan is an essential part of the strategy to serve our customers and community.

I am pleased to have been selected to participate in another expert panel, this one discussing 13 tips to write an effective communications plan for holiday marketing. You can read this online at Forbes.

Smart ways to leverage user-generated content

User-generated content such as customer reviews, comments, and other feedback is an important resource that can positively impact your SEO and conversion rates.

Featuring and re-using this user-generated content across multiple channels can help your audiences solve their problems and bring more brand awareness.

I was selected to participate in an expert panel discussing 11 Smart Ways Marketers Can Leverage User-Generated Content. You can read this online at Forbes.

Communications strategies creators can use to market their brand

Marketers and creators use different strategies to reach our target audiences to market our brands. 

As a member of the Forbes Communications Council, I was invited to contribute to the most recent Forbes Communications Council Expert Panel on communications strategy. Along with fellow industry leaders, I discuss how important emotion in our storytelling can be to expand our audiences and increase brand awareness.

Some of my colleagues discuss behind-the-scenes stories, influencers, and brand ambassadors. It’s a good read, and the article is online here: 12 Communications Strategies Creators Can Use To Market Their Brand

Revolutionising how CMOs conduct campaigns

I am delighted to share my latest contribution to @Forbes Communications Council. In recent years, I’ve witnessed the uptake of AI and ML in almost all aspects of our everyday lives. However, marketing has thus far been slow to the uptake due to the supposed threat it poses to the creative process.

In my article, I explore how these technologies have the potential to transform the way we as communications professionals operate; they offer customers bespoke kinds of experiences across different channels, provide vital insights into business, and facilitate creativity. AI needs to be viewed as a peer to marketers, not a threat.

Read the full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/09/21/ai-and-ml-have-the-potential-to-revolutionize-how-cmos-conduct-campaigns/?sh=17b3f25b1800

Reaching the underrepresented affinity groups in your community and audience

Almost all communities have different audiences and affinity groups, such as women, LGBTQ+, people of colour, and more. I have written about this before about using design to fix a structural issue impacting civil society. Forbes invited me to contribute to an expert panel on how marketing leaders can reach these affinity groups.

Forbes just published my contribution as part of this panel: 12 Methods Marketing Leaders Can Use To Reach Underrepresented Groups.

There is excellent content in this expert panel written by fellow industry leaders. If you want to ensure you can reach the underrepresented groups in your community, be sure to read this expert panel.

Creating Clear, Engaging And Relevant Copy For Your Target Audience

I was invited to contribute to an expert panel on how to create clear, engaging and relevant copy for an audience. It's vital to maintain this focus to produce content that speaks to your community. My contribution is part of this panel just published by Forbes: 16 Ways To Create Clear, Engaging And Relevant Copy For Your Target Audience

The power to make a change

In my latest piece for @Forbes Communications Council, I wrap up some of my inspiration from the 2022 Cannes Lions festival. The opportunity to drive substantial change is there for those willing to take advantage of it. I have started working with my teams on this to inspire meaningful work that makes a difference for the business and us as people.

Here is the full article: Lessons From Cannes Lions 2022: Three Ways CMOs Can Work To Ignite Change.

Leveraging customer behaviour

Using intent-based marketing, you can generate more traffic for your site and landing pages. Forbes recently asked the Communications Council leaders for ways to produce more traffic. In this article on Forbes, I cover how you can identify elements of customer behaviour to position your content and leverage search to present a solution to the problem faced by the user.

You can read about customer behaviour and eight other essential parts at Forbes here: Nine Ways Intent-Based Marketing Produces More Traffic.

Day five: Cannes Lions 2022

Day five at Cannes Lions was the best day of the week.

I listened to Anne Krogh, the CMO of Ikea in Denmark, talk about how IKEA puts customers at the heart of its circularity strategy and how they approached the need to assemble a global circularity movement.

Think long-term. Rather than having old unwanted IKEA furniture go to the rubbish dump, IKEA bought back 155,000 items of furniture and repaired items where needed. They then offered second-hand items for sale, enabling customers to get what they wanted for less, avoiding the premature costs of destruction and the cost of needlessly producing new furniture.

