3. Introduction
The biggest ideas about consumer experience at the
2019 International Festival of Creativity centred on
tapping into shared humanity. Again and again, the
point was made that we respect our audience much
more by gathering insights about their lived lives,
rather than defining them by data.
In doing so, brands are reaching out to consumers to
collaborate with them on building the brand, and
creating new ways to communicate
beyond screens.
Consumer Experience
FIFA's campaign merged video gaming with IRL.
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4. Human,
actually.
Capitalize on low hanging fruit
to identify a ballpark
Consumer experience is putting the consumer
at the centre of everything. It’s personalisation.
It’s a seamless, omni-channel ecosystem.
The buzzwords abound.
But the reality is, in an increasingly fluid and connected
marketing landscape, the stakes are high to develop a
world-class CX.
According to Forbes, 80 percent of companies feel they
provide ‘super experiences,’ yet only 8 percent of
consumers agree. So regardless of how often we all talk
about CX at meetings and conferences, actually
delivering on it is relatively rare, and provides a huge
opportunity to differentiate.
4
5. Human,
actually.
Capitalize on low hanging fruit
to identify a ballpark
‘Most of the consumer’s
day is not spent consuming, it’s
spent living.’
—Andrea Mallard, Chief Marketing Officer, Pinterest
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This year at Cannes, the discussion of CX included
artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, mixed
reality, voice and even sound. But at a high level, the
conversation has shifted toward a more fundamental
point of view. You need channels connected across
touchpoints but the point of
that is to power an experience that connects
at a human level.
‘More data will not save us,’ is the word from Martin
Weigel, Head of Planning at Wieden+Kennedy.
CX success stories included using gaming, social or
voice technology to allow consumers to actively
participate in the experience—and help shape the
brand. Case in point: Hey Google, Ask Nike, an award-
winning collaboration that allowed consumers to shop
the NBA game for shoes worn
by the players via voice, and engage more deeply in
the game and with the players they love.
The theme of recognising shared humanity also played
out in design principles, with a movement toward even
more raw and less stylised creative. According to Tim
Leake of RPA, ‘Really good is good, really bad is
good…it’s the stuff in-between that’s inefficient.’
Making deep connections at a human level
means leveraging the most intuitive form of
communication, natural language. According to 360i,
voice assistants can be valuable beyond
e-commerce, as brands are finding ways to create
moments of humanity to actually assist when hands
are not available. For example, National Geographic
and 360i paired up to create Bravo
Tango Brain Training, a way for veterans with PTSD to
connect to a voice assistant in moments of need, to
get feedback to help them re-centre, or to connect
them to people who will help.
And brands using sound in innovative ways brought
home big prizes. Wavio and Area 23 won the Grand
Prix for Innovation with ‘See Sound,’ a mobile app that
analyses sound data via AI to alert hearing-impaired
users of abnormal sounds in their house with a text to
their smartphones. The brand and agency worked in
collaboration with Google to assess sounds like fire
alarms, babies crying and dogs barking, via over 2
million videos with discrete sound clips. While the
technology is complex, the experience is incredibly
simple, marrying data, tech, and design into a seamless
and intuitive CX.
6. Theme: Consumer Experience
02
0301
Successful brands like Nike,
FIFA, Puma, and Wendy’s
are creating frameworks in
which consumers are
co-creators of the
experience.
Trends
Co-creation and
Fluidity
Tapping into shared
humanity means creating
a point of view that
includes the messiness of
lived lives. This requires
doing the work to dive
deeper than data, ensuring
your brand
is responding to real
pain points.
Raw but Real
Whether it’s voice
assistants, podcasts, or
branded tones, sound is
the next frontier in
consumer experience.
Sound is the
New Screen
Less stylized creative brings impact, according to Tim Leake, RPA
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7. 01
Co-creation and Fluidity
We set up the rules but
people create the brand
in an open source way.
—Adam Petrick, Global Director, Brand Marketing, PumaSuccessful brands are creating experiences that
include consumers in brand building across a
multitude of channels in joyful and authentic
ways.
With FIFA, that means acknowledging that not
only does the real football game influence the
video game, but the video game—and the way
players engage with it— influences the real
game. Using that insight, adam&eveDDB worked
with Ronaldo to develop a new move (IRL), the El
Tornado. Then they hid it in the game, creating a
massive search for the controller combo that
unlocked the move, resulting in 46 million shared
GIFs and deeply engaged FIFA fans.
Puma’s strategy has been to create partnerships
that drive connections to consumers, including
with recording artist Big Sean, who self-identifies
with Detroit style and
culture, and influences the brand with his strong
design point of view.
Grand Prix winner Carling rolled out its campaign
built from their consumer base,
with digital-only fashion sold for people who
want to be seen on Instagram in amazing outfits,
but don’t want the carbon footprint of disposable
clothes. Consumers shared their outfits on social,
and the limited collection sold out within a week.
Finally, whether it’s sparking nugget kid fandom
or launching original hip-hop tracks
in response to a tweet war, the Wendy’s
team at VMLY&R brings the sassiness of Wendy’s
voice to life with real consumers.
And the strategy works for gaming too.
The Wendy’s team dropped into the Burger
vs. Pizza war in Fortnite, destroying their singular
nemesis: the freezers.
