Event and
marketing professionals must create content that cuts through the digital noise and goes beyond demographics, according to an exclusive insights event hosted by brand experience agency Strata at Sea Containers London.
Titled “Unlocking the Future of
Content”, the event – comprised of a keynote and panel discussion – examined
behavioural science principles, content strategy and messaging.
Strata invited Lea Karam, behavioural scientist and consulting director at human insights agency Behave, to deliver a keynote discussing a changing marketing
landscape where all the stages – awareness, purchase, discovery, and consideration
– can occur simultaneously.
“The marketing funnel and marketing
ecosystem have changed,” said Karam. “It's not a funnel anymore. It's a
loop. Awareness and action were part of the traditional funnel. At the moment,
awareness and purchase and for example, discovery and consideration can happen
at the same time. People can know about your event and they can know about your
brand. They can know about your purpose before you even speak about it. So it's
really important to know that if you want to speak to a specific audience, you
need to get them where they are. You need to get them in their psychological
behavioural ecosystem and resonate with them differently.”
According to Karam, revamped
digital platforms have disrupted the way we communicate with different markets
and changed the behaviour of target audiences. Therefore, event and marcomms
professionals must understand behavioural triggers to be authentic.
Karam's keynote speech focused on
the purpose and impact of content in today's digital ecosystem and discussed
the paradox of choice, illustrating how an overload of options can lead to
decision paralysis. She also stressed that inclusivity and diversity of thought
are essential for creating content that truly connects with key demographics
and suggested leveraging influencers and the creator economy to build trust and
engagement.
Karam added: “Skipping
audience mapping and community-building homework won’t work. It will only make
content strategies fall short. Audience mapping is so important, because if you
don't understand who you're speaking to, their triggers, and their passion
points, you're going to end up speaking to Ozzy Osborne and King Charles [same
age, same gender and part of the same mosaic group] at the same time and create
content that would resonate with the whole world. That's not the point.”
She added: “There's a lot you can
do to find those nuances and connect with people. I recommend leveraging
predictive technology but we need to differentiate between generative AI and
predictive AI. Generative AI is text-generated ChatGPT and content-generated
images and videos. Predictive AI predicts patterns. It predicts behaviours.
It's all the aggregated nuggets of information that we can get to get those
nuances. Predictive AI is important because it gives you a real view of your
consumers.”
Continuous audience insights
Karam told the audience that
effective content strategies require continuous audience insights. Technology
is an enabler. However, whilst technology is a great resource that can
facilitate engagement, it cannot replace human touch and interaction that
drives conversion and decisions and creates trust, Karam warned.
Commenting on the event and
Karam’s keynote, Giles Cattle, director of creative, strategy and business
development at Strata, said: “Lea’s keynote speech was incredibly insightful.
Our guests were blown away by the great examples she shared and were grateful
for the takeaways that will help them to develop relatable event and content
strategies, with our help of course.
“For example, did you know that
81 per cent of consumers are on the lookout for events recommended by
communities or social creators? That’s why it’s paramount to create relevant
content that is both diverse and inclusive.”
Cattle continued: “This is our
second year hosting these events, allowing our guests to discover new ideas and
the latest insight. I am certain that they appreciated this exclusive
opportunity to listen, network, and debate the points raised by Lea.
“Brands can’t achieve true
engagement without experiences that connect and captivate. For years, we have
all been saying how content is king. Therefore, events are the perfect opportunity to foster that culture of belonging that so
many audiences crave.”
