Globeone at the German Marketing Day – There couldn’t be a more fitting motto: Last week, 800 marketing and communication professionals met under the motto #marketing_getting_smarter for the 45th German Marketing Day in Hannover. Marketing and communication are becoming increasingly data-based & smart and are concentrating on cross-functional teams to deliver powerful and compelling digital messages. Hence, the day’s agenda was mainly addressing digital and data-driven case studies & keynotes.

Rebecca Snell, LEGO’s DACH region marketing manager, emphasized impressively how the physical world of building bricks is blending in with the digital world: “Kids don’t differentiate between the physical and the digital play”, she called out to the guests.

Lego’s DACH region marketing manager Rebecca Snell talking about enabling co-creation & digital experiences

At the same time, she provided some evidence for her statement: During one new product launch, children & parents uploaded 4.5 million own LEGO co-creations to the campaign platform, fans can now vote and decide on new products themselves, augmented reality enables us a quick look into the packaging before buying and Alexa reads out stories about personalized Duplo-toys to the children. Even toys are inevitably becoming part of the Internet of Things.

At the German Marketing Day, Hyperloop’s CEO Dirk Ahlborn took the audience on a 1,200 km/h journey. According to him, travelling in the tempo capsule will replace planes and trains one day. The first concrete routes are being planned and in 3 years we will be able to convince ourselves of the implementation. Meanwhile, there is also a first project development in Germany with the port of Hamburg. Nonetheless, the mills here in Germany grind much slower, Ahlborn points out. While one will soon be able to travel in tunnels at sonic speed in China and Abu Dhabi, it will probably take half an eternity for us in Germany to travel from Hamburg to Frankfurt in 30 minutes due to the slow processes here.

Michael Hartwig, the Managing Partner of Yext in Europe, warned about the extremely low level of data understanding when it comes to our own data online.  Google, Siri and Alexa are becoming more and more powerful. Notably, already 73% of the highly relevant traffic passes the company websites via search engines, navigation services, directories, language assistants and chatbots. With businesses not able to influence the User Interfaces and the AI-based algorithms in the background, there only remains the option of optimizing your online reputation by means of an “SEO Renaissance”. The question is: How do we build a database comparable to a neuronal system with all brand and product relevant information optimally filling up Google, Alexa & Siri? Digital Knowledge Management (DKM) is the magic word.

Deutsche Bank CMO Tim Alexander indicates in his presentation that people can only process and record 0.00000001 per cent of their information inflow.  Thus, he pleads for intensive listening to develop an exact understanding of the role and the small moments in which a brand is truly relevant for the customer. Claims like “I already know what the customer wants” are by no means acceptable nor good enough anymore. He, therefore, looks out for professional listeners, idea labs, a process organization instead of a classic organizational structure and a content desk with an overarching editorial plan. His current motto for the bank which is having rough times: “If we stand with our backs to the wall, then we can only take a step forward.”