Last week, quite a few AMPers attended MITX's Future M, a conference that brings together marketing and technology innovators to contemplate and celebrate the future of Marketing. See below for a few highlights from the conference and AMPers' thoughts. Session: Are You Kidding Me?! Speaker: Victor Lee, VP Digital Marketing, Hasbro Favorite Quote: 'I'll be interested if you'll be interesting.'? ' From Victor Lee's presentation Takeaway: I thought this bit of insight was a great reminder to not get stuck in 'data land.'? Data is an invaluable resource for marketers, and it's great for measuring success and recognizing trends, but often times we get so buried in data that we lose site of the story that the information is telling us. It's important to remember to take a step back and really bring the data to life. At the end of the day, numbers are just numbers unless you use them to tell a story. Session: Find Your Golden Thread Speaker: Jim Speros, EVP, Fidelity Communications and Advertising Highlight: I drew a ton of inspiration cultivated from case studies presented. The standout cases were Dove, Coca Cola and Fidelity. These cases are successful because they leverage consumer insight and human emotion to connect with the target audience. Takeaways: Brands are becoming more and more integrated, and those who aren't will fall by the wayside. It's vital to keep one driving point to a brand or campaign message ' one point will always drive home the hardest and be the most effective. Dove Real Beauty Sketches Coca-Cola Happiness Without Borders Fidelity Saving For Skydiving Session: Building to Learn with Art, Copy, & Code Speaker: Aman Govil, Head of Advertising Arts Team at Google Highlight: As described through Google's project 'Art, Copy, & Code,'? we're in the midst of a 2nd creative revolution, driven by technology. Code is being added to the core creative process, enabling new forms of brand expression and engagement. Takeaway: Art, copy and code is the creative team for the connected world. Session: Mobile + Consumer Loyalty Insights from JetBlue Airways Speaker: Jonathan Stephen, Head of Mobile and Emerging Tech at JetBlue Highlights: Mobile is, of course, everywhere and travelers are looking for simple on-the-go solutions. Given this insight, JetBlue conducted a digital rebrand - making a mobile app and redesigning the desktop experience to match the app. The app knows where you are in your travel cycle, so every time you open it, it gives you the info you are looking for without clicking anything (i.e. when you go through security then open the app, it will tell you what your gate is and if your flight is on time. When you land, it will tell you baggage claim information. Just by creating an app option, JetBlue loyalty program sign ups increased by 10%. They created a similar system for their pilots and crew. The mobile app for the crew is hosted on iPad that each crew member/pilot has on board. For pilots, the app holds all flight manifests, maps, etc. For crew members, the app will take orders and the usual things. The coolest thing about it is that it shows where people are seated and can highlight things about them (i.e. Steve is in seat 5A and has traveled with JetBlue 100 times. He only orders Ginger Ale). This functionality enables crew members to deliver top rated customer service. Takeaway: The key takeaway for me was that before implementing ANY new feature on mobile or elsewhere, brands need to poll their customers (Facebook/in app/surveys/everywhere they can) to find out exactly what their user needs in order to create the best experience. To read more about the conference, visit http://blog.mitx.org/

On Monday, December 27th, the East Coast was paralyzed by the after effects of the 'Blizzard of 2010'?. Power was out, roads weren't paved and airline travel was at a standstill. Everyone was scrambling to rearrange their schedules in order to get home or back to work from Christmas. A family member who works in the travel industry was trying all day to reach JetBlue to help with a client's cancelled flight. The phone lines were so overloaded that even calling the 1-800 number, he wasn't allowed to be placed on hold. He decided to place a 'Help!'? message on the JetBlue Facebook wall, along with his number, just to see what would happen. To his surprise, he received a call from a JetBlue employee in response to his post. He was able to rebook his client and make someone's holiday season a little brighter. Not long ago, I was having issues with my Hotmail account. For those of you who have also experienced issues with Hotmail, you know that it is not easy to find a customer service phone number anywhere on the MSN site. After being put through the voicemail system for about 20 minutes without the benefit of speaking with a live person, I decided to follow Windows Live on Twitter and sent a direct tweet with a very high level (140 characters) overview of my issue. It may have taken them some time to respond, but I did hear back with instructions on how to access my account. As frustrated as I had been, I was relieved to know that I had been heard. Is this the future of social media? Today, most companies have a Facebook page and/or a Twitter account in conjunction with their corporate website. Facebook and Twitter allow brands to have a more real-time, one-to-one conversation with their customers. With the increasing demand for answers, companies are going to need to ensure that they have the proper staff in place in order to respond to a consumer's question, complaint, issue, etc. in a timely fashion. If not, the negative response by consumers will spread rapidly on the social networks. I'm interested to see how brands continue to evolve their social media platforms into customer service vehicles in 2011. I know from past experience, it is now the first place I'll go to get answers.

On Monday, December 27th, the East Coast was paralyzed by the after effects of the 'Blizzard of 2010'?. Power was out, roads weren't paved and airline travel was at a standstill. Everyone was scrambling to rearrange their schedules in order to get home or back to work from Christmas. A family member who works in the travel industry was trying all day to reach JetBlue to help with a client's cancelled flight. The phone lines were so overloaded that even calling the 1-800 number, he wasn't allowed to be placed on hold. He decided to place a 'Help!'? message on the JetBlue Facebook wall, along with his number, just to see what would happen. To his surprise, he received a call from a JetBlue employee in response to his post. He was able to rebook his client and make someone's holiday season a little brighter. Not long ago, I was having issues with my Hotmail account. For those of you who have also experienced issues with Hotmail, you know that it is not easy to find a customer service phone number anywhere on the MSN site. After being put through the voicemail system for about 20 minutes without the benefit of speaking with a live person, I decided to follow Windows Live on Twitter and sent a direct tweet with a very high level (140 characters) overview of my issue. It may have taken them some time to respond, but I did hear back with instructions on how to access my account. As frustrated as I had been, I was relieved to know that I had been heard. Is this the future of social media? Today, most companies have a Facebook page and/or a Twitter account in conjunction with their corporate website. Facebook and Twitter allow brands to have a more real-time, one-to-one conversation with their customers. With the increasing demand for answers, companies are going to need to ensure that they have the proper staff in place in order to respond to a consumer's question, complaint, issue, etc. in a timely fashion. If not, the negative response by consumers will spread rapidly on the social networks. I'm interested to see how brands continue to evolve their social media platforms into customer service vehicles in 2011. I know from past experience, it is now the first place I'll go to get answers.