“Never appoint anyone as Chief Innovation Officer. It’s terrible. Innovation is everyone’s responsibility.”

These were the words spoken by Coca Cola’s VP of Marketing Europe, Javier Sanchez Lamelas, at the 2014 London Festival of Marketing. He quite accurately said that too many brands rely on one person to drive innovation, when in reality the brands that adopt a shared approach towards innovation are the brands that are already succeeding in the future.

Over two jam-packed days at Tabacco Dock, many powerful ideas, concepts and visions like that of Coca Cola were shared by some of the best and brightest of the industry. And as the polished brand managers and edgy creatives nursed a sore head from two days of marketing insight overload (& perhaps a few too many wrap party drinks) we found ourselves looking back at five key speakers in particular.

Professor Green
We were surprised from the very outset to see Professor Green featured as a guest speaker, but what an absolute stand out he was. Tasked with covering the topic of maintaining credibility and authenticity in a highly commercial world, Stephen spoke from a very real place.

Artists (the good ones) are very selective in their brand partnerships these days and the age of being considered a “sell out” has just about gone. For Stephen, partnerships with brands such as Puma allow him to maintain his creative freedom and naturally fit the brand into his lifestyle.

As artists start to favour the respect, freedom and money that brands can offer, record labels run the risk of losing relevance and power in the future.

Coca Cola
Coca Cola’s VP Javier covered global marketing execution, which for him was about breaking a number of paradigms. Before he challenged the perceptions of innovation and responsibility, and quite accurately declared the role we all have in driving this for our brands, he started first with reminding us about where brands belong – the heart.

Emotional connections have been the basis of every campaign success for the company, seen best in the ‘share a coke’ concept that saw people all over the world sharing an experience, rather than simply a drink.

The Government Digital Service
Creative Director at The Government Digital Service, Russel Davies, was yet another surprise highlight. We didn’t expect him to be one of our top five but his dry humour had us in stitches as he delivered a number of solid truths. Number one focus for Gov.UK (& a number of complex brands should take heed) is that before you can be innovative you must first fix the basics. An amazing brand with a beautiful website can still result in a poor customer experience if the user journey is challenging.

Users are becoming more powerful and they need to be considered first and foremost with simplicity. Refine content so that whatever they’re seeking, they can find it within seconds.

Adobe
Adobe’s Solutions Consultant (or Social Media guru as we’d have called her), Meghan Falter, hit us with five predictions for social in 2015. The talk attracted a big crowd and Meghan delivered the following predictions.

1. Openness is leaving the building
– consumers are moving towards anonymous sharing platforms

2. More complexity will increase focus on core social networks for brands

3. Capturing brand conversation will become more visual
– Platforms such as Snapchat and Pinterest are seeing the rise of people sharing brand images rather than brand names, which will see an even greater emergence of visual tracking methods.

4. Users replace algorithms
– Users will control when and where they open and engage with brand content.

5. Fewer free lunches for brands on social
Interesting to note that the very next day after Meghan’s presentation, prediction number five crept even closer to reality with Facebook announcing that in January they will begin cutting the organic reach of any brand page posts that it deems “overly promotional”.

Selfridges
Head of Marketing for Selfridges, Claire Higgins, covered maintaining customer experience in the physical world and bringing digital to life. Here Claire showcased how the business has championed Beauty with key industry personalities and delivered it in digital environments such as Google+ hangouts.

Claire then explored how digital has become part of their physical experience through elements such as in-store augmented reality, featured in their January concept store that allowed customers to see watches appear on their wrists. Selfridges is now looking to bridge the gap between online and in-store personalities and customer journey into the future.

Today is a great day for new business
Today is a great day for new business