Adam Petrick and Big Sean discuss co-creation of the Puma brand.
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8. Raw but Real
Brands are creating authentic messaging
that reflects lived lives, demonstrating an
understanding of consumers as humans
and creating bonds beyond a
transactional relationship.
This trend plays out in the normalisation of ugly
as an approach to creative. The slick ad is too
identifiable as an advertisement, and therefore
ignorable, points out Tim Leake, SVP, Chief Marketing
and Innovation Officer, RPA. The same amount of
craft can go into an underproduced, less stylised
piece of creative. The point is bringing the brand as
close as possible to the audience.
‘Unpolished makes people happier because
it lowers the bar for yourself. It's more relatable and
lets you love yourself for yourself,’ says
Stefan Heinrich Henriquez, Global Head of Marketing,
TikTok.
Lorem ipsum dolor
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Pinterest has taken steps at a leadership level to listen directly
to pinners in order to understand their needs beyond what can be
seen via a massive data cache. Through that effort, Pinterest has
evolved their product to be more inclusive, including a skin tone filter
for a wider range of palettes to find lip colour that looks good on
specific skin, instead of just surfacing the top pinned selections. Real
insights don’t come from data, they come from conversations,
according to Andrea Mallard, Chief Marketing Officer of Pinterest.
This idea of interacting with your audience at a level deeper than
data was a recurrent one. Play in the jungle, not in the zoo, says Rob
Campbell, Head of Strategy EMEA, R/GA. ‘Fucking go and meet your
audience and understand them. Hear the nuance of their life and
language. Go to where they live, not where you wish they lived.’
Look at the culture around the category, Campbell goes on. ‘Look at
the playlists, the fashion. Look at Instagram to understand language.
Read the hashtags.’
In a point made many times throughout the
festival, he reiterated the key element to break-through insights: let’s
start respecting our consumers by not calling them consumers.
They’re people.
It’s better to be
in the channel
than on the
channel. And
don’t overdress
for the party.
—Bill Roden, Director of
Creative/Marketing Services,
General Mills
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9. Sound is the
New Screen
03
We’re very good at doing
marketing on screens. We’re not
as good at audio only.
—Bessie Lee, Founder and CEO, Withinlink
From voice assistants to podcasts to branded tones,
sound is the new frontier for marketers.
With 66 million voice assistants in the U.S., up
40 percent since 2018 and growing, voice is the channel
to get out in front of. And a rising challenge for
marketers is creating a strategy to deliver
messaging without a screen.
Consumers are using voice assistants in private spaces,
says Bessie Lee, Founder and CEO of Withinlink. The
kitchen, the microwave, the refrigerator, the car. They
will expect personalised messages back, not generalised,
or worse, advertising. And the messaging is limited: Ask,
‘What’s the best lipstick?’ and assistants will recommend
one brand. So how can you make
sure you are the brand? Winning the top of the
algorithm will be key to e-commerce strategies
in the near term.
Notably, while most coders are male, most consumers
ordering via voice are female. 'Hire more female
coders,' suggests Bessie, to help tap into real use cases.
Human voice as a long-form creative medium is on the
rise as podcasts are becoming key to integration
strategies for brands. Podcasting creates loyalty and
trust, and establishes an extended period of attention
with consumers.
‘People will listen to 40 minutes of content on average;
that’s a long time for a brand to engage with an
audience,’ says Zuleika Burnett, Executive Director,
Creative and Innovation, Havas Life Medicom.
Critical to a podcast is tone. You can’t fake it. Sincerity
and authenticity are what consumers are
looking for to bring hope, information, and community.
Categories that are effective? Specialised knowledge
and real stories.
Finally, brands are beginning to explore not just human
voice but sound itself. Visa created a sound at point of
purchase that reflects the trust and security of the brand,
and drives confidence in the merchant. In doing so, they
began with over 200 sounds, narrowed it to 20, then
focus tested, asking respondents how the sounds made
them feel, even paying attention to physical reactions of
the respondents.
‘As a global brand, you need to be mindful.
What’s energetic for me isn’t for others,’ says
Lynne Biggar, Chief Marketing and Communications
Officer at Visa.
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10. Takeaways
Get Your Hands Dirty
It came up over and over. Data only shows
you how consumers shop, not how they
live.
Read their hashtags, look at their photos,
and better yet, go talk to them.
And considering that life is messy, don’t be
afraid to embrace the mess. Raw and
underproduced creative can connect in
ways a slick TV spot can’t.
The most successful brands are the ones
that establish strong brand values, then let
consumers drive.
Wendy’s responds to tweets so nimbly
because it knows what it stands for,
and its values define every interaction with
consumers.
Similarly, Puma partnered with an artist
who shares its brand values and brings a
connection point to culture and
community. To be part of culture, stand by
your point of view and let consumers help
define the experience.
Let Go
Sound is the technology to get out in front
of and will have an increasingly critical role
across the journey. Finding your way to
the top of the algorithm will be important
for e-commerce and voice-assisted
purchase. Podcasts are impactful ways to
integrate your brand down funnel. And
sonic branding will play a larger role at
purchase. Just like with any tactic,
coordinate your approach to sound so
that it’s seamlessly articulates a 'tone'
(no pun intended) across channels.
Sound Off
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