Web Summit 2019: Musings from the front of a pilot-project-D-Wave-Quantum-Computer-traffic-optimised Lisbon bus

You may have opened this article to read further into the Volkswagen pilot project, Quantum shuttle, that was driving #Websummit attendees to and from the Altice Arena and Lisbon city centre.

I’m afraid this is more about the conversations I stumbled upon whilst using this traffic efficient service. Public transport is great for many things, it’s cost-effective, good for the environment and it is also the perfect place to hear something new.

On this journey, as I enjoyed the opportunity to rest my feet that had been working overtime since the conference had started, a group behind me were reflecting on the speaker sessions they had attended that day. Most of which were from the Startup pitch stage.

If you’ve not heard of Web Summit, in a nutshell it’s a four-day conference that brings together key global players in the tech industry. Over 2000 speakers and 70,000 attendees from over 160 countries gather to listen and discuss the tech trends and discoveries of the future. It is also the perfect place for startups to find themselves amongst a plethora of investors. Every year Web Summit welcomes more and more entrepreneurs and invites them to take the stage and explain to the masses the solution they believe the world is missing.

The group behind me were analysing the varied pitch ideas they had sat through that day and one gentleman poignantly pointed out that this wasn’t just an exciting opportunity to hear from passionate people sharing their passion projects, but that we could have unknowingly witnessed the next Facebook, the new gen of Uber, the beginnings of a platform that could perhaps takeover Amazon?

This time next year, some of these startups may have disappeared, some stats say that nearly 90% of new businesses don’t survive the first two years. Hopefully, most of them will grow, scale to become bigger and better or evolve and find their way into the market.

I thought this was a great reminder that watching a company at the start of their journey is a real privilege, as we really don’t know what the future holds for them.

It was also a wake-up call that this ‘startup culture’ has over the last few years very much crept into marketing, as we are constantly challenged to produce the ‘next big campaign.’ As marketers, innovating outside the box isn’t enough – we need to re-shape it, smash it up completely, we need to question if the box even existed.

PandaConf – the marketing track at Web Summit – is the largest track of the conference, highlighting just how important messaging has become for businesses. We all know and appreciate that we are overloaded with advertising noise every second of every day.

Sitting through several talks from the likes of BlackRock CMO Frank Cooper, Giphy Founder Alex Chung and Automobili Lambhorgini CMO Katia Bassi, to name a few, the message this year was very much a reaffirmation of what most of us probably knew. With so much digital content bombarding our many, many screens, it’s important we find a way to establish our human connection.

Knowing the importance of this strategy is one thing, executing it is entirely another and I watched intently as speakers walked us through, case by case, the steps needed to go from surviving to thriving.

After days of talks and speaking with fellow marketers, I analysed my notes and scribbles and picked out my top three highlights. Sure enough, I’ve found myself back at my original discovery. It’s clear the essence of what we must do in marketing really does stem right back to startup culture:

1.      What is your purpose

What is your fundamental reason for existing in this world?

2.      Know your audience

What do they need and how do you tell the stories that matter to them?

3.      Work on building partnerships

Break down those silos, find ways to work with teams inside and outside of your company. We work best when we help each other grow.

Three simple points, nothing ground breaking, but it's worth looking out and seeing how many ads these days actually abide by these rules? I’m convinced that adopting a lean startup model using the points above to create marketing campaigns, could be the 2020 key to innovation.

What do you think? Is it really this simple?

Any tips for marketers as we head into 2020?