Digitizing Creativity: The art and science of digital marketing
In a crowded hall, on October 8th, the launch event of ACT’s Lifelong Learning Center (LLC), Digitizing Creativity: The art and science of digital marketing, brought together distinguished professionals from the US and Greece who shared their experience and insights on digital marketing developments. The purpose of the conference was to chart any changes in the creative process in the digital era and showcase how to develop ‘big ideas with small budgets.’
In his opening remarks, Anatolia’s President, Dr. Panos Vlachos, highlighted the Life Long Learning Center’s goal to monitor developments and become the hub for knowledge acquisition and skills upgrading. Aligned with Anatolia’s mission and ACT’s central message Embrace change, LLC intends to become the point of reference for those who wish to advance professionally, or seek an opportunity for self-improvement, noted Dr. Sevasti Kessapidou, ACT’s Associate Dean of Academic Affairs who also serves as the Lifelong Learning Center’s Director.
In their keynote address, echoing the conference’s main message, Fred Senn, founding partner of Fallon, and Rocky Novak, Fallon’s Managing Director, spoke of ‘big ideas and small budgets’ and encouraged the audience ‘to outthink rather than outspend the competition.’ In doing so, the keynote speakers highlighted the need for marketers to build strong relationships. ‘We should treat brands the same way we treat people’, they argued, and gave a three-pronged advice: find an idea, find your humanity and let technology do the rest. Fallon, as Fred Senn announced, is endorsing the upcoming Digital Marketing Certificate that will be offered by ACT’s Lifelong Learning Center.
George Levitikos, Chief Integration Officer of MullenLowe Athens, emphasized the need to be agile, ‘to adapt or die,’ as he distinctively noted. Creative ideas should come from integrated teams and be applicable to various channels of communication. Mr. Levitikos also noted that the new talents need to multitask and use their collective creativity not only to ‘unstereotype’ but also to help stop ‘thumb scrolling’ which the digital media allow.
Μarianna Lappou, Account Director of DDB, TRIBAL WORLDWIDE ATHENS, presented the role of brands as publishers and addressed the transition from interruption marketing to permission marketing. Emphasizing that ‘content is the king,’ Ms. Lappou argued that marketers need not only to attract the attention but also to maintain it, particularly in the noisy environment that the multiple stimuli create.
Finally, Petros Lytrivis, Digital Director of BGM OMD Greece, prompted marketers to maximize the value of the promotional message, stressing the need for more personalized messages that eloquently capture experiences rather than mass messages. Mr. Lytrivis highlighted the need for precision marketing and presented the new trend in digital communication, programmatic marketing.
The Digitizing Creativity Conference was made possible thanks to the generous support of Helen Electra Lindsay & Dan Lindsay.
Air Carrier Sponsor: AEGEAN Airlines
Supporter:The MET Hotel
