Accountants, strategists, copywriters or art directors, we are all communication people. And one of the first things you realise when you enter the industry is that you need to understand the context in which you’re doing communications campaigns for your clients. Sure, some people tend to forget to take the pulse of society anymore, but we at Minio really believe that the most important thing is understanding: understanding consumers deeply, understanding the real business needs of clients, understanding the things that move people.

That’s why the Minio Studio team made the most out of the 2023 conferences. Yes, we went to almost all of them. And now we invite you to read the impressions and highlights our colleagues learned.

1. Which conference did you attend and what was it about?

Mădă: Hi, there! I was at Influencer Marketing, one of the most important events in the sphere of the influencer subject. There was a lot of talk about how we work with them and why we do it, how we can improve our relationship with influencers, but also why it’s important to start having GenZ tone of voice.

Bogdan: Ola! It was pretty much as Mădă described above. Plus, I learned some very useful insights about the relationship between agency and content creation creatives, which I can’t wait to apply in future Minio & Maker projects 😊

2. What was the most interesting topic discussed there, from your point of view?

Mădă: One of the coolest topics was the discussion about how authenticity has long since surpassed perfection, and Gen Z is best at showing that. People don’t want “the perfect picture” anymore, they want to see bloopers too. Claudia Bodnar had a great perspective on this in her presentation on KFC campaigns.

Bogdan: “It’s Gen Z’s world, we just live in it” is an accurate summary of the most important topic discussed here: how agencies can have to adapt their discourse to exude authenticity and realism in youth campaigns. There was a lot of talk about co-creation and why the process of generating a digital campaign becomes a collaboration between 3 parties: agency, content creators and audience.

3. Who was your favourite speaker and what attracted you to them?

Mădă: My favorite speaker by far was Octavian Gheorghe, Creative Director at GMP PR. I really liked that he was energetic and funny, although he had a dense presentation with consistent information, he knew how to make it engaging and keep the audience engaged. Plus, it included a lot of current and trendy references. Andreea Lupu, Strategy & Innovation Director, Starcom Romania and Rahul Titus, Global Head Of Influence, Ogilvy, were the other two speakers that caught my attention.

Bogdan: Octavian Gheorghe all the way – his speech focused on the relationship between creativity and influencers, he strikes me as a good example of an “old school” creative who adapted perfectly to the reality of 2023 and embraced change. Which is something I’d like to see more of from my old guildmates.

4. Tell us one super-awesome thing you learned at the conference, something that changed the way you do things.

Mădă: Long-term relationships & co-creating are two of the aspects that can benefit all parties involved in the collaboration. Almost the same principle applies as in personal relationships: if people know it’s worth investing resources, they will do it more willingly for something long-term and in which they can actively engage. Often, a lot of resources are wasted on one-off, short-term collaborations.

Bogdan: I also found the KFC and Samsung Romania presentations super-relevant. Both showcased two extremely popular content campaigns with and for Gen Z, #pebune and All out FactZ. What I found relevant was that both presentations pointed to a relatively under-discussed truth in agencies: Gen Z are not an amorphous mass of music and gaming enthusiasts, phone-eyed and online-connected like Neo in the Matrix. Each of them has different expectations from life, proffesionally diverse goals and denotes a maturity often ignored by more mature generations. A successful campaign aimed at them, we’ve seen here, must take into account how they really are, not how they appear to us Millennials and upwards.  

5. Tell us one thing that simply amazed you, something you first learned there.

Mădă: People in advertising are open to therapy. And when I say that I mean that 90% of the room responded positively to this topic. Something we all agreed is not being talked about enough. When the audience has that need, and the people who are responsible for getting the message out are in the same need – but uncommunicated – somewhere the campaign will creak and it will show.

Bogdan: I appreciated the relevance of the Gen Z-oriented presentations and learned some useful tips & tricks for effective campaigns that include influencers. Such as that the effectiveness of DMs is getting lower and lower.

6. Conclusion: closing thoughts about your experience at the Influencer Marketing Conference or conferences in general.

Mădă: I really liked the event and how the speakers spoke. I appreciated that they were transparent and didn’t shy away from those “bullshits” that we know exist but don’t touch in other contexts. They had an up to date speech and almost all the presentations were seen to have been carefully crafted and researched.

Bogdan: Loved: Gen Z content. Liked: more cohesive speech about the relationship between agencies and content creators, finally noticed that efforts are being made to align the two sources of creativity in digital, with the aim of generating the most successful campaigns.