Day 4: Thursday June 22nd 2023

Sadly, on day 4 I wasn’t feeling 100% so I decided to watch the talks virtually at the hotel. I’m grateful that the talks were being aired live so at least I didn’t miss too much, but I was still bummed that I couldn’t attend the festival in person.

Talk #1: The LEGO Group and Epic Games Presents Building the Next Iteration of the Internet

  • Julia Goldin of Lego and Adam Sussman of Epic Games discuss the Metaverse and its possibilities

  • The Metaverse is going to become more creative and immersive

    • It shouldn’t be gatekept, it should be accessible for all ages and groups

    • The Metaverse can be used to bridge the physical to the digital

    • Digital play helps kids solves problems, see things in a different perspective, and give them

      the tools to be creative

    • Metaverse can be the next step to help children unlock digital creativity

  • Examples of Metaverse being intertwined with games

Takeaway: Personally, I did not enjoy this talk at all. It reminded me of a Black Mirror episode in all honesty. I’m not a fan of children going online more than they are now, especially with the risks we see the digital world posing to the mental health, development, and socialization of children and adolescents. The whole talk felt tone deaf given that there is mounting evidence supporting the fact that children and teens are online for a vast majority of their time and the effects are not good. A lot of the things they were saying made it seem like they want children and teens even more online than they are now, which for me is quite a scary thought. Sadly, the presentation felt like a money grab for LEGO and Epic Games rather than actually being for the betterment of our youth.

Talk #2: Heineken Presents 150 Years On – Navigating the Future of Socialising

  • Socialising is more important that many people are aware

  • But today, socialising is under threat (work, online life, etc.)

  • The pandemic had a huge impact on socialization that we are still seeing to this day

    • Today, many people have fewer close friends. Some report having no close friends

    • Lacking social connection is horrible your health - one study found that loneliness in humans is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day

    • Socialising is just as important to us as food and water

  • Brands don’t need to preach to their consumers or have a manifesto in order to be relevant

    • The purpose doesn’t need to be heavy in order to be relateable to audiences

    • Light and wit can actually be just as, if not more, effective for speaking to an audience and grabbing their attention

  • Physical spaces for socialising are shrinking

    • Clubs and bars across the world are struggling to stay open

      • Pubs in the UK have a huge cultural and societal signifigance

      • But today they are shutting down in large numbers

  • Nobody knows what the future of socialising will look like

  • The enemies of social life keep changing

  • Heineken has always been a social brand

    • Many of their campaigns focus on the power of being together with people physically and having a good time

  • To help during the pandemic, Heineken did Shutter Ads

    • Helped bars still promote themselves in a time of financial instability by placing ads on their shutters, windows, and exteriors

Takeaway: I enjoyed this talk a lot for a variety of reasons. The speakers, James Thompson and Bruno Bertelli, were engaging and down to earth. I appreciated the care they placed on human interaction and using actual studies to highlight the damage lack of socialization has on humans. Even though Heineken is a social brand, the talk felt much more genuine and focused mostly on how they can get people feeling good again and how they can help social business thrive in a time where socialising is under attack by many different factors. This talk was honestly very refreshing after so many talks focused on pushing people more online. The attention they brought to the consumer and their mental health felt genuine as opposed to just focusing on how Heineken can profit.

Talk #3: Is Popular Culture Dead?

  • Culture first needs to be defined in order for us to advertise / market effectively

  • Because of who we are, we see the world through that lense - “I am, therefore I do”

    • Not because of what it is, but because of who we are

  • Popular culture: conventions and beliefs believed by a majority

  • Popular culture first starts on the fringe as a subculture then becomes absorbed into popular culture

  • Popular culture is NOT DEAD

    • We are just living in a fragmented world with hyperconnectedness

    • People are now having more individual experiences as opposed to big groups (streaming alone at home vs watch parties)

      • Some exceptions we see are Super Bowl and World Cup watch parties

  • The world has changed and so has the media

    • Many people feel fragmented and fatigued

    • Content overload is real - people are being exposed to more content than they can process

  • But this is where subcultures play a helpful part

    • They are useful for marketers because they show what’s out there

  • How can brands thrive in today’s society?

    • It doesn’t need to be purpose driven, but it does need to be additive

    • Scrutinize how you activate - choose your brand and media’s details wisely

    • Align your values - back up what you believe and align your actions

    • Commit - you can’t pick and choose when you to be an advocate, it’s either 100% or nothing

    • Embrace subcultures

    • Be genuine

Takeaway: I liked this talk and learned a lot from what the speakers were staying. I hadn’t given culture and subculture much thought but maybe it’s because I am so used to seeing so many trends come and go, that I didn’t realize what they meant in the world of advertising and marketing. The speakers, Marcus Collins and Ellie Bamford, were knowledgable and excited about the content they were sharing. I valued how they defined culture for the audience and gave a background on the history of different subcultures making their way into the mainstream. It was helpful to hear their advice on how brands and companies can navigate in a time where there are so many different subcultures being represented in media. It’s not possible to cater to every group, so choosing the ones that align most with the brands values and mission is the key to expanding their consumer base in a genuine way.