MIXX and AMEX
This the first morning KeyNote sessions, from John Hayes, CMO, Amex. As always, slightly paraphrased. I was extremely impressed by what he had to say, hitting many of the truths that are said about the marketing company and really believing them
- talking at the customer is dead. annoying the consumer is dead. not listening is over, the conventional model is over.
- embracing and encouraging change is where we are. you need a framework. At AMEX we recognise that the world is in the midst of an ongoing conversation
- people are talking to each other. the art of conversation is no longer dead. they talk about lives, they talk about brands, products and services, both positive and negative. We must resist the temptation to use our voice as the authority. we must join the conversation. not interrupt
- I’m channel agnostic. I focus on driving desire and creating market place demand.
- a decade ago we focused on servicing customers on line. We were successful, now our site has more traffic every month than WSJ…or match.com
- we’re not an interactive or internet company., we moved along and created programs to further the engagement. MyWish list started in 04. we gave customers unique access to hot products at good pricing. we had 7m people on site in 3 weeks
- 2nd year we repeated. instead of just offering the same, we asked them what their wishes were. I thought we would have 2 people…we had 150k, that’s when i realised the level of engagement that members want to have with brand
- the web is a place to further the relationship, build the brand and build the business
- we never stopped experimenting and that is heart and soul of a brand on line
- last year we put Pong online - 1.4m people played (part of the US Open tennis sponsorship)
- for Tribeca Film festival, we got 1700 15′ entries about the life of our customers
- we do partnerships with TV programmes and provide additional content and unique access,
- all have improved results…online consumers perform better on spending, credit criteria and their level engagement. far better than traditional channels
- collaboration is the way into the conversation. the web is a breeding ground for collaboration., to be effective, you need your message to come from many places but have to be single minded and coalesce.
- the web is 99% user generates, a place where large amounts of collaboration happening
- look at wikipedia vs britanica. The Nature report concluded that both were accurate as each other. Last week at a talk I said this and some people took issue - but the web is and will continue to get better at policing itself. Britanica is since 1768. Wikipedia is 6 yrs. Most articles are collaboratively written…there is no ’single’ expert. experts can lead efforts of collaboration
- want to approach marketing solutions the exact same way. i want partners to bring whatever tools ness to get the results. want to collaborate with whoever they need to. do not show up every day with same traditional skills. the era of brands and agencies creating messages is over
- at AMEX we create artists in residence, a philosophy. we go and find people to work with, who are experts at the art of conversation. (listed the celebrities they are working with). they help us generate the conversation in the market place. we look for trend leaders, conversing about our brand.
- we don’t treat them as celebrity spokepeople…they work with us on the creation of the content..they are a critical part of the process.
- this required that we let go of the creative process. in the old days I was able to approve each stage, had a lot of certaintyopf what the outcome would be. Now I need to let go and let they do what they do best.
- lack of control sounds frightening. but when I started to see the results I realised it was an improvement in the process
- harnessing the consumer power is where the potential lies,
- we recently did a program where the members could collaborate even further. could we get our community to collaborate together, to unite to change the world. The Members project. (membersproject.com) sign up and vote. submit online, rate others. 2mill$ was donated by Amex to a single project. we provided an online forum, then let go. we carried on listening and learnt a lot by the ideas
- you know the model if entering the conversation is working when you can spend nothing on marketing when you can rely entirely on a consumer conversation…I call this magnetic marketing. We spend nothing to market the Centurian card (the black card) but demand is growing, when I say where I work, I always get 2 questions…about the black card…can you get me one….(I say I can help)..then they ask what it does! A that point, you are in the conversation, it is in pop culture, we are in the conversation and drive the desire and results
- to enter the conversations you must work in an open environment. it does not work in a command and control environment
- you must listen and enjoy listening
- you must collaborate
- you must use the tools your customers are using
Q: most IAB members are Interactive media companies. what should they bring to the table. A: need to understand the conversation, if you are not tuned in then we don’t want a dialog with an agency. Partners have to have a fix on the conversation. Don’t come to us with your rote abilities but come in with an open mind about bringing resources to obtain the results you are trying to get. work collaboratively to bridge this.
Q: Annual marketing budget? A: lots of money! can’t say but over 1billion. some have 0 (ie the black card)
Tags: amex, black+card
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Advertisments, Branding, Conferences and Events, Consumer Packaged Goods, User Generated Content
0 opinions for MIXX and AMEX
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: