Emarsys’s 2024 Power to the Marketer Festival went digital with our live Omnichannel and AI Masterclass streaming event, held June 12-13, 2024, and we’re still abuzz with all the wisdom and actionable insights from the speakers and panelists.
If you had a chance to attend the Omnichannel and AI Masterclass live, you got two days chock full of best-in-their-fields marketers and experts sharing cutting edge strategies and insights you can use to drive your own innovation forward.
If you couldn’t make the event live, don’t let the FOMO set in… there’s good news! You can access the entire Omnichannel and AI Masterclass on-demand for free. For an even more immediate bit of marketing inspiration, read on as we give you a day-by-day walk-through of everything covered.
Here we go!
2024 Power to the Marketer Festival Overview
If you’re new to Power to the Marketer, here’s what it’s all about:
Our 2024 Power to the Marketer Festival was created to empower marketers to make an impact and stay abreast of the latest techniques that work in today’s market. This year, we chose the theme of “Tradition Meets Transformation,” Our goal was embracing the harmony between heritage and evolution by showcasing the stories of marketers who have successfully built exceptional omnichannel customer experiences to fuel loyalty and sustainable business growth.
The first event was a live, two-day Omnichannel Masterclass. Here’s a recap of Day 1!
Day 1:
2024 Power to the Marketer Festival Welcome Keynote:
The festival was kicked off by our very own Sara Richter, who gave us context for the theme of this year’s event, and the evolving challenge of upholding the heritage of brands while also embracing today’s transformative technologies. She also previewed some of the exciting new functionality in our June 2024 Release.
“At Emarsys, we’re translating our vision of Power to the Marketer into product development, including some really exciting announcements to improve marketer productivity and personalization with, you guessed it, AI.”
Session 1: Product Strategy, Roadmap, and AI Innovations
During this information-packed session, we heard from key SAP Emarsys experts, including:
- Kelsey Jones, Global Head of Product Marketing, SAP Emarsys
- Balint Vegh, VP Product, SAP Emarsys
- Aadil Kumar, Sr. Product Manager Gen AI x Intelligence, SAP Emarsys
AI has reached a fever pitch, and for good reason. It stands poised to empower marketers to exceed customer expectations and take the cultivation of customer loyalty to a whole new level. But AI is nothing new to Emarsys. It’s built into our DNA. In this session, the SAP Emarsys team discussed the latest update to SAP Emarsys and laid out the vision for how we will continue to stay at the cusp of marketing innovation going forward.
Empowering Omnichannel Marketers through AI Tools
Kelsey began the session by sharing insights into how the Emarsys Customer Engagement Solution is built to help marketers build, launch, and scale personalized cross-channel campaigns that improve loyalty and positively impact ROI.
Our Customers Spoke, and We Listened
Next, Balint and Aadil jumped in to talk about some of the exciting innovations just made live in our June 2024 Release. Highlights included:
- Conversational Messaging: WhatsApp for Early Adopters
- Digital Ads: LinkedIn Integration
- AI Pre-Header and Subject Line Generators
To see it for yourself, be sure to get on-demand access and watch the session.
Session 2: How Huel is Driving Profitable, Scalable Growth Through Customer Advocacy Marketing with Mention Me
Session 2 dove straight into a topic near and dear to marketers’ hearts: how to drive more word of mouth and customer advocacy. Huel’s Global Head of CRM, Tash Reynolds, and Mention Me’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, Kat Wray, shared insights on how Huel got 22% of their customers sharing and recommending the brand to their friends and contacts, activating their fans to drive retention, loyalty and profitable growth.
The session provided a wealth of ideas. Here is a stand-out:
Paid channels aren’t going anywhere, but if you think advocacy first, you’ll have superior economics as a brand and be able to drive truly profitable, sustainable growth.”
Session 3: How Replacements, Ltd. Plates up Traditional and Digital Marketing to Serve a Broad Demographic
As a brand with a 40-year heritage and a proud legacy of being the go-to service when it comes to replacing precious pieces of china, it’s no wonder Replacements, Ltd. skews toward an older demographic. In this session, we learned unexpected ways they’re creating success by serving its older customers and helping them adopt new channels and ways to engage the brand.
Replacements, Ltd.’s E-Commerce Marketing Manager, Amy Childress is joined by Kara Lewis, Attentive’s Lead Client Strategy Manager to discuss how Replacements, Ltd. leverages customer data and the right mix of channels to bridge the gap between traditional and transformative marketing.
The whole session is worth a watch for the many surprising insights this brand has collected about its unique demographic. Here’s one nugget:
“I would say the first thing is to understand your customers’ interactions with SMS and to really start A/B testing early. Test SMS vs. MMS, send times and days. Some people may not interact at 10:30 in the morning and 7:00 p.m. is better.”
Session 4: Revolutionizing Customer Retention: AO’s Blueprint for Building Trust, Authority and Loyalty
If customer retention and reactivation is front of mind, this session is for you. AO, the UK’s most trusted electrical retailer, met their customer retention challenges head-on by devising a comprehensive solution to address loyalty and engagement.
In this session, Craig Hogan-Farnworth, Head of CRM from AO discussed their innovative approach to lead generation with web channel, how AO is using smart automation tactics to increase customer engagement, and what taking a CTA-first approach has meant for their results.