You can multiply your efforts by the number of customers who engage by taking action. IKEA has more than one billion customers each year globally, giving them the opportunity for considerable change. In saying this, they acknowledge that as consumers, we want transparency - but we also want items tailored, delivered, and available 24 hours a day. There is massive complexity, and you must be flexible - and one of the solutions may be a new business model.

My favorite quote from this session was, "Creativity is the answer to every question. Creativity is formula resistant". Adam Kerj, Chief Creative Officer, Accenture Song.

I then moved into two sessions on short-form social video with a special session with TikTok and how to build audiences. The team from TikTok and LADBible showcased the different expectations of video content between YouTube, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram. One of the big takeaways from this session was that "content created for TikTok works well in other places, but not the other way around".

My final session of the day and the week in Cannes was with one of my professional heroes Harjot Singh, Global Chief Strategy Officer of McCann. Harjot was, as usual, direct and personable. He walked through the simplicity of communicating for change, whether in advertising, marketing, or general communications.

We spoke through what it takes to produce the best work and the three simple elements it always contains. @Harjot, I think you would own Audacious as a first name. I will write a separate post on this session, and how it served to reinspire me in the work I need to do.

Side note: I included the image above, not perfect as it is, because the name of the cross-funciton Marketing and Communications Services function that I lead at ION, is Impact!

Impact was a word that was used repeatedly by many different speakers throughout the entire week at Cannes Lions - and it’s why I chose this name.

The effort we take and the work we produce must have an eduring impact. I am proud to lead Impact@ION.

My first Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was an incredible experience full of different perspectives and the most brilliant people and their work. I was able to attend working sessionse with two of my professional hereos (Cindy Gallop and Harjot Singh), as well as being invited to two Global CMO Growth Council Sessions to discuss important issues facing our industry. To continue to take advantage of this event and to deepen my knowledge and deliver audacious and powerful results from my work I have subscribed to Cannes Lions Digital. I am already looking forward to Cannes Lions 2023.

Day four: Cannes Lions 2022

Thursday was a pivotal day at Cannes Lions for me. I was invited to participate in the Global CMO Growth Council sessions with industry leaders from the Marketing, Advertising and Creative industries. I attended both the 'Brand, Creativity and Media' and Talent working groups.

I was humbled to be in the room with the leaders of our industry. As a group of 24 leaders, we discussed the actions the CMO Growth Council are taking to resolve real problems facing our industry. We reviewed the steps taken to date and where there are still improvements we can make. This initiative has been four years in the making already, and I believe it will offer sustainable solutions for our industries.

Before those sessions, I was fortunate to hear David Droga from Accenture Song. David is the most-awarded creative at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, and he's Australian!

David spoke about the importance of creative leadership and that it's essential not to be constrained by the rigour or process of your industry. You can't create new solutions or new art if you limit yourself in this way. Everything we do has to have an impact, and we should include all the 'thinkers, tinkers, makers, and shakers' and allow them to showcase their ideas across a bigger canvas.

He also said that we should embrace the things we're scared of, which for creatives are often things like technology and data. If we embrace these things and seek insight, we can solve problems we've never solved before.

“The only thing worse than not having a great idea is having one and not making it happen”

— David Droga, Lumiere Theatre, Cannes Lions 2022

I then attended a session on the 'Do'conomy. The founder, Mathias Wikstrom, opened with a statistic for context.

“Every year, 23 billion pairs of shoes are made. Our innovation has accelerated human consumption.”

— Mathias Wikstrom, The Forum, Cannes Lions 2022

Mathias, based on data from 5,000 brands and a billion transactions in 32 markets, argued about the need for sustainability and what brand owners can do to future-proof their brands.

“Impact is the new language”

— Mathias Wikstrom, The Forum, Cannes Lions 2022

One of the six big changes he proposed is to have carbon labels on products. In an example of the purchase of a pair of jeans (8.98 kpCO2e and 21.45 kgCO2e) consumer behaviour changed. 32% of eco-consious consumers reduced their footprint and 12% of non-eco conscious consumers did the same. This change was achieved through labelling. Mathias also showed that consumers are willing to pay up to 10% more for products from companies that provide greater supply transparency and data around environmental and social governance.

Removing environmental waste and friction is an improvement. As creatives, as designers, as decision makers we should work to be change-makers rather than change-takers.