Winning Hearts & Minds at the Intersection of Digital & Experiential Marketing - Kimberly Whinna Cottrell, Amazon Web Services

 | When marketers layer digital marketing strategies on top of experiential activations, magic happens. Hear how you can win the hearts and minds of your customers by expanding your marketing mix to bring the digital and physical worlds together. Topics covered will include social media marketing, influencer marketing, event marketing, content marketing, and more.

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Okay so to get started, as was mentioned, we're going to

(00:22):
talk about winning hearts andminds at the intersection of
experiential and contentmarketing. I have a big passion
for experiential marketing. I'vebeen in that space for 14 years
combining it with digital, I'mexcited to share some of my
findings with you all. So today,we're going to talk about the

(00:42):
power of combining these twodifferent channels, and three
really powerful combinationswithin the digital marketing
space, when combined withexperiential, and so we're going
to talk about social media. Andthen we're going to talk about
influencer partnerships. Andthen we're going to talk about
content marketing. And thenwe'll tie it all up with a bow

(01:05):
and talk about that recipe formarketing magic. So a little bit
about me. And as as wasmentioned, I'm Kimberly
Cottrell, I am currently SeniorMarketing Program Manager at
AWS. And I have the great honorof being global marketing for
our AWS skill centers, which arefree education, spaces and

(01:28):
cities around the world, forpeople who are curious about the
cloud and want to learn aboutcareers in the cloud, which is a
growing space with very positivefuture possibilities. So I lead
marketing for that program rightnow. Previously, I was at Cisco
for three years leading andmarketing for Cisco Live that

(01:51):
biggest customer conference thatCisco has, so hence why I'm so
into experiential marketing.
And, but my job was to actuallydo the digital marketing to get
people to go to the conference.
So I really played in bothspaces. And then I was at
Autodesk, which is an amazingcompany that makes design,
manufacturing constructionsoftware, I was there for 10

(02:12):
years. And I had the greatexperience of working on a
project called the AutodeskGallery, which is a free of
museum if you're ever in SanFrancisco, it's an amazing spot
to check out, it's free. And youcan learn about the future of
design and making and throughthe stories of Autodesk
customers. So that project iswhat made me fall in love with

(02:34):
experiential marketing. I joinedAutodesk to do that project in
2009. And so this was before theMuseum of ice cream and other
experiential types ofenvironments and immersive brand
plays. And so it was really funto think differently about
marketing and to create it intoan experience. And I saw
firsthand how powerful that wasfor our brand. Before that, I

(02:58):
started my career in the NewYork City art world, I studied
art history at NYU, typicalliberal arts undergrad, works in
the art galleries in New YorkCity, before going to business
school, so I have a lot ofcreativity that is kind of the
foundation of everything that Ido. So talking about the magic,

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so What's this magic I speak of?
As I mentioned, I see when youreally lean in to experiential
marketing, and then add digitalelements to it, you can really
unlock magic with yourcustomers. And by magic, I mean
personal connections and tappinginto their emotions. And really
allowing them to see themselvesin your brand in a different

(03:43):
way. And that forges a much morepowerful connection, leading to
advocacy and your reputation cansoar from there. So the magic of
emotional connection. There'smany studies out there about
emotional connection andmarketing. I'm sure most of us
have come across this HarvardBusiness Review study is one

(04:05):
that really speaks to me. Andthe key stat that pops out for
me is that fully connectedcustomers are 52% more valuable
on average than those who arejust highly satisfied. So if you
commit to taking your customerson that journey, you can unlock
tons of value. And this reallyspeaks to tapping into the

(04:29):
hearts and minds. And so that'skind of like a little jargony
right now to say that but it'sreally you know, your customers
or people really thinking aboutwhat do they need? What how can
you help them and how can youconvey how your product can help
them navigate challenges orpursue their ambitions. And many
companies, you know, are likedor they're trusted by their

(04:52):
customers, but many also fail tohave that connection like an
apple or a Disney And sosomething I love to think about
is just like what? What is itabout those brands that really
makes people connect at thatdeeper level. And so I put
together this framework of whatI see as that magic. And I've

