this is note form not a blog so take the snips of insight that speak to you and forgive the disjointed format!

Paul Evans from V2RSION opened the day.

Focus is now on growth and that means brand and performance are both needed. Performance needs to be the 5th P of Marketing and is our way to keep us accountable to the board. Tie actions to outcomes. Thinking long and short is important and has to be balanced.

Seb Bardin reinforced that is is always a balance of short and long and that performance Marketing is both not just the end of funnel point of purchase.

Rachael Petit told is as marketers it is time to revisit our terminology. The board care about value creation, about revenue, and about margin. Marketing is art and science combined so we need to simplify language and make it about growth.

It matters what you are doing not what it is called.

Look for sales spikes without discounting.

How brand and performance come together is important. It can be siloed. The ideal is a team that is connected to commercial and brand and through clear aligned targets. We are seeing the growth for those with specialist functions who work agile and test and learn before scale. It is key to breaks the siloes down and unite on common goals.

We are moving so fast in marketing, faster than ever in terms of development, and we have to ask, are the principles keeping up?

Real life examples and data have more meaning. Data driven is key to be closer to the shift in processes. We are seeing brand, trade/shopper marketing and performance blending. The funnel is even more complex and we have known for over a decade it is not linear.

2027 predictions

is performance still a thing?

Rachael reinforced that terms don’t matter, the discipline of Marketing is needed, how we use AI and data will be more important. Call is what you like!

The bottom line is the final decision maker.

For those of us with smaller budgets we can take learningd from Lloyd’s long follow data and MMM tracking which shows TV is still a key driver for awareness and it does lead to sales. Multi channel mix is still a thing. New product launch has a role for performance.

The final thought from a strong panel is the rigor needs to be there, the model is yours to choose.

Malc from HUB

@seomalc

AI empowered is here and is the future

We are now tracking 2.5 billion prompts a day. With no industry guard rails. We are filling AI with garbage and noone knows the impact of that.

GEO generative engine optimisation is important but don’t lose perspective.

Google is still 90% world wide share of market on search. 70% of that is on android and it is a 71% market share of browsers.

Is SEO dead?

Search is evolving. But it is always changing, that hasn’t changed. LLMs are affecting funnel through expansion creating many points of touch.

In the near future LLM will sell to us, soon we will never touch a website in our purchase.

Ranking rules are still the same.

Focus on a Technically sound website. Value add and good content is important. No waffle. Facts details and quality coverage. Retrieval augmented generation. No cookie cutter crap!

Do a sanity check if your customers are using LLM.

Google and Bing are still relevant especially in B2B. Track what is coming linked directly to your brand.

With increased saturation for consumers, trust will be important.

Dominic Dixon from cookology shared his online and in store view – digital helps to reduce the middle costs – but they still have a bricks and mortar showroom.

Live content, product videos are strongest and all content needs to be reputable and be linked to the reputable media houses or credible sources.

Live shopping means show quality, show customer service, and enable for LLM to prepare for future. Customer needs to know the value. Trust needs to be evident.

Future – no websites touched by humans but the AI still needs them. Brand is still important and LLM will offer small brands equal air time if their website is good.

Gareth Crew from Canon and Lea Karam from Mindscope were up next with a Fireside called Making the comeback work

What is the value of social and digital in this new world? We need to take advantage of new challenges as opportunity. Change this to just another challenge, test, learn, rinse and repeat.

What is missing just now is the value and the understanding of the value. That will come over time. Use data and insights. Wring fence test and learn money and soace.

Social media needs to be socialised internally. Like minded support internally and externally.

Don’t fall in to a trap of listening to eco chambers – approval is given from the end consumer not your team or your peers.

Connection remains key. Trust has to be established. Managing our AI agents will be important. Getting support for change from board is key. Don’t be an island.

Click is not as high so measure pause. It is key to build meaning in the pause. Friction is key and resonating. Pause is the rarity. What is the spark?

Human behaviour hasn’t changed so much! But how we learn has.

The trend is now AI supporting consolidated roles that have a split of Brand and Performance. (This describes my in house team well)

Croud interviewed Julia Klien from Compare the Market

Wave data is needed on AI and the path to purchase. Discovery is 1 in 3 through AI online. Trust is being given easily.

Siloed teams need to come together and focus on consumer mindset. Make the shift and set up for success in agile sprints.

Zero click is real so still important to answer search questions and always be reviewing the journey.

AI is driving automation as agents to support improvement but it will move fast, focused on consumer and data. First party data is feeding in to our quality signals.

What is the role of agencies changes too. Long term strategy is harder to set when it moves so quick. Unbiased view and AI partner supports confidence to push back on a board and keep developing to keep up.

Financial services and highly regulated environments will struggle to be fast to respond.

12 months on from today – AI is there, it has objectives, and it is part of the team.

