Top 10 Insights / Takeaways

1. Mobile 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Mobile overtook desktop two years ago (or more depending on source). If a website is not optimised for mobile, you are killing a huge percentage of your market. And not just a ‘responsive-lite’ site, but fully optimised (both usability and page load).[1] [2]

1. Fish Where the Fish Are. Don’t be the old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn. If you don’t understand the new social networks, learn them. They are where the users are, and are not going away (Snapchat just raised $1.8b).[3]

1. Facebook Video Advertising. Extremely affordable. Facebook wants to kill YouTube. Right now, you can get huge reach for low cost for promoting videos on Facebook (e.g. $60 for 6,000 views).[3]

1. ‘Storytelling’ - Content Marketing for Retailers. Will transform your SEO as well as creating a new overall audience to drive new sales and loyalty. Examples Dan Murphy’s Liquor Library and Surf Stitch The Lens.[4]

1. Peer Validation. Great drivers to increase conversion. Can come in multiple forms, such as customer reviews (Harvey Norman), displaying what other people are buying (Kogan and Catch of the Day) and total number of purchases (Catch).[4]

1. Track Everything. You can track everything online. If you haven’t implemented end to end tracking, you shouldn’t start your paid marketing campaigns until you have.[5]

1. Snapchat On-demand Geo-filters - A graphic overlay that you can put over your photo when using Snapchat. You likely would have seen with the community filters for regional areas (e.g. your city or suburb having a font overlay), but recently opened for business, and useful for events, business locations, expos, etc. Example: A-League Grand Final at Adelaide Oval, set the A-League Trophy (known as the toilet seat) as a geofilter for four hours at an extremely cost effective price point.[3]

1. Email Marketing is King. “Email is NOT dead”. Usage of email among < 25 year olds is equal to or above every other age group. Email marketing automation is becoming a necessity.[6][7]

1. Mobile Responsive Emails. Critical. "More email is read on Mobile than on desktop email clients. Stats say 55% of email is now opened on a mobile device – Litmus “Email Analytics” (March 2016)”.[2][6]

1. Peak Blogger. We’ve reached peak blogger. Google Trends shows huge decrease for “x + blog” keywords, but huge increase for “x + instgram” keywords.[3]

What's Next

• 360° video. Really new, and being promoted by YouTube and Facebook. May be worthwhile buying a camera and uploading quick footage (e.g. a walk around your warehouse or office) as people love watching it.3]View an example at [Facebook 360.
• Bots, bots, bots. Facebook, Kik, Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, Google & more are embracing bots. Expanding on from DeepDrumpf (Twitter bot mimicking Trump), to being able to order flowers via Facebook messenger, Google’s Deep Mind.[3]
• Native ads. Native ads are ads that take on the look and feel of the content that surrounds them (ads in disguise) and are taking over digital advertising. By 2021, 74% of ad revenue is expected to be native. Examples BuzzFeed, Outbrain.[3]

• The Internet of Things (IoT). Amazon & Google are experimenting heavily (Amazon Echo, Google Home). Amazon Dash Button, press a button and get the product delivered within 2 days with Amazon Prime.[3][8]

Best start up award goes to Referboard, affiliate marketing for social influencers, who won the Epitch. Brands can join the platform and provide a commission to social influencers for any sales that their followers make. Performance marketing for influencers.[9]

Referenced Sessions

• Insights Into Mobile Conversion, Tim Ash.
• The State Of Online Retail, Vicki Cantrel.
• How Social Channels Killed Communities & Why That's Great News, Steve Vallas.
• 10 Habits Of The Top 10, Grant Arnot.
• The Ultimate Paid Marketing AMA, Jim Banks, Shahid Awan, Michelle Bourke.
• What Email Marketing Should Look Like For Retail In 2016, Let's Automate, Alita Harvey Rodriguez.
• Faster, Smarter, Better: Set New ROI Goals For Your Email Marketing, Tink Taylor.
• Big Data Hack For All Businesses, Britney Muller.
• Epitch, Aaron Woolf, Referboard.

Other Sessions Not Referenced

• Driving Social Conversions For Retailers, Jason Kencevski, Yvonne Adele, Jane Lu, Sarah Timmerman.
• The Force Awakens, The Future Of Retail & Customer Engagement, John Lawson.
• Keynote Speaker The Platinum Nuggets of Entrepreneurship, Tony Nash.
• Power Panel A fireside discussion with top retail brands on current trends & issues in eCommerce, Paul Greenberg, Vicki Cantrell, Jooman Park, Jon Bovard.
• The Future Begins Now: The 10 Growth Areas Of The Metaspace Economy®, Erica Orange, Jared Weiner.
• 16 Top Secret Marketing Tools For 2016, Matt Davies.
• Google Analytics 101, Nathan Huppatz.
• Top Tips For Content & eCommerce In 2016, Shahid Awan.

All up a great conference, with many great speakers from both Australia and overseas. Hope to attend again next year!

Thanks to Sean Callanan for sharing the A-League Grand Final Snapchat Geo-filter.

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