(05:14):
had to develop those emotionalconnections. You start by
identifying the motivemotivational, the emotional
motivators. So really thinkingabout what your customers want
to feel, do they want to feellike they belong? Do they want
to feel healthy? Do they want tofeel a sense of thrill? And it's

(05:34):
great to meditate on thatquestion, and to really pour
through all of your customerdata and insights in order to
extract that and to get to knowyour customer on that deeper
level of emotional connection.
And so you could look at theirbehavioral data, what are they
doing? And what do you seethrough your data that you're

(05:56):
tracking. And one of myfavorites is surveys, I love to
read verbatims, like Cisco Live,I used to read all the
verbatims. And it really made meunderstand the voice of the
customer. Lead focus groups havean advisory board that you
pulled together quarterly, justyou know, making sure that you
have that connection back to thecustomer. So you can think in

(06:16):
their voice when you'redeveloping your campaigns. And
then you need to commit totaking the customers on that
journey from unconnected tobeing fully connected. And this
is referencing that HBr studythat I just mentioned. It is a
commitment. Um, you know, a lotof times we could just like slap
together some graphics and pushthem out through paid media. But

(06:38):
it's a commitment to you know,go deeper than that, and really
think about a very holisticmulti channel strategy that
involves experiences. And thenthat leads to the third point,
which is then once you'recommitted to taking them on that
journey, you design a marketingstrategy that taps into those
emotional motivators. And when Isay experiential, an important

(07:02):
point is that I mean, both inperson or virtual. So this is
kind of tapping into what weheard in the last talk around
the pandemic has shifted,everything in the events world,
events are truly in person andvirtual these days. So real
time, community activations,either through broadcasts and

(07:22):
chats, or in person is what Imean by experiential. And then
for digital social media,influencer and content marketing
are the three powerfulcombinations in particular that
I'm going to talk about todaywith experiential.
So let's dive into that firstmagical combination of

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experiential and social media.
At this point, social media hasbeen around for us to use as a
tool as marketers for a longtime, for most of us most of our
career. But it's still continuesto evolve to be relevant in new
and exciting ways. And so Iencourage everyone to kind of
just keep keep up with like thechanging tides and social media

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and ensure that you're takingadvantage of those evolutions.
So personalized brandsexpression is one of the key
values that I see in socialmedia in terms of the when a
customer is sharing on socialmedia, they are internalizing

(08:27):
your brand, making it their own,and then sharing out with their
customers or with their networksabout your brand. So it's really
priceless to get that sort ofadvocacy. And that kind of deep
internalization of your brandsin which they want to create
content to share on your behalf.

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And then your customer whenthey're when they're creating
social media content. They'realso joining a community. So
they're feeling like they'repart of a community around your
brand, by participating in thatonline conversation. And
obviously, brand amplificationis huge, you can reach customers
that you may not otherwise haveaccess to through the networks

(09:09):
of your existing customers. Sofor each of these channels, I'm
just going to share a few bestpractices that I've noticed
recently. So for creatingshareable experiences, and
really inspiring your customersto create social media content

(09:29):
that is powerful and taps intoemotional connection, I
recommend first really thinkingabout your visual the visual
environment that you'recreating. So when you create an
experience, either online or inperson, really think in all the
different dimensions and all theangles of how they'll experience
and see your brand. And makesure to think like a

(09:50):
photographer or videographerabout you know how how people
will be inspired to capture thatspace, and then give them
moments that excite and inspirethem to share. So, you know,
backdrops that are colorful andfun and just, you know, really
shouting at them to be shared.
And think about timeliness atthe same time around, like, what

(10:13):
can you tap into that is in theconversation across social media
that's relevant to your brandsand your experience that you're
creating. And then finally,motivate with contests and
challenges. This is, I feel likea little bit about underused
tactic within social media isreally getting people to engage
in a conversation through somesort of challenge, giving them a

(10:34):
reward, it can be even somethingsmall, but that really taps into
again, that emotional,competitive spirit of human
nature. And then is also a greatway to plug your hashtag to, you
know, make it be part of theoverall conversation by having
the hashtag be a requirement forparticipating in that contest.
The second channel we're goingto talk about is influencers. So

