BAM Marketing Congress: 5 key takeaways
A few weeks ago, we attended the 41st-edition of the BAM Marketing Congress in Brussels with the 4P Square-team. For marketers like us, this was of course the day of the year. The congress was about embracing uncertainty. After the COVID-crisis, it seems we’re heading off to another crisis (or are we already in it?). Luckily, with uncertainty comes opportunity. The congress inspired me to see things differently and to set new goals for 2023.
Let’s share my 5 key takeaways with you.
1. Choose your battle
Content is king. As a brand we want to be seen by our (future) customers. Therefore, we invest in content marketing: newsletters, blog posts, TikTok videos, whitepapers… On average a company shares 13 to 16 (!) different content types with their audience. As a result, consumers are flooded with information. According to Joe Pullizi, a content marketing expert who spoke at the Marketing Congress, you therefore have to kill some content ideas. Find yourself maximum one or two things you are good at and invest all your effort in these two content types. Serve your audience with valuable content and stand out from the competition. In case you need help with your content, 4P square is here to help!
2. The future started yesterday
Metaverse, AI, blockchain, Web3… Maybe you know everything about them, or maybe you’re – just like me and probably many others – getting lost in all the buzzwords you hear nowadays. During the Marketing Congress, a lot of keynote-speakers told us the same thing over and over again; these buzzwords are becoming more reality every day. That’s why it’s important to learn about them now, before it’s too late.
3. Find your core purpose
The most inspiring Keynote-speaker on the Marketing Congress for me was Sara Riis-Cartensen, the former Director of Lego’s Global Brand Development. She told us about the importance of finding the core purpose of your brand. This is the ‘why’ of your company. Some brands tend to forget this one, or don’t see the importance of it. However, it’s a key ingredient of your brand identity. As Sara said: “The super power of a brand lies in its core purpose.” Why does your company exist? What would the world miss if tomorrow our brand would disappear? From there on, try to do everything in function of that brand purpose and you will see your brand growing.
4. Focus on your own channels
We highly rely on Google or Meta to provide us with data of our customers. These giant tech companies have built multi-billion dollar industries by gathering and selling these data, and we are more than happy to pay for them. Adding on this, all those followers we gathered on our social media, aren’t really ‘our’ followers. They are actually owned by the platform and we’re just ‘renting’ them. This insight came again from Joe Pullizi. Suddenly he made me realise that, when Facebook or Instagram suddenly decides to exist, all our followers will disappear with it as well. That is why you need to find ways to acquire first-hand data from your customers. Invest in newsletters, a blog on your website, a loyalty programme… The possibilities to build direct relationships with your clients are there, now you just have to act on them.
5. The power of the extra mile
The last key takeaway comes from Jurgen Ingels, a Belgian entrepreneur. He told us there’s no secret or one way to success. However, he does have one golden tip and he calls it ‘the power of the extra mile’. Let me explain it to you:
(1,00)^365 = 1,00
(1,01)^365 = 37,78
(0,99)^365 = 0,03
The first number only changes with 0,01, which looks negligible you would think. However, when you do that 1% extra every day of the year, you will book excessive progress. Nevertheless, the other way around counts as well. Moral of this story: hard work always gets rewarded. If you’re interested in more wisdom of Jurgen Ingels, I highly recommend his book ‘50 lessen voor ondernemers’. I bought it immediately after I heard his Keynote and I think he has a good view on certain topics in the field of entrepreneurship.
These were my 5 key takeaways of the BAM congress. In case you would like to have a deeper conversation about one of the insights above, don’t hesitate to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Lastly, I would like to end with an inspirational quote I heard on BAM: “If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 letters more (Claire Cook).”
