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From 4-6 October, Vogue Business partnered with Emarsys, the omnichannel customer engagement platform for marketers, to present the Power to the Marketer festival. The three-day event launched in New York, at the Condé Nast headquarters in One World Trade Centre and ending in London at Soho House on the Strand. Across the agenda, this phygital marketing extravaganza included more than 50 virtual and in-person sessions, with interviews and panel discussions involving a host of world class brands, including Glossier, Anthropologie, Saks Off 5th, Jimmy Choo, Longchamp and Pangaia.
Kicking off in New York, Emarsys CEO Joanna Milliken welcomed attendees with an opening speech highlighting the experiential role that brands such as Columbia, Innovasport and Disney Theatrical have cultivated with their customers through the power of marketing:
“Columbia doesn’t just sell backpacks and outdoor gear, it wants to inspire its customers to get out and explore the world. Innovasport doesn’t just sell sporting goods, it wants to create a more healthy life for its customers through physical activity. And Disney Theatrical doesn’t just put on plays. They create once-in-a-lifetime moments for families that inspire them and bring the love of theatre into their lives.”
She also touched on the challenge that marketers face, not only to deliver experiences that delight and inspire, but also create value for the company through revenue growth, share of wallet and customer lifetime value and loyalty. Despite the position of Emarsys as a tech leader in this space, Milliken concluded that technology should not rule over decision-making, but should live in the background, providing seamless support to marketers so that they can focus on customer needs and collaboration with stakeholders.
Following this, Milliken led a one-to-one chat with Linh Calhoun, CMO of Replacements Ltd, a retail service for matching vintage and modern tableware. Calhoun spoke about the value of emotion in customer relationships: “Our story started with connecting people with their most cherished memories,” she said. “Our vision is to inspire each generation out there today to celebrate, to gather and to entertain, because those are the things that really are meaningful — the time you spend with people.”
One of the key highlights from day one of the festival was the keynote interview with Kyle Leahy, the new CEO of Glossier. In conversation with Vogue Business contributing editor Kate Bassett, Leahy spoke about how Glossier has rapidly evolved from an idea anchored in beauty culture to a market leader in the cosmetics industry. Innovation and experimentation have helped the brand to get ahead: “We’re always experimenting with new platforms and continue to think about where the consumer is and an example of that is our partnership with YouTube this summer, where we were the first brand to do their shoppable shorts experimentation.”
Loyal customers are crucial to sustainable long-term business growth — data from Emarsys shows that they spend 67% more on products and services than new customers, and can provide up to 80% of overall revenue. Danielle Ríos (head of loyalty for Innovasport), Sara Griffin (senior VP marketing for Saks Off 5th) and Elizabeth Preis (CMO for Anthropologie) shared their most powerful tactics for keeping customers engaged and coming back for more. “We strive to be our customers’ favourite place; the place where they spend their time, get inspiration and make connections,” said Preis. “It starts with owning the customer’s heart — and then you can start owning more of their purchasing power.”
In a panel discussion on 'Gearing up for a new world of marketing', Rachel Goldflam of David Yurman, Allbirds chief brand officer Kate Ridley and Ranier Evans from Columbia Sportswear discussed how they’re using technology and interactive experiences to connect with customers in new and exciting ways. The New York event concluded with a talk by Mauro Porcini, chief design officer at PepsiCo, who shared his secrets on world-changing, human-centric innovation for modern brand leaders. “We must try to understand how to improve our products, brands, experiences and services to beat our future competitors before they even arrive,” he said. “There is only one way to do this: focus on people.”
On 5 October, the festival went virtual, with sessions including guests from brands like Beauty Pie and Happy Socks. Throughout the day, industry experts shared insights on what goes on behind-the-scenes and how they measure success. Chloe Pepper, senior email and CRM manager at beauty subscription business Beauty Pie, said: “Retention is as fundamental as acquisition and we’re really trying to champion that throughout the customer journey. We’re also now working more collaboratively across the business and putting in lots of different teams and expertise to elevate the exposure of retention.” Happy Socks senior CRM consultant Carl-Johan Claesson shared that personalisation is becoming a priority, but the business is taking a data-led approach: “We went on a journey to establish a marketing database foundation, to be able to make these data-led decisions, and also make it possible for us to establish different automations.”
