As the present health situation forces companies to swiftly transition to digitalization, businesses are challenged to think like a technology company and embrace digital tools to move their brands forward. One of their difficulties is keeping up with the changes in both technology and marketing, which are key to retaining their current customers and gaining new markets.
Co-organized by Digital Pilipinas, a movement that aims to solve the nation's current challenges through technology, the Electronic World Marketing Summit 2021 (eWMS) pointed to important trends that they must learn, if not, master, in order to compete: digital literacy, digitization within organizations, an increasingly tech-hungry consumer base, and inter-industry collaboration, among others.
The eWorld Marketing Summit is the virtual version of the annual World Marketing Summit, which was launched in 2010 by Dr. Philip Kotler, regarded as the father of modern marketing. This latest web conference, titled "Marketing & Web 3.0: How Technology Players are Changing the Game", was co-organized by Digital Pilipinas, and Primetrade Asia, the Country Partner for Kotler Impact. Gathering the country’s top tech leaders, including Leni Robredo, Vice President of the Philippines and one of the keynote speakers, the virtual conference discussed the role that technology plays in digital and non-traditional forms of marketing.
As Edwin Bautista, President and CEO of UnionBank, summarized it: "in today's fast-evolving landscape and changes in demographics, it's either digitalize or perish.” He added, “While the tools of marketing have changed, the fundamentals have stayed the same. Companies must fight existential threats by investing in technology, listening to customers including the youth, keeping employees motivated, and maintaining a strong brand that people trust."
Irene Lloren, President of Primetrade Asia, Inc., said that to lift the country to globally-competitive levels of marketing and tech-potential, more gatherings should be held “to help leaders from economic and trade ministers to international brands ... navigate and negate any future business challenges, if not for their companies, then the country as a whole."
Amor Maclang, Co-founder of GeiserMaclang Communications Inc., also the Philippine partner of the Stevies Awards, the leading international business awards organization, pointed out that the Philippines has “a good start because it is tech-ing technology adoption by the MSMEs down to the grassroots, and then going the sandbox model in launching innovative ideas.”
Francis Kong, President of Success Options Inc., shared that companies also “need to train our leaders in their digital skills including digital literacy, digital training, and even digital ethics. Every single company now wants to be known as a digitally-driven company, and managers mustn't resist this monumental change."
Abid Zaida, Chief Marketing and Operations Officer at Microsoft, agreed that "organizations need to have a complete understanding of what digital transformation is. Internally, they need to address the skills deficiencies as technology paces forward faster. They need to keep up by investing in continuous training and championing behavior changes, and provide the most current tool in bringing solutions to customers."
Agnes Padilla, Head of Marketing at Coins.ph, expressed that, in contrast to brands' compartmentalization of customers against their competitors, today's landscape requires that "we need to consider our competitors as potential collaborators in generating ideas and forward-looking solutions. The market right now is composed of tech-hungry consumers. Companies should hire talented employees that are able to act fast, but in a smart way."
Maclang added that Digital Pilipinas’ initiatives are geared towards nation-building, “addressing key issues including education through leadership, mass adoption of nascent technology, education through upskilling and reskilling job creation and matching, sandboxing with national line agencies, and legislative and policy advocacy."
The World Marketing Summit has been held in various countries in Europe, America and Asia for the past ten years with its audience growing annually, drawn to the summit by the relevant topics and its top-notch speakers. In response to the 2020 worldwide health crisis which forced numerous country lockdowns, the WMS transitioned to a virtual platform and was renamed the eWorld Marketing Summit or eWMS.
EWMS 2021 is happening on November 6 at 1:00 AM GMT, and ends on November 7 11:59 PM GMT. Read more and be part of the EWMS and Digital Pilipinas initiatives. To register, please visit www.ewms-philippines.com/register and for more information, kindly visit www.facebook.com/ElectronicWMS and www.facebook.com/DigitalPilipinas2021