SCREEN SMART: HOW BRANDS CAN THRIVE IN A MORE-DIGITAL WORLD

“After” -- it’s a small word, but it carries hope. Especially with the passing of the first anniversary of the pandemic and the arrival of spring, our minds turn to the end of the tunnel and what comes after. For businesspeople, that means questions like: What will be here to stay after we come out of the pandemic? What if the shift to digital is sustained? What is the digital experience, and how can we make it better?

These questions were tackled by some of the top executives in the brands community at “Breakfast with Brand Leaders,” a recent virtual event hosted by Glynn Capital. Attendees joined from Adobe, American Airlines, Autodesk, Benefit Cosmetics, Discord, FTD, Intel, Kohl’s, Live Nation Entertainment, OpenTable, Spanx, Univision, and others.

Three themed breakout rooms allowed for a lively and wide-ranging conversation. Breakouts were run by Joseph Ansanelli, CEO at Gladly and Partner at Greylock; Tasha Reasor, VP of Marketing at Iterable; and Scott Voigt, founder and CEO at FullStory.

"Digital is an opportunity for new customer acquisition"

Digital Experiences That Drive Revenue

The question posed: What if the shift to digital is sustained?

Learnings:

1. Digital is an opportunity for new customer acquisition.
2. People are more forgiving post-Covid. They are looking for an experience that is “authentic” rather than “polished.”
3. Let’s call it an “efficiency mindset.” A thematic shift from “growth at any cost” to “efficiency” (which means you can still grow).
4. Treating your customers like your friends has a big impact.

Level Up Your Digital Experience

The question posed: What is the digital experience and how can we make it better?

Learnings:

1. When it comes to the digital experience, winning lots of little battles pays off (checkout, user experience, etc.).
2. The customer is always giving you feedback, but how do we measure it? Voice of customer forms is the mechanism by which we measure digital experience -- however, one in 100, at best, submit those forms. So there are probably lackluster experiences happening that we don’t know how to assess and quantify to make those better.
3. Make customer empathy a value instead of just hitting KPIs (key performance indicators). The Full Story engineers designed a soundboard called bwamp.me -- an example of how, even though we’re virtual, we can improve the digital experience.
4. Looking into the near future (within three years) of the digital experience, imagine a very ambitious view of virtual reality. Teleportation might be a reality sooner than you think.

Personalization to Conversation 

The question posed: What will be here to stay after we come out of the pandemic?

Learnings:

1. The digital world is now very compelling and very connected. (A fact that many of us know, and that anyone with a middle-schooler knows 1000%.) But take that to the next conclusion:

"The bar to get people to leave their devices is much higher today."

2. Focus on the human element that not only your customers want, but also that your employees are craving.

3. When examining the future of work and the role that the office plays vs. in-person... Realize that the world we lived in, in 2020, was not one of “remote work.” It was instead one of “lockdown work,” which is very different from what remote work would be.

4. The appeal of certain approaches changes over time. Take curbside delivery, which originally offered the appeal of safety; it now offers the appeal of convenience. How well you do on curbside affects your customers’ loyalty.

5. Gen Z, a generation that grew up in a digital world, has a huge combined buying power of $140 billion. We must stay focused and innovative on what they expect.  

6. It’s important to use our voices to make the world a better place. It’s a delicate challenge to take a stance as the CXO of a company, but there are issues in these times that we must face, and we can take advantage of “being connected more than we have ever been connected” to get educated and learn about each others’ points of view. We can then do good as a business and make an impact at the same time.

Many businesses were thrust into digital by the pandemic, and felt less-than-prepared for the shift. However, a combination of smart leadership and listening to customers (or maybe that’s the definition of smart leadership in the first place!) has led to rich and absorbing digital experiences. As a result, the digital experience is no longer a stopgap. It’s not a sugar substitute; it’s sugar. The brands that lead digital will stay out front by being efficient on details, innovative on big goals, empathetic, and warmly human.