The St. Louis Digital Symposium was held this week on Wednesday in St. Louis, MO. It was a half day event for digital creatives, marketers, agencies and clients.
#STLDIGSYM is an annual summit presented by St. Louis Ad Club along with organization partners 4As, 314 Digital and Social Media Club St. Louis.
Chick Foxgrover (Chief Digital Officer – 4A's) kicked off the conference with a presentation on "Robots v. Humans: Dissecting the impact of the Digital Revolution on the lives of human beings and what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world."
“Clients have not fallen behind their competitors. They’ve fallen behind their consumers.”
Data
Presenter: Gunnard Johnson, SVP Data & Analytics at Centro / Ann Arbor
Panel: Derek Mabie (Evolve), Erin Moloney (Perficient), Ridhi Malhotra (GroupM) and Fred McCoy of Manifest, and moderated by Les Hostetler (Group Search Director – Ogilvy / NEO / Purina)
Gunnard Johnson, SVP Data & Analytics at Centro / Ann Arbor, identified and explained the Pillars of Performance; five important elements that manifest in digital media plans. These pillars – audience, channel, execution, exposure and response – work individually and together to define digital campaigns. A media team with a strong understanding of each pillar will be capable of designing comprehensive plans that drive successful campaigns.
“Digital is ever-evolving, just like science. In the same way tech changes our fundamental view on items like DNA, it changes fundamentals of all areas of life.”
Content
Shawn Stevenson, Bestselling Author and #1 Health & Wellness Podcaster
Shawn Stevenson, Bestselling Author and #1 Health & Wellness Podcaster, presented "CONTENT VS. CONTEXT – FINDING RELEVANCE IN CULTURE, PERSONALITY AND TIMELINESS". In the game of digital marketing, relevance is everything. And that means delivering innovative creative in the right time and place. We hope to explore how agencies and brands are revolutionizing the creative process to grapple with speed, channel choices, media possibilities and real-time data to win big by leveraging the real world experience of #1 iTunes fitness podcaster and TedX speaker Shawn Stevenson.
“Content is king, but marketing is queen, and she rules the household.”
“Content is at a surplus. Connection is at a premium.”
“If you try to talk to everyone, you’re talking to no one.”
Panel: Jessen Wabeke (Fusion Marketing), Justin Ellis (Fleishman Hillard), Morgan Noel (XperienceLab), Kate Erker (Mio) and moderated by Ryan Brown (ECD – Manifest Digital)
Creative
Gunnar Kiene, Creative Director at SapientNitro
Gunnar Kiene, Creative Director at SapientNitro, presented "BRAND CONSISTENCY VS. COHESION IN A DIGITAL WORLD." In our hyperconnected world, there are seemingly endless ways for a brand to interact with consumers. The sheer volume of touch points – and the power consumers now have in defining the brand – make it increasingly difficult for organizations to maintain control of their identity.
Panel: Jon Fahnestock (Maryville University), Chris Kilcullen (H&L Partners), Russell Dow (PGAV) and moderated by Peter Dycus (Director of Production - HLK)
Technology
Dan Pollmann, founder of happyMedium, presented "TAKING DIGITAL IDEAS INTO THE PHYSICAL REALM." Sometimes for digital ideas to be properly brought to life ... innovation, evolution, and utility drives the idea into a more physical and tactile place. As humans, our senses are most engaged outside of the virtual space. Learn how one of STL’s top digital technology agencies traverses the digital landscape by not limiting their thinking to a screen.
“The world doesn’t need another billboard. I’m trying to replace advertising with something meaningful.”