Last week marked a very exciting milestone for SundaySky, as we hosted our first annual SmartVideo Summit. This was the inaugural assembly of SmartVideo first-movers and innovators from the areas of Digital Marketing and Customer Experience – a mix of executives from existing SmartVideo customers, those companies in planning stages, as well as partners.
The day focused on innovation, and the sharing of experiences with and ideas for solutions that span the customer lifecycle. We also shared a preview of SundaySky’s vision for the future of SmartVideo and are extremely encouraged by our guests’ response. More to come on that.
In the meantime, I’ll share my favorite anecdotes from the day….
- “The borders between performance and brand advertising are blurring.” A focus on being targeted with video ads, while also promoting brand value is key. SmartVideo ads are viewed as a path to ensuring accountable brand advertising, or said another way by a leading online retailer, “enabling a performance ad program to deliver the richest possible brand experience.”
- “New customer onboarding is not an event – it’s a journey.” During the new customer onboarding period, which can vary by industry to be the first 90 to 120 days, finding the right balance between education, cross-selling (or “cross-telling”), and simply leaving the customer alone is critical.
- “Clean up the mess and focus on the experience.” A satisfied customer is more loyal, has greater value and is less likely to churn, and so, in every engagement, customer satisfaction should come first… Bombing customers with too many messages that lack relevance limits customer marketing effectiveness. Consequently, more and more brands are embracing a focus on customer-centricity where the customer journey is being examined as whole rather than broken into isolated events. This is also impacting organizational structures where new executive positions are emerging to ensure a streamlined approach to customer engagement and prevent such “bombing.”
- “The sweetest word a person can hear is his or her first name.” The more personal the communication, the more effective it is.
- “Behavioral data is as important to driving compelling customer experiences as product/service usage data.” Brands are keen to leveragereal-time historical and situational data to drive relevant messaging opportunities at any given touch point. For example, a special offer may be relevant for a given customer segment at any given point in time, and therefore, could be presented to relevant customers whether that be in an onboarding video, a bill or statement video, or a rewards/loyalty oriented video.