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as opposed to social media,which is kind of table stakes
influencers is this new areathat's growing, super hot topic
and exciting, and marketing. AndI don't think it's all fluff.
Like, I think it's really anexciting and powerful way to
connect with your customers innew, an incredible ways you can
again, reach new people thatwould not otherwise open their

(11:21):
ears or eyes to your brands, byfinding the right influencers to
represent your brand. And youcan have them speak directly to
their target audience in a voicein which it permeates the target
audiences, you know, mindshare,so everything going out in the
world, that you actually willpay attention to what this
person is saying. And it canbuild trust. There's a great

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stat about I think it's 92% ofcustomers, and trust,
influencer, advocating on behalfof a brand versus a
advertisement, becauseeveryone's a little jaded about
advertisements. So a few bestpractices for influencer

(12:04):
partnerships. Start with makingsure you get the authentic
partnership, you get that inplace first. And, you know, that
seems obvious, but it's reallyall about picking the right
person. And nowadays, a lot oftimes an agency will help you
with that, that specializes andinfluencers will bring to you a

(12:25):
collection of people based onyour goals, and then you you
know, really look at theircontent and see if it, you know,
speaks to what you're trying toconvey, and to whom you're
trying to convey that messageto. And then equip them with a
brief to clarify expectations.
Again, this is like influencersare not that like out in the

(12:47):
wild type of channel anymore.
It's really becoming you'reworking with agency, you create
a brief like these are kind oflike how we do other campaigns.
But it's important part of theprocess, in my experience is to
have that brief, where you'reforced to say, this is what I'd
like the content to look like.
And then you get that feedbackfrom the influencer about, you
know, how they perceive thisopportunity. And then you can

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iterate from there. And thatspeaks to the third point, which
is really it's about building arelationship with that
influencer. It's not justtransactional, you know, the
more you can actually get thatinfluencer, to truly love and
have a great experience withyour brand, the more they're
going to authentically representit to their followers and catch

(13:32):
attention and engagement. Soembrace their creativities. In
my experience, when we've workedwith influencers, you know, some
people have been shockedinternally on the business side,
you know, the contents kind ofraw, and it's not as polished as
the content that we wouldcreate. But that content can be
the most engaging with theaudience. So really embracing

(13:54):
creativity, thinking differentlyabout how your brands might show
up in the world, through thelens of this influencer. And
then, magical combination.
Number three is experiential andcontent. And again, content
marketing, huge part of theoverall marketing mix. I'm going
to speak to specifically whenyou're talking about events and

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experiences, content marketingis a little bit different. You
think of it in a lifecycle ofbefore the events during the
events and after the event. Andso before the events, you know,
really you want to build thatbuzz and excitement. You know,
tapping into influencers can bea great way to help with that
and your campaign before theevents. Really, you know, again,

(14:38):
thinking about the emotions ofyour customers, so what do they
want to feel and by attendingyour event and how can you
convey that to them throughdifferent channels and create
that sense of, you know, fear ofmissing out because they won't
get to serve that need that youcan provide? I bet at that
event. And secondarily, duringthe event, you know, this is

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your opportunity to amplify andscale your reach tremendously.
You know, events are hugeinvestments for marketing
organizations in terms of moneyto have the physical gathering,
you can get so much more fromyour investment if you have on
site broadcasts and influencersroaming around capturing
contents, that you can sharelive and or after the events. So

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I like to think of events askind of like a film set or a
photo shoot set, where wecapture tons of great fresh
content that we can use in ourcampaigns after that. And then,
after the events, you have theopportunity to build community,
and nurture those relationships.

(15:51):
What I see as you know, whateveryone has appetite for after
the events, like number one ison demand content, so serving up
the on demand content, so theycan watch what they missed while
they were at the event, or maybewatch something again, that was
really inspiring to them. That'sa great way to keep them engaged
right after the event. And thenyou can funnel them through the

(16:12):
different channels based ontheir behavior at the event that
you think will most benefitthem. So for example, if someone
engages with training andcertification and an event, you
can funnel them into thatpathway of more learning and
certification and growthprofessionally, through that
content funnel after the event.

(16:36):
And then, in terms of how tomake lovable content,
personalization is key. Again,this is something I think we all
know, but it's good to reiterateto oneself when you're creating
your content, really creatingdifferent pieces of content for
different target audiences, notcreating just one set of assets
that are served to everyone, andwill make your campaigns perform

(16:59):
much better. And my experience,video is huge. We all know that
it's also expensive sometimes toinvest in creating those video
assets. But you'll be fallingbehind in my perspective, if you
are not creating a lot of greatcompelling short video to be
part of your campaigns beforeduring after an event. And then

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interactive content is somethingthat I think has a big
opportunity to continue to growin terms of quizzes, so serving
up a quiz to your audience aboutyou know, maybe a career path,
you know, helping them navigatetheir career path, if that's
like your category, and askingthem their favorite things and
then serving up to them someideas about different career

(17:41):
paths. So again, really thinkinteractively about how you can
help your customer with whatyour category has to offer.
Alright, so back to the magic.
As marketers, we're often askedto pull a rabbit out of a hat.
And I love being in a roomful ofmarketers, because I feel like

(18:02):
we can all like feel this butyou know, stretching to fill
some gaps sometimes drive thedemand the customer engagement,
the sales, and win the heartsand minds of customers all by
ourselves. And so it helps tohave some tricks in your pocket.
So I'm really hopeful that this,some of what I started today
will will help some of you withsome of those challenges that we

(18:25):
have as marketers. So I'm gonnarecap here the recipe for
marketing, magic, identify thoseemotional motivators, and really
think about what your customerswant to feel. And then commit to
taking them on that journey. Andnot just, you know, kind of
throwing content out in thewild, but really intentionally
thinking about their emotionalmotivators and how you can

(18:48):
create a multi channel approachto serve those needs. And then
making that strategy truly multichannel, consider experiential
and digital elements, combiningthem, and then unlocking the
magic of bringing that togetherto tap into those emotions.
Thank you all for being herewith me today. I would love to

(19:15):
connect with others on LinkedInif you would like to shoot me a
connection. And I'm reallyhonored to be here today and to
get to spend the day with abunch of marketers super fun and
happy to take questions if thereare any. Any questions for
Kimberly? We got a questionright over there.

(19:46):
Thanks for sharing yourinsights. Quick question is, you
know, not all brands are AWS,right. So from your experience,
if you can share, let's saythree more motivators for teams
that can accomplish some sort ofscale, right? In terms of

(20:06):
building a community oraudience.
Three motivators. Yeah. Soagain, I mean, it varies by
brand. So I think you have tostart with what you have to
offer. So let's do an example ofDisney, for example, you know,
Disneyland. So the motivators ofthe customers of Disneyland,

(20:29):
they want family time, they wantfun, they want to create
memories, and then tapping intothose motivators when you create
the experience. Again, Disney isexperts at this. So, you know,
they tap into making thatexperience, fulfill those
motivators. And then theirmarketing speaks to those
motivators as well around, spendthe day with your family. You

(20:53):
know, make memories, cetera, etcetera. Does that answer the
question? Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
Other questions? Oh, right nextdoor.
Hi. My name is Simone says agreat presentation you just did.
I just wondered if you had anyinsight for user generated

(21:15):
content instead of influencer?
And if you're seeing anydifferences there. Because
obviously, being an influencer,you have a your own community
and your own audience. As a useruser generated content, you're
getting that from just, youknow, you're not really having
the audience behind it. I don'tknow if you see any difference
with that?

(21:35):
Yeah. Yeah. And that's a greatquestion. I mean, there's the
influencers. And then there'severyone else. And you still
want everyone else to be sharingtoo, because they all have their
pockets of networks of friendsand family that you can get
access to when that happens atscale. And so I think in those
cases, it's about having likesocial media activations at your

(21:56):
events, that just happened tothe attendees so that they can
share their experience andbroadcast it out to others. And
that could be an interactive,you know, Wall in which they're
kind of voting on something orputting their ideas and it's
visually beautiful. So they wantto take a picture. So yeah, I
think there's huge value in usergenerated content. And I also

(22:18):
think that there's aproliferation of more and more
influencers these days ofeveryday people who are just
user generated content folksbecoming influencers. So you
never know, like, if you might,you know, tap the right person
that creates that content thatyou know, does blow up. So yeah,

(22:38):
I think it's, it's superpowerful. And it's like only
growing in my perspective. Sodefinitely, the social media
activations for the generalattendee are are important to
take in. Other questions? Righthere in the middle? Oh, there's
one over there to skip that onefirst.