One of the most insightful quotes from the session:
“The more you know about someone, the more the customer feels that you ‘get’ them.”
Get free on-demand access to all the great sessions our Omnichannel Masterclass has to offer.
Watch Now
Day 2
With an information-packed Day 1 on the books, our attention turned to Day 2, with its themes of increasing engagement and curating 1:1 experiences.
Session 1: More Than Commerce: How CPG Brands are Building Direct-to-Consumer Engagement
Omnichannel strategies and robust zero- and first-party data have given brands more capacity to engage consumers directly than ever before. But what happens when a brand doesn’t have an e-commerce offering? Or what if it’s not their main source of revenue?
With an increasing remit to build brand affinity, drive loyalty and earn share of wallet, how are CPG brands leveraging omnichannel strategies to build authentic customer relationships?
Join Don Brett, CPG View Podcast Host, as he leads an esteemed panel of CPG brands:
- Jamie Schwab, VP, Global Digital Commerce, Colgate-Palmolive
- Jamie Decker, VP, Ecommerce, Del Monte
- Diana Macia, Director, Global Omnichannel Capabilities, Kellanova
- Andrew Gallo, Chief Omnichannel Officer, American Greetings
They discussed the importance of a first party data strategy in 2024 and beyond, what value exchanges are being created across the customer journey, how brands are balancing personalization with consumer trust, and, notably, AI’s role in CPG marketing.
Some nuggets that stood out:
“One of the things for us is how you create a value exchange that really resonates and is dynamic over time. The relationship with the consumer will change. How do we evolve our personalized content as that relationship with our consumer evolves?”
“As we look further into the consumer engagement path in 2024, we’re placing a heavy emphasis into how we can engage the consumer through influencers and social content.”
Session 2: Where ESG Meets Omnichannel Strategy: How Molton Brown Drives Engagement by Embracing Sustainability
A company’s values around sustainability are powerful influencers of customer behavior and loyalty. Put simply, many consumers want to know they’re doing business with a company that cares about the planet. Since 2019, sustainability has been one of Molton Brown’s top priorities. In 2023, the brand rolled out refillable solutions across all their core products and weaved ESG into their loyalty program.
In this session, Molton Brown’s Senior Business Transformation Manager (Cosmetics), Naresh Krishnamurthy was joined by Sunny Sangra, Director of Sales Enablement and Partnerships at Sinch. Among many fascinating learnings, they talked about how Molton Brown has embraced ESG both in terms of the technology choices the company has made, and how the brand creates content and deploys campaigns that increase average order value by 22%, purchase frequency by 38%, and customer value by 68%, all the while focusing on sustainability.
“Customers are not only just buying the products. They also want to know how sustainable it is.”
Session 3: How Home Depot Engineers Online Experiences That ‘Get More Done’ During High Peak Seasons
The Home Depot is well-known as the go-to place for ‘do-it-yourselfers.’ But they’re not just banking on brand recognition – they’ve also focused on creating unparalleled customer experiences. To do this, the brand embarked on a mission to truly understand their customers and offer them resources and products at the perfect time and in the right channels.
In this session, Mauricio Gonzalez, Online Experience Manager at Home Depot, in conversation with our very own Stephanie Dymott, discussed the transformation from in-store to online experiences. He gave us insights through the prism of preparing for one of their biggest sales days of the year.
One bit of wisdom from The Home Depot’s Mauricio Gonzalez:
“We curate specific emails based on what are the latest trends at the moment… and this has very high engagement.”
Session 4: John Frieda, Personalization and Perfecting the Art of Product Launches
This session let us be a fly on the wall as this global brand described their product launch strategy… and it was fascinating! When launching their new UltraFiller+ shampoo, conditioner and spray, John Frieda adopted an omnichannel strategy, focused on customer education, surveying customers to understand needs, and building anticipation.
In this session, Lyla Holt, Manager, Digital Marketing for John Frieda’s parent company, Kao USA Inc. was joined by Lisa Wendland, Director, Lifecycle Marketing at Blue Wheel to give us an insider’s peek at how John Frieda successfully launched their UltraFiller+ range. A potential unintended side effect… you may be moved to try the product yourself once you see their fun and compelling messaging. At the very least, it should spark some ideas for your own messaging!
“Our ramp-up launch strategy for UltraFiller+ drove 2x increase in click to open rate compared to another product launch without a ramp up strategy, and we reached 4x as many contacts with our campaigns… Over 88% of users who purchased an UltraFiller+ product purchased 2 or more products within the line.”
Power to the Marketer: Much More to Come!
The Omnichannel and AI Masterclass event, part of our year-long Power to the Marketer Festival, gave us a wealth of ideas and inspiration. Too many to list in one blog post!
So if you’re looking for actionable, cutting-edge strategies from the hard-won experience of some of the world’s top brands, please register for on-demand access to the entire event. It’s free and you can start viewing it in moments, then take it in at your own pace.
And the Omnichannel and AI Masterclass was just the beginning. For the 2024 Power to the Marketer Festival, there’s much more to come, including in-person events in Mexico City, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and more.
Be sure to check out the links below:
