The inaugural MediaCat Live delivered insights into creative media thinking, advertising consumption habits and cultural endurance.
MediaCat UK’s editor, James Swift, was the first to speak at the event, which was held at MSQ’s London offices on 17 September. He offered a glimpse at the future of media creativity in three case studies, which showed how to tinker with platforms and algorithms, how to glean insights from geographic data, and why it’s worth looking for everyday objects and gestures that you can turn into cues for your brand.
Kantar’s Gonca Bubani shared extracts from her company’s forthcoming Media Reactions report, which draws on survey responses from 21,000 consumers and 1,000 senior marketers around the world to discern insights into media and marketing. Among the findings was that campaigns are seven times more impactful when they appear in places where people are receptive to ads.
Smart’s Natalie Moores, meanwhile, offered a quick lesson in cultural endurance — ideas that don’t just grab attention but hold onto it. Moores gave examples from brands that demonstrated cultural savvy and illiteracy, including Brita, which has successfully pivoted to an unhinged style of posting on social media, and Sylvanian Families, which sued a woman whose edgy videos were making the brand relevant to a new generation.
Finally, Skoda’s Rhidian Taylor and PHD’s Tom Sheppey, offered a deep dive into how they made the Redditor Edit campaign, as well as some tips for other brands hoping to replicate their success within online communities: find your faithful few, always do as you say, let go of control, and have a thick skin.