Webmecanik has been participating in Web Summit for 4 years. It is one of the world’s tech and digital events. The aim of Web Summit is to bring companies together around the topics and challenges of tomorrow’s world.
In 2021, the event brought together:
- More than 40,000 participants including many startups (we notably came across many companies from the French Tech and Digital League delegation).
- 50.5% women. The goal of Web Summit is to highlight the place of women at the highest levels of tech companies. For the first time, more than half of the participants were women.
- 750 speakers from all backgrounds: business leaders, entrepreneurs, tech professionals, developers, sports stars, actors… who led more than 1,300 talks.
Once again this year, the themes of Web Summit were very broad and remain fairly theoretical.
Data, Privacy and Cookies
Again this year, data and privacy were widely discussed during this event. However, a new topic made its appearance: cookies. Speakers on these subjects come together around the idea of a fight in favor of privacy by default.
Data Is a Commodity
Today we live in a data economy, meaning that data is a commodity.
And in this society, we start from the observation that data is constantly
- Used
- Misused
- Concentrated
Today, on top of that, it is completely impossible to “opt out” of the data economy.
It is either we give our consent in order to use a service or we have access to nothing at all! Consent is mandatory, so it is not really consent, it is more of a formality despite the GDPR.
The Importance of “Privacy”
Awareness around this topic has fortunately evolved over the past few years. Now, sentences like “I don’t need privacy because I have nothing to hide” are becoming increasingly rare, and fortunately so. As Edward Snowden would say, it would be the same as saying “I don’t need freedom of speech because I have nothing to say”.
We can already see the results of the loss of privacy in certain countries, particularly China with its citizen rating system and sanctions that can go as far as the loss of their passport for having committed bad actions. Article link
Another problematic point also related to the management of our data: jurisdiction. Indeed, it can change at any time, without us knowing. And that can have dramatic consequences. An example is the dating app for the gay community in the United States that was sold to a Chinese company. Article link
The Problems This Creates
One of the central problems in data and privacy management is surveillance capitalism.
Surveillance capitalism or surveillance-based capitalism is an economic system centered on the commodification of personal data with the primary goal of making a profit. This system creates conflicts of interest: either we guarantee the right to privacy or we profit from it.
What are the main problems and points related to all this?
- Business models are not aligned with the interests of end users. Indeed, we can ask who Google’s customers are: us, the users who perform a search, or the companies that buy advertising and behavioral data?
- Lack of competition. As in all markets and businesses, without the existence of major competitors in the same market, big tech players do not feel obliged to provide a high-quality service when it comes to data protection.
- Laws are old and are not suited to innovations and the characteristics specific to the internet.
The End of Cookies
The end of third-party cookies was announced by Google and Firefox in 2019, and that was the beginning of the end. Ultimately Google pushed back the implementation of this blocking until the end of 2023.
Definition of third-party cookies: These cookies are generally used to provide targeted ads, services such as a Chatbot or social media sharing buttons. They are accessible on all sites that use the same third-party service that placed the cookie (Google Ads, Facebook, etc.). The most common use of the cookie is that it allows an internet user to be recognized when they return to a website. They make it possible to keep your preferences, keep you logged in from one session to another, or offer you personalized content.
But the trend is that even first-party cookies will disappear in the years to come.
Along the same lines, there is Apple which, ironically, positioned itself as THE driver of change this year when it announced that its Mail app would gain a new privacy feature. Essentially, Mail Privacy Protection will prevent email senders from obtaining a user’s location and/or IP address, as well as from knowing if and when an email was opened and read.
Who Will Be the Winners?
- Consumers may, on one hand, get more respect for their private data, but on the other hand a poorer user experience.
- The winners will certainly be the GAFA because they have already collected tons of data and will be able to benefit from it for a long time to come.
- Marketers, meanwhile, will have to reinvent themselves (as usual) and prepare for this change, trying to avoid leaving everything until the last minute as with the GDPR. Instead of revolting and resisting, we need to be better marketers and even give the power back, encouraging users to own their own data.
Many speakers are convinced that if, as a company, we have a good reputation, values, respect for users’ privacy and something to offer, the public is not necessarily opposed to the idea of voluntarily giving us data, provided that a relationship of trust is established.
We are talking more and more about the fact that we all receive tons of messages that do not interest us. We therefore need to be more open to the idea that it is okay to have a smaller audience; we are talking about 1 to 1 relationships, authentic relationships, and fewer “vanity metrics” based on absolute numbers.
