Announcing the Festival of Marketing

Marketing is changing, and we're celebrating that change with our week-long Festival of Marketing in October. 

In five inter-connected events, we'll be outlining our view of the state of marketing, and the challenges every marketer should focus on.

And don't worry, there'll be comedy and music fringe events and parties as well. 

The Festival takes its inspiration from our Modern Marketing Manifesto, and is put together with the help of Marketing Week, Creative Review, Design Week and Data Strategy. 

Here's an overview of what we're up to... 

The end of the digital beginning...

Digital marketing should no longer be seen in isolation, as marketing works best when it combines the 'traditional' and digital. 

We are at the stage now where businesses should no longer need to be convinced of the value and importance of digital. As Ashley Friedlein pointed out when looking at trends for 2013, it has now gone 'mainstream'. 

The challenge now is to adapt to the fact that distinctions between digital and offline will become more and more irrelevant. 

A phrase used in PWC's "Global entertainment and media outlook: 2012-2016" report sums this up well:

The technology to deliver the enterprise with digital at its core is here now. The main challenges are around leading and marshalling the talent and innovative culture needed to make it a reality.

The Festival of Marketing's events aim to help marketers to adapt to this 'new normal' and re-engineer the marketing discipline.

All of the key elements in the modern marketer's arsenal will be covered during the Festival, design and creativity, the use of new technologies, how to use data to drive insight, and more. 

As Econsultancy COO Charlie Salter explains: 

The Festival of Marketing is aimed at providing a content rich, inclusive and fun environment for marketers to learn, debate and exchange ideas on what it takes to be the marketer of the future.

Nobody doubts that our profession, and the tools available to it, are going through a time of turbulent change and disruption often fuelled by digital and technology innovation. The role of the Festival of Marketing is to both celebrate that change as well as provide marketers with the skills, contacts and insights they'll need to navigate through it.

Festival events

JUMP

Our original multichannel marketing event, now in its fourth year, aimed at senior client-side marketers. 

Here's a taste of JUMP 2012, attended by more than 1,200 senior marketers. 

FUNNEL

Funnel is where sales meets marketing, an event aimed at the B2B community. 

Here are some highlights from last year's Funnel. 

PUNCH

This is where 'Marketing meets Creative in the age of data and insight'. Curated by Creative Review, this event showcases the best of insight-driven creative. 

CRUNCH

And here's where you'll find the insight behind the aforementioned creative, and this event takes place in the same building as Punch. 

Left brain meets right brain...

Digital Cream FX

This is an elite edition of our invitation-only event for senior client-side marketers, now in its eighth year. There'll be 20 roundtables with discussion centred around marketing and ecommerce. 

The Fringe

There will be Fringe events, all taking place within three tube stops of the main events, including Marketing Frenzy, a curated evening of music, comedy and dancing. 

The Modern Marketing Manifesto

The Festival is very much inspired by our Modern Marketing Manifesto, which we created to underline the changes in modern marketing, and to acknowledge the fact that digital marketing does not exist in isolation. 

Here's a summary of the 12 points: 

Strategy

Marketers should sit at the board table and help set strategy.

Brand

The internet has forced transparency upon brands and businesses.

Customer experience

Improving the customer experience must be the relentless focus of modern marketing.

Data

Data must be turned into insight and action to be a source of customer, competitive and marketing advantage.

Content

Content marketing represents a fundamental shift in marketing that is more than a fad.

Creative

We need creativity just as much as we need technology. 

Technology

Modern marketers must be comfortable and adept at procuring and using technology to their best advantage. 

Personalisation

Personalisation offers the greatest opportunity to transform what customers currently get.

Social

Social media is about changing our business culture, the ways we work and the ways we engage with our colleagues and customers

Commercial

Above all, modern marketers have to be commercial.

Integration

Marketers have to integrate channels

Character

Marketers need rare qualities to be accountable, ethical, agile, collaborative, innovative, brave and passionate. A tall order.

To find out more and sign up, check out our Festival of Marketing website...