Magazine: Brand building done smartly

Tamás Barna

BrandFestival has become one of the most important strategic communication and branding conferences in Central Europe. The event took place in the Budapest Music Center on 26-27 October and it was focusing on multi-screen media consumption. Tamás Barna, the president of BrandFestival opened the conference. He told that the life cycle of innovations in the communication market is shortening. Consequently, more and more complex knowledge is needed to understand the communication processes that surround us. He added that the future will be about content generated by brands – online or on mobile platforms. A roundtable discussion followed, where the topic was innovations. Mariann Árr, head of marketing and customer experience at Generali Insurance, Richárd Bóna, founder and owner of Souldrops, Linda Egyed, managing director of Fino-food and Krisztián Kurtisz, CEO of UNIQA Insurance all shared their views on the topic.

Edmund Dueck, marketing manager of leading open source software company Liferay Inc. introduced methods which can create exceptional customer experiences and make partners more satisfied and loyal. The presentation by SuperGroup creative director Brad Lewis and Gabe Aldringe showed it perfectly that the age of the Experience Economy had arrived in the communication industry. The Atlanta-based creative studio specialises in stimulating people’s senses in unusual ways. Mark Stephens, head of content marketing at Time Inc. opined that a balance needs to be created between classic and digital designs and brand experiences. Time Inc.’s vision is that advertisers like to work with media partners that have data-driven capabilities and premium content.

One of the day’s most charismatic speakers was Shane Tusup, trainer and manager of three-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Katinka Hosszú. He introduced the stages of building the Iron Lady brand. Gergő Szabó, founder and owner of Special Effects Media spoke about how digital natives consciously avoid advertisements and find vloggers and YouTube channels credible. The programme continued with another roundtable discussion: the topic was what to do when sales of a branded product start decreasing. László Niklós, country manager of Coca-Cola Hungary told that a review must be done instantly and special attention must be paid to consumer feedback. András Dunai, CEO of Buszesz Zrt. agreed and revealed that they also use market research data (Nielsen, GfK) when making business decisions.

Nikolett van der Wildt, marketing manager of Szentkirályi-Kékkúti Mineral Water told the story of an unorthodox brand building project. Ádám Mérő, regional connection manager of The Coca-Cola Company introduced what creativity means in the case of Coke by talking about the ‘Are you thirsty for the internet?’ campaign that targeted teenagers. Dr Zsuzsanna Jánosy, co-owner of BrandTrend explained that today it isn’t the image that holds a brand together; if we love our brand, we should set it free. In the next discussion participants were analysing communication platforms related to sports. These platforms can reach shoppers and activate them – sharing special moments, real experiences with brands. Ottó Németh, general manager of Henkel’s Beauty Care business area spoke about his experiences as a member of the Opel Dakar Team, and about the cooperation between the Everest expedition and the Fa brand. Máté Szász, sales director of Scitec Nutrition in Central and Eastern Europe introduced how they sponsored 170 athletes who participated in the Olympic Games in Rio. Three-time Olympic gold medallist water polo player Gergely Kiss remembered the final in Athens, while sports manager Stefano Favaro talked about the business and entertainment sides of sport.

On the second day of the conference the first speaker was Renáta Varga, senior consultant of LHBS Consulting. She told that partner expectations about personal customer relationship and about the customer experience changed completely with the appearance of digital channels and tools; still, companies are trying to improve the satisfaction level relying on the old misconceptions. The next presenters were Henry Hitchcox, founder and creative director of Jungle Creations and head of production Ruth Newton: they showed how members of Generation Z can be reached, using video advertisements on Facebook and YouTube. In the roundtable discussion that followed Péter Faludi, managing director of Havas Media Group, Miklós Kázmér, founder and owner of Umbrella, Miklós Kun, strategy director of MediaCom, Szabolcs Márton, creative director of Republic Group and Imre Vernyik, strategy director of 1080P Advertising Agency talked about the future of advertising agencies and the answers to international trends.

Imre Horváth

Retail – just like many other sectors – is undergoing exciting changes these days. Imre Horváth, CEO of Metro Hungary shed light on how they switched from transaction-focused thinking to new ways of creating value for SME partners, e.g. by counselling, digital solutions, etc. Rita Jagodics, owner and managing director of Kereskedelmi Marketing Trendek Kft. used a practical approach to introduce how companies integrate database marketing into the marketing mix and how database marketing is integrated into the marketing mix systems of companies. Philip Brown from Come Round – a new influencer agency – came to speak about the unique creative opportunities that they offer in online and offline WOM generating: word-of-mouth marketing is basically creating information that ‘spreads like a virus’. The company works for Panasonic, Lego, Fanta, Philips, BBC and Lady Gaga’s brand. They think that communication results are optimal if a brand builds awareness (classic media) and credibility (WOM media) at the same time. The Brand Excellence awards were presented to the winners on the second day: OTP Bank, wafer bar Balaton, MagneB6 and MagNet Bank returned home with prizes.

Writer, director and creative director Steve Harrison firmly believes that because of the new technologies, people’s attention is more and more divided. Ibolya Ördög, communications manager of British Automotive Hungary spoke about the challenges automotive industry players need to face due to the changes in content consumption habits. She used company-specific stories and campaigns to illustrate how luxury cars ca n be sold today. Melinda Kamasz, deputy editor-in-chief of Figyelő was the moderator of the roundtable discussion about the workforce shortage and fluctuation. Katalin Pintér, managing director of Onyx és Gerbeaud Gasztronómiai Kft., Krisztina Kárpát, managing director of Bayer Hungária Kft. and Balázs Varga, marketing manager of Profession.hu agreed that a well-built employer brand can attract talents and increase workers’ motivation. On Friday afternoon the programme ended with workshops. The moderator was Umbrella partner & chief creative officer Márton Jedlicska.Gergely Csanda, head of marketing at KÜRT Akadémia, Piroska Pataky, marketing and PR director of Mastercard, Richárd Rusvai, digital sales director of CM Sales, Sára Palcsó, marketing director of Zwack Unicum Nyrt. and Mátyás Bendl, managing director of POME all made valuable contributions to the collective work. //