Marketing is same, being agile is needed. Focus on busienss objectives and impact. How to win – curiosity – understand wider context – t shaped marketers become the norm.

Samantha Freeman from Paramount talked about the streaming world.

Visual is important. Always start with the customer. Attention wars are real and it is good to adopt a streaming first mindset.

Performance Marketing is embedded in this as an entertainment brand. Shows are products. Competing with a 2nd screen and social scrolling. Attention span and scrolling can cause drop out. Growth marketing is here now as a term.

We take an average of 14 mins to chose what to watch. Long time deciding on biggest screen.

Ads in our scroll deliver 3rd party insight and is good to work cross platform. Good data can really target this. Creative is so key for the thumb stop. Thumb stop has to start conversion. Long form has a place and Reddit is growing so strongly we need to be there. Reddit is word of mouth for a digital audience.

Last of the morning for me was Graziella Castro- HSBC

I fangirled on Graziella with her pedigree including director at Publicis and lecturer with a Phd in statistics, she is redefining marketing through a performance lens and has a blueprint for growth.

Performance used to be channel focused and actually it needs to be wider. Marketing effectiveness measures are key. Growth is the new marketing and our language needs to be board appropriate- grow customer base, grow customer purchase, grow margin.

For her the clicks are the action, what it delivered is what counts.

We need to go back to discipline and process – who cares what we call it. Marketing language should die and a wider business language will grow.

Performance, brand, product, all need to work together not be focused on proving its worth and so not connected via the customer.

Measure dont claim.

Optimisation post measurement is essential for spend effectiveness. This is the next wave of transformation. Beyond digital. Show the purpose. Show the benefit. Build credibility.

Always the balance of short and long matters no matter how big the brand.

Should look audience by audience. Measurement is now enabled by AI so build it in as the power of Brand can be calculated in real time with AI perhaps in the near future.

New generation of marketers are subject matter experts not generalist. Even smallest budget has to have a strategy and measure.

T shaped as a marketer is the way to develop.

Scott Sinclair Head of Search Google

Future proof search by doinf 4 things

1. Use all the AI products ai max, demand gen P Max

2. Align your source of truth and the ads platform

3. Adopt a demand led philosophy spend pressure need to be high. If you don’t have enough budget, change the target to a smaller one

4. LLM predicts the best words, AI auction predicts the next best action.

Don’t change targets too often, conversion cycle of 7-10 days.

Don’t tinker with your target all the time.

AI tools owned and earned content ai max p max8 word plus searches growing as a trend.

Asking more complex questions in search it is becoming a habit across all demographics

Visual search with commercial intent is growing.

Giovano Colnaghi

Gio moved from Unilevier selling iced tea to Carrivagio.

Learning from art has shown him that when spend is high people buy stories and art always has a story. Artists were the first influencers. Delivering a product with a story. The frame is important. Sometimes more important than the picture. People are looking for meaning.

In marketing we optimise for clicks but not always for conviction for emotions.

Optimise for emotions.

Algorithms reward engagement.

Humans reward for meaning. Stories last. Meaning, memory, mechanics. Story builds the long-term value. Independent brands are winning share by storytelling.

If you don’t win through storytelling, you are forced to win on price.

Building community is key.

AI adds B2AI2C as a marketing journey Giopupo.com

Last up was keynote Tony Miller

Customer first approach to build the strategy out , from agency to brands. Performance at its best is across all marketing. Role as CMO or Head is to cut through the distraction and remind the team about the customer. Gaining control over the key components for the customer and stopping them being disprit is how to grow. New role is growth.

Future of our roles how do we transform and evolve. Fusion of bringing all together and connecting. Multi channels still the route to go. The journey is so wide and moving. What is driving incremental growth vs how the campaign performed. Enable smarter allocation of budgets. Direct line example. Supports econometrics and use data to storytell in the business. Econometric modeling. Brand lift studies.

Skills needed for a CMO – commercial acumen – insight and judgement and interpretation. Vanity metrics should be avoided.

Is it still 60 40 long and short.

Principles are not a prescription.

Insight combined with data is improving head and heart need to align.

Test and learn and protecting it to live for long enough to learn.

Horizon scanning – shorter 12 months planning with a strong north star of Purpose.

Investment for the 3 year trajectory shorter what needs to be true outlook and alignment.

Which brands are doing it well – air bnb – authentic. Direct line is consistent and that drives groeth. Zara is doing interesting things about frictionless experience.

Stratrgic and storytelling partners. Remove channel expertise bringing the parts together it is not a competitive situation we have one goal.

What is the rallying cry to keep us going. We are focused on what we have to do. Celebration of quick wins, tell the story and remind us of our longer journey.

Seek inspiring moments as a team. Go to shows and get outside your industry. Experience new brands and industries. Daily mindset of getting the stuff done and routine can flatten our creative move. Shock the system. Disrupt the system.

It is not form but hopefully useful for you all.