We recently had the pleasure of attending Nestlé Purina’s Digital Summit, a day long conference held at the Four Seasons in downtown St. Louis, where we were joined by Purina’s top digital marketing associates and several other agencies from throughout the U.S. This was our third consecutive year attending the summit, and as usual, the day did not disappoint.

The theme this year was ‘Digital Jungle‘ and it was filled with speakers of various ages and backgrounds, all offering inspiring insights in to digital content marketing strategies and how to leverage them for business success.

Speaker Lineup:

• Pete Blackshaw – Global Head of Digital Marketing & Social Media at Nestle
• Michael Crawford – Vice President of Digital Marketing at Nestle Purina
• Stephanie Horbaczewski – President & CEO of StyleHaul
• Matt Meeker – Co-Founder & CEO of BarkBox & Co
• Bert DuMars – VP, Principal Analyst at Forrester
• Jay Baer – President of Convince & Covert and author of ‘Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype‘
• Alex Moazad – President and CEO of Applico
• Frank Rose – Digital Anthropologist
• Tom Webster – Vice President of Strategy at Edison Research

Digital Content Marketing Key Learnings

We wanted to share some inspiring key takeaways from the event that can be applied towards content strategies for brands in any industry.

• Social networks are built on sharing value, not advertising.
• The difference between helping and selling is two letters.
• If you teach better, you’ll sell better.
• 90% of our internet time is spent in only 15 different places – we keep visiting the same websites and apps. – Jeffery Cole
• Good content is the only thing that matters – ‘Content is King-er’.
• Our professional and personal lives have merged.  Your competition is everything/everyone.  You need to be more interesting than my friends.
• Take advantage of the video realm to engage your audience. 80% of people consume video and only 20% are making it. – Stephanie Horbaczewski
• Great companies are are innovative and developing all the time. To come up with anything original, you have to be prepared to be wrong (just be wrong quickly) – Matt Meeker
• We are in an age where customers can read reviews and watch videos about us to find out anything. This means we have to be much more authentic, real, and engaging. – Bert DuMars
• ‘Youtility is marketing so useful, people would pay for it’ – Jay Baer
• We are surrounded by data, but starved for insights. Be the definitive source of information, not just ‘a’ source of information.
• When is an ad not an ad?  When it tells a story.
• Whisper, don’t shout.  Everyone wants to know what’s being whispered.  Everyone wants the one shouting to leave.
• Real-time relevancy is key in social media. You can’t schedule greatness. – Jay Baer
• Understanding your audience is crucial. Find out why people do or do not buy your brand, values, beliefs, core motivations, and attitudes. – Tom Webster
• Hire people that are different and better than you.

Be human. Real-time relevancy. Be a thought leader. Curate content. Be the definitive source. Youtility is a process, not a project. Whisper, Don’t Shout. Tell a Story.