On the final day of the Power to the Marketer festival, the celebration moved to London. Vogue Business head of advisory Anusha Couttigane hosted the day and was joined by speakers from Emarsys, TikTok and a host of luxury brands, start-ups and TV personalities.
Tom Bird, head of customer engagement at Emarsys, kicked off with a talk about constantly innovating in an increasingly complex world. He spoke about how behaviours are changing and how digital innovation means when shoppers consider a purchase by browsing online, marketers actually know they want to buy it, as opposed to analogue ways of shopping in the past when we did not have this visibility.
In the keynote interview, Eva Kruse, SVP of global engagement and impact at UK-based apparel brand Pangaia, passionately advocated for industry-wide change in the fashion sector when it comes to sustainability. She argued that consumers aren’t always prepared to act on what they claim and it’s up to brands to encourage this. She also spoke about the utility of fashion and the need for products to still be attractive, wearable and high-quality. She added that conditions for the industry during the pandemic had enabled Pangaia, a brand that launched only shortly before the spread of Covid-19, to develop a reputation through digital, high-quality communications that reassure the consumer with information, while offering upmarket casual designs that maximise comfort.
During the first panel discussion about finding new tribes, participants got real about the challenges that marginalised groups experience when marketing platforms are not designed to accommodate them. Maria O’Sullivan-Abeyratne, disability activist and founder of adaptive fashion brand Adaptista, spoke candidly about how advertising guidelines on social media platforms often inadvertently censor marketing for adaptive fashion, such as garments for shoppers who’ve undergone a mastectomy. Kristina Karassoulis, head of luxury brand partnerships at TikTok, spoke about how automating subtitles for videos has been game-changing for the people with hearing impairments, but said there is still room for improvement to make platforms more inclusive. Meanwhile, Gracie Irons, head of social and content at footwear label Kat Maconie, and fashion and TV personality Zeena Shah spoke about dopamine dressing; the value of being emotional, vulnerable and personal with storytelling on social platforms; and how aligning to values of female empowerment and embracing trends like the rainbow aesthetic can help to cultivate loyalty and transmit ideas across different categories.
To close the event, a stellar line-up of guests joined forces to talk about how marketers can combine showmanship, services and sustainability. The discussion included Dax Lovegrove, global director of sustainability for Jimmy Choo and Versace; Hector Cassegrain, UK and Ireland MD for Longchamp; Kresse Wesling, co-founder of Elvis & Kresse; and Rahul Titus, head of global Influence at Ogilvy. They discussed how experiences have helped to build trust with shoppers and inform them about sustainable developments in a more interactive way. Wesling, for example, shared that many customers start out with the belief that Elvis & Kresse products are expensive. Fashioned from reclaimed materials such as retired firehose and old coffee sacks, Elvis & Kresse has developed new techniques for crafting products using these textiles. By participating in immersive experiences such as product making workshops, shoppers come to understand the arduous processes it takes to convert waste fabrics into high-quality products and appreciate the work that goes into them, therefore transforming their view of the price point.
Meanwhile, Cassegrain spoke about how Longchamp is using recycled materials, with a pledge to use recycled nylon only for the Le Pliage range by the end of this year. It has already made significant progress, with its signature Le Pliage range offering an interactive experience that enables shoppers to customise every aspect of the design, which is made from 100% recycled textiles. The brand is looking at how it can improve leather recycling and already offers repair services across multiple regions.
Lovegrove shared examples of initiatives that Jimmy Choo and Versace have established to not only engage with environmental sustainability, but social sustainability too. Alongside collections such as Versace’s upcycled childrenswear range, it has launched initiatives including the Jimmy Choo Foundation, which works with organisations including Women for Women International and Care International to support women from disadvantaged backgrounds with entrepreneurial grants, and provide resources to victims of warfare and conflict, in the fight against poverty. Titus at Ogilvy says that these types of efforts all resonate strongly with consumers who need more and more reassurance from brands to make the right lifestyle choices when it comes to sustainability.
The festival was rounded off with networking drinks, and both virtual and in-person attendees can continue to enjoy content from all three days on demand.
Images by Heather Shuker and Indigo Photography.
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