Another World Is Possible
Despite the rhetoric of these big digital players, regulating Big Tech is not going to break the Internet. We need more action in favor of protecting our data and, above all, greater awareness on the part of consumers.
- More and more players have understood this necessity and have put it at the heart of what they offer. Examples include ProtonMail, Duckduckgo and Telegram.
- More competition: because customer dissatisfaction has no effect on big digital players and their monopoly does not push them to act.
- More legislation: old laws do not work for the Internet. It is necessary for the legal system to speed up and keep pace with innovation. We must not let big tech companies and the GAFA define what privacy is!
- And finally, exercise our power of choice as: consumers, voters and defenders of this cause.
Communication, Branding and Creativity
Customer experience remains, now as ever, at the heart of marketing and communication strategies. The pursuit of creating a relationship with one’s audience is stronger than ever after the pandemic we have just experienced, whether in B2C but also in B2B.
How do you create a relationship of trust with your customers? We identified 4 levers among the observations we were able to make:
- Your company’s and brand’s values
- Communication with your audience and creating a lasting relationship
- Content creation
- Your creativity in the face of current challenges
Create a Relationship with Your Audience
It is necessary to create long-term conversations with your prospects and customers in order to trigger actions when they are ready. (Use your data wisely!) To do this, you need to pay attention to your customers’ buying journey in order to maintain a human touch. Identify the key touchpoints to implement targeted and above all personalized marketing actions.
Influence still has an important place, particularly for the new “digital native” generations. All the more so because influencers have evolved and today are becoming opinion leaders not only on consumption but also on more impactful subjects (politics, for example). A trend that can be explained by the loss of trust in certain traditional media in favor of influencers they can identify with.
“People want to know how their life is going to be impacted. Do not try to persue people but answer the question they asked.” Judith Nwandu, The Shade Room
Emphasis was also placed on listening to your audience and helping them easily understand what is difficult to understand at first glance. (Sophie Huet, AFP). Data is a good way to do that, but social media monitoring still plays an important role in knowing the general sentiment.
Branding: create your brand identity
Several talks highlighted the importance of creating a brand personality and, for that, defining a digital persona to interact with your customers.
“Brands who adopt a personality ‘archetype’ become very successful at branding.” Amazon Web Services
Linked to this brand identity was often the notion of Purpose. It is one of the levers for enriching this personality that makes it possible to sell, improve brand awareness or even retain employees.
Purpose was one of the event’s key words and was notably used a lot in conference titles related to ecology, corporate responsibility, management …
According to Alain Sylvain, from the Sylvain agency, our society is intoxicated by this notion, which is used in every which way by practically all companies today: “50% of consumers doubt the sincerity of brands that proclaim their values.”
He therefore suggests going further and finding your obsession. Here are some examples of obsessions that made it possible to create value:
- NASA: sending a man to the moon. President Kennedy succeeded in galvanizing the whole world around this obsession, which led to the creation of a culture and value.
- PATAGONIA: obsessed with climate change and the environment, their obsession guides their actions. They serve a social purpose beyond making a profit.
How to Find Your Obsession:
- Define your Why (hi Simon Sinek)
- Be aligned throughout your organization
- Commitment in all your actions
- Measure your actions
Creativity and Diversity
“Creativity needs diversity” Mariane Plon Sauer, AKQA & Dianna Lee, Constellation Agency
Two notions that were often linked during this event. Many speakers highlighted the importance of diversity (women/men, nationality or age) in recruitment. According to them, it is a way to create value in their company through the sharing of cultures and to respond to the needs of consumers who have very broad demographic profiles, especially on social media.
For Nancy Dubuc, from Vice Media, creativity is a factor of unity and makes it possible to bring your audience together and win their trust. This goes through the authenticity of the content creation approach. An element that every company should take into account in order to succeed in creating a relationship of trust with its community.
Content Creation Is Still Relevant
The acceleration of digital transformation following the pandemic has changed the way consumers take control of their buying journeys. And faced with these behaviors, content has a role to play.
However, given the multitude of content available across the different communication channels, relevance, authenticity and quality are the essential points in your content creation.
How to Create Good Content?
Your company must be customer centric to create quality content, and this goes beyond your marketing department. Content creation must be agile and the project of your entire organization, with more or less involvement. Jeff Milles and Joshi Rajesh, from WordPress, suggest implementing a “Data-informed content strategy” that will make it possible to analyze your results and improve.