(23:01):
Hello, I'm Haley. Um, I run intothis issue with clients and
dealing with influencers a lot,and then relinquishing a lot of
the control of that polishedvideo look, do you feel like
when you're writing your contentbriefs, that are more broad,

(23:22):
brief, giving the influencersmore ability to be creative with
the content is better, or almostproviding them with a script of
sorts? I have a lot of clientsthat asked me Can we just give
them a script? And say the spec?
I feel like it's not yettech? So I feel Yes, that's such
a good question. Because that'ssomething I've seen as a

(23:42):
struggle, in my experience aswell. And I would suggest not
giving a script but giving likewhat do you want, again, the
emotional motivators, what doyou want their followers to feel
after CMS, you want them to feelinspired and motivated to learn
more? And then let theinfluencer figure out how to
create the content that suitsthat and yeah, when I see

(24:04):
scripted content and tick tockand such like it doesn't, from
my experience engaged as wellwith the followers because they
can immediately tell it's kindof an ad, and then scroll past
it. And so from my experiencewith influencers, the content
that is best is like raw andsomething that you know, might
even make the business like alittle bit uncomfortable because

(24:25):
it's just not like polished buttheir followers, find it
authentic and therefore open toreceiving the message. And
that's ultimately like what youwant to get out of that
investment. So it's definitelyhard I think it's like something
that marketers like we have tobreak and then like convinced
the business that this is theway that that channel operates
most successfully, but yeah,it's a challenge right now.

(24:48):
Another question in the middlehere it right in the middle
I have Michael, thank you forsharing your knowledge. So I

(25:10):
work in the b2b space. And fromwhat I understand is AWS b2b as
well. Yeah. So, um, becauseactually, my, my roommate, he
works in it, I remember he wasreally busy one week saying
they're migrating to AWS. So,um, I'm just curious, you know,
what are some examples, youknow, ways you can utilize these
for, you know, b2b space when,you know, doing tick tock and

(25:34):
influencers isn't really how wereach our customers, when
they're, you know, we're lookingfor people that have a certain
job title. So is there anyexamples you've used? And in the
past for AWS?
Yeah, absolutely. And actually,my whole career in Tech has been
b2b. So Autodesk, Cisco, and AWSare all b2b. And so that b2b has

(25:55):
a special place in my heart. Andit's like where I operate. And I
think that that is where you candifferentiate the most by
clever, being clever withexperiences. And so at AWS, as I
mentioned, I lead globalmarketing for that need to be a
skill center, so their physicallocations where we offer free
training for people who areinterested in cloud careers. So

(26:16):
those are like future customersand future people who will serve
the need of the overall industryin terms of filling the cloud
skills gap that exists out inthe world. And so it's really
about when you think about b2b,the the experiential, digital
campaigns that you create, haveto serve an audience, it's

(26:38):
important to your business. Andso for us, that's the new cloud
and getting people into thatfunnel, in terms of that career,
filling that career gap. Andthen at Cisco, it was my
experience was on Cisco Live,which is the big customer
conference. So when it's inperson, it's like 20 to 30,000

(27:00):
people coming together for aweek. And it's the most high
touch experience that brands haswith all the customers and it's
super memorable and important toYeah, be really intentional
about that experience. And wewould have social media
challenges. A lot of people whoare in b2b are influencers
within their own b2b space. Andso you know, others like it

(27:24):
influencers, etc, that we wouldengage with at the conference to
you know, have social mediaamplification. So that was a
huge part. That is a huge partof Cisco Live, and I do see in
b2b, a great opportunity forexperiential and digital. Yeah.

(27:45):
All right, Kimberly, thank youso much.