Why excellent companies matter: our key learnings from OMR

They declare in German – die Musik spielt in Hamburg – The music plays in Hamburg, meaning Hamburg is where the action is. The recent place to be, a hotspot of activity.
OMR celebration took place Mid May and attracted not only 70 000 professional visitors and marketeers, brand managers, media buyers, journalists, influencers; literally everyone who mattered was there. So was every large trade player, from Google to TikTok and Twitch, from Telekom to Vodafone, from Douglas to L’Oreal.. The motto of this year’ celebration, the first knock off after two years of absence, seemed to be BANG! Everything was bigger, louder, bolder.

Online marketeers, weary of online meetings and zoom calls, opted for face-to-face conversations, which are the ultimate way to reconnect and discuss topics that matter, now and in the upcoming. These are the lessons we took away from two days filled with meetings, master classes, appearances by celebrities, and DJ sets.

narrative matters. More than ever.

You can run the sexiest campaign on earth, but if the user/customer does not recall the brand, who cares? The question remains: what is your core communication, what are you as a corporation/product/services standing for?
receive Alisa Jahnke, founder of the jewellery and lifestyle brand PURELEI, claiming to have brought the aloha vibe to Germany. She gathered encouragement during her semester abroad in Hawaii. She shared how she built a million-dollar corporation using targeted influencers, weekly collection launch campaigns, and partnerships. We declare every great business begins with a great narrative.

Influencers over? Long live influencers.

Rezo, agent provocateur of YouTube, has already attracted a lot of attention with his “destruction videos” (including the CDU and the German media landscape). On the Red Stage he spoke about influencer marketing and gave insights into the industry: “Manipulation on social media is incredibly cheap, many do it and achieve”.
Manipulation is exactly what TikTok authority Jay (“CEO of Smartphones” as he calls himself) avoids at all costs; he knows perfectly well how his business works. “My foundation is my throng, if they would not depend me, I am over”. That is the rationale why Jay’s marketing campaigns are authentic and daring, without being bombarded with so many blah blah marketing techniques. He even refuses to apply CTA in his videos, but his 600K followers and 42 Mio. views on TikTok prove: real influencers remain authentic and truthful, and would like to have control over their stories, too.

YouTube – brand safety and stricter control

Pedro Pina, YouTube head of Europe, had impressive figures to distribute: 49 million grown-up Germans visit the platform every month and watch 40 minutes of YouTube videos every day.
“Viewers are opting for exciting, informative, creator-made content – from the tiny screen to the living room,” said Pedro Pina in his showcase.

recent content is also continuously created. In short, YouTube enables you to reach your target throng in every circumstance, in every format, and on every device, precisely because people consume a wide variety of content on it.
According to Pedro Pina, YouTube, because it’s driven by so many creators, provides brands with a secure surroundings. This has been accomplished through the use of machine learning technology and by utilizing thousands of human content reviewers. Advertisers also have control over what topics they desire to be associated with on YouTube.

recent ways of searching and customer data protection play a key role in advertising.

Emre Dogan, Google Director Germany and EMEA HUB Search and Retail Sponsor, spoke about how changing customer behavior is changing the role of digital marketing and thus also of Google Search. There is a focus on increased expectations from companies, not only in terms of service, but also in terms of privacy and data protection. As a outcome, search engine optimization should be considered more as an agile act driver with which you can achieve your goals through automation. Connecting marketing goals and metrics to overarching customer and business goals is helpful, but real data is key. The ability to react in real period to changes in customer and trade needs – using the correct data way and technology – would be a key ingredient to achieve in act marketing.

Technology is not a movement. But technology might save the globe.

Frank Thelen is probably the tech investor in Germany best known to the general community. With his autobiography “recent business-DNA” and his second book “10xDNA” he even made it onto the Spiegel bestseller list. He spoke about “current technological developments” and why they make our globe better. In this recent digital globe, partnerships are crucial; we would only survive if we shared efforts and built functional networks. listen, listen!

Streaming is the recent thing, isn’t it?

Hollywood in Hamburg. On the OMR conference stage, Quentin Tarantino made quite an appearance himself. “Look, I am just someone who writes scripts and directs movies,” he replied, slightly annoyed, when asked whether he sees himself as a brand.

How about the wonderful recent globe of streaming services such as Netflix? Quentin fires back: ”Do you ever recall the title of the last movie you saw on Netflix? But everyone knows and remembers Pulp falsehood. Cinema encounter is something I miss here – the encounter of watching a movie in a cinema with a whole throng of people. What I also miss in the film industry now is that we are not part of the cultural exchange any longer”. It’s feasible Hamburg has a spleen for Tarantino and that’s why he shifts moods, but we truly aspiration that the film industry resides very much at the epicenter of population and zeitgeist.

Smartest tech property? Contributing to people’s joy.

Ashton Kutcher (investor, not actor please!) discussed with tech journalist Kara Swisher how to transformation the globe – from buying and selling to investing to activism. Being asked what makes a excellent business to invest into, he responded: “One that aims to enhance people’s lives and make them a bit happier”.

Makes sense. Ashton’s property stake distribution collection is impressive, from airbnb to Uber, all being very successful startups turned multibillion heavy companies. That’s why Silicon Valley angel investors and Wall Street wolves don’t distribute their insights with him anymore, Ashton jokingly noted. Chapeau – when can we book the next advisor’s conference?

We saw a lot, we have learned a lot. Despite uncertainty, the industry is moving, seeking answers, and remaining optimistic. The upcoming might look different than we had envisioned two years ago, but there are plenty of options. It’s up to us to decide which ones to receive.

view you at OMR 2023!