OMNI of all webinars connects thousands of creative minds

DigiCon OMNI 2020 concluded the five-day conference on October 9 with nearly 2,000 online participants, 75 speakers, and 5 keynotes that saw an interesting convergence of creative minds in a virtual setting.

Presented by The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP), DigiCon OMNI, one of the major industry events produced 100% digital this year, is a real-life pivot story which turned to be an important subject matter in this year’s convention.

Fresh from a series of deep dive on “Culture and Design” as another timely theme for Day 4 engaging delegates in several design solution sessions, DigiCon OMNI closed the first-ever online conference with talks and activities themed “Vision and Change.” The day focused on stories and interactions on business reinvention, taking bold steps and rediscovering purpose.

As one of the day’s conversation starters, DigiCon took the audience in an interesting discourse that tackled media strategies with the topic “Fireside Chat on the Future of Media.” APAC CEO Stephen Li shared his point of view on how media agencies should take great effort to be in the lives of their consumers,

“We have a mission to be with them in their homes. This is the time to be truly engaging and entertaining with our content,” said Li. He further said that more thought should be given on creativity by leveraging the engagement model to create more meaningful conversations with consumers. “We talk about data all the time. We need to behave more empathetically, more important now than behaving intelligently. I genuinely think we can come out as better people, as better human beings.”

From fireside chat on media tactics, conversations on shopping habits and behaviors were next. Attendees found themselves thinking about the question “Will we shop the same way again?” which was a timely topic of the roundtable discussion.

To answer the question, President of SM Supermalls Steven Tan shared an interesting insight, “Why we shop has not changed. What changed is how, what, when and where we shop. What we see as essential before may not be essential now.”

The session covered important consumer shifts that affected changes in shopping behaviors prompted by new priorities more focused on safety, accessibility and inclusivity. “We see a lot of consumer shifts around the need for convenience, building communities and faster communication. Consumers have started defining and choosing for themselves.”

For PayMaya COO Paolo Azzola, he cited massive opportunities in terms of consumer-based transactions increasing 4x during this time and with more enterprises being forced to adapt digital payment systems. “We champion financial inclusion and we want to serve more people with more options that will work for everyone.”

Another fascinating session for the day was the visually engaging presentation on “Creative Vertical Brand Experiences” by Tay Guan Hin of BBDO who introduced the audience to the power of telling stories vertically versus the traditional horizontal way of consuming mobile content. The discussion offered refreshing ideas about creating highly engaging content that suit the customers’ mobile behavior.

“Vertical videos have 90% completion rate and are 9x more likely to be viewed than horizontal ones,” said Hin while sharing six creative principles that challenge content creators to offer a fresh perspective by engaging more users with vertical storytelling. “You have to relook mobile content strategy by making it vertically friendly.” He showed winning mobile content of some brands illustrating creative principles that include creating multiple screens, framing the story, and presenting in 3D among others.

The stage was “Seth” on fire with very insightful and practical marketing principles straight from best-selling author Seth Godin in his keynote talk on strategy, brand and leadership. “Hustle is not marketing,” he opened. “Marketing is the act of showing up for people who believe.”

In a 20-minute point-of-view conversation with Godin, he told personal roadtrip stories to illustrate how one should approach things with a strategy and an authentic story, “To ease out of the chaotic road, we need to slow down with a strategy. There is no best practice to copy. We need to show up with something new.”

As a thought leader whose philosophies are built on basic human principles of being consistent and authentic with our actions, Godin shared a powerful perspective on how we should lead in these uncertain times. “Leaders don’t have authority because leadership is voluntary. We’re doing this to be of service,” he said.

With “Vision and Change” as the best theme to close Digicon OMNI 2020, Godin shared some enduring thoughts on marketing that will stay relevant no matter what the situation is: “Practical empathy is the only way to do marketing. Seek out not the possible biggest audience but the smallest viable audience. Instead of trying to fit it for everyone, stand for something specific.”

DigiCon OMNI is brought to us by Eventscape Manila x Echo Channel, Smart, PMFTC, Spotify, Manulife, PayMaya, Facebook, WeTV and iflix, McDonald’s, and Metrobank.

Official event partners are Digimind, CDM, MullenLowe Philippines, OMG Philippines, Kickstart, Sterling Chatbot Tech Philippines Corporation, and FutureProof.

And special thanks to Rappler, CNN Philippines, Manila Bulletin, The Philippine Star, and the Inquirer Group.

ADVT.