Authenticity is an essential point when you create content, and this can involve storytelling. Today, we want to hear stories we can identify with and that make it possible to question our identity, our consumption and make conscious choices. (Nancy Dubuc, VICE MEDIA)
There is, however, no magic formula for creating content: test and learn!
Several speakers emphasized content testing and the importance of receiving feedback on what you offer your audience (for example: by offering several pieces of content to different samples, this is the principle of A/B testing) in order to create the best possible content.
Marketing in 2022
Data Is Not a Strategy
As we mentioned earlier, Data is at the heart of the concerns of many companies. And yet… Data is not a marketing strategy. It is the very title of the talk by François-Xavier Pierrel, head of data at JC Decaux. According to him, data is one part of the strategy, but it is not enough to collect data without knowing what to do with it, no matter how well stored it may be.
The essential question to ask yourself is: what is the goal of your strategy? Do you want to bring your prospect to a demo? Very good, what are the intermediate steps to get there? What data do you need to put all this in place? It is only by asking the right questions that we collect useful data!
Then, stay attentive to your results. Data is generally a key to reaching your goal, particularly because it makes personalization possible.
The Values of Marketing in 2022
Honesty and Humanity
This is the core subject of the CEOs of Drift and superhuman, who were speaking in a talk: ”How to keep humanity in building a company”. In their view, it is necessary to offer an experience that is always top-notch throughout your workflow, whether in customer relationships, supplier relationships or even in recruitment.
They also strongly highlighted the link between emotion and decision-making. An important factor, therefore, on which we can improve our actions so that they respond to your customers’ pain points. They draw lessons from everyday life that can be applied to marketing and particularly note the need to open up to the world to unite a community that works remotely, for example, and they take inspiration from that for social media.
Being Consistent from Product Creation to Product Sales
In new marketing trends, there is indeed the human element at the center but also honesty and transparency. And it was from this angle that Sébastien Kopp, co-founder of Veja, presented his vision of the company.
For him, offering products aligned with one’s values is not enough. He wants to go further by applying his commitments throughout his entire value chain. For example, by hiring people in professional reintegration, ensuring a fair salary level for all the people working directly or indirectly for Veja, by using renewable energy and raw material production methods that respect the environment. He also refuses to give away his shoes for marketing purposes to stars who would have no problem buying them.
A company is not defined by values, but by the actions carried out by the people who work in the company. He also quoted Patagonia: “We do the best we can, at worst it will only be a good foundation for those who come next.”
Ecology at the Heart of Marketing
From a more ecological point of view, which quietly remains somewhere in the back of everyone’s mind, Gordon Willoughby, CEO of Wetranfer, came to talk to us about his vision of things.
While he shares the importance of transparency, he above all emphasizes the importance of calculating one’s carbon footprint. Many companies publicly commit to ecological values without even knowing their impacts.
This is therefore the starting point for doing better. He then suggests not aiming for perfection, but rather setting long-term goals and milestones. Every year, Wetransfer publishes its report, showing successes, failures and areas for improvement in order to reach the next objectives.
10 Tips for Your Marketing in 2022
Talks took stock of marketing in 2021 and the trends for 2022, notably those of Amazon and Falcon. We drew 10 essential points from them to integrate into your strategy:
- audio content & multichannel content
- the appeal of the retro atmosphere
- small “candy” content
- proper data management to prepare for the disappearance of cookies
- no barriers between generations
- inclusivity to target everyone
- “one to one” interactions
- real and authentic, trust comes first
- adaptability and flexibility
- ecological awareness and responsibility
In Conclusion of Web Summit
To conclude, as you understood, things will continue to change and evolve as quickly as they did over the past year.
As a reminder, 85% of companies thought in 2019 that digital was a nice to have; today 88% of purchases include online research.
And things are going to go even further! Facebook announced the creation of a virtual world: the Metaverse. A topic that was omnipresent to illustrate the talks, not to mention the talks hosted by Facebook itself.
The Metaverse is the combination of many of the notions mentioned: the meeting of the physical and the digital, change, experience and emotion in particular. The goal of the Metaverse is to create a parallel world bringing together all your friends, your leisure activities, and which you can access with a simple virtual reality headset.
Faced with the issues we have discussed throughout the article and the changes that are still to come in our patterns of consumption, flexibility and adaptability will certainly be the watchwords of the years to come.
