Marketers have to tell stories that engage their audience, and not obsess about pleasing everyone, said Gianfranco Chicco, European Marketing Director of The Lovie Awards, the European awards celebrating online creativity.
“Culture is a very important thing for the work,” he told Velocitize Talks. Agencies now realize they need to tell stories that are meaningful to whom they are communicating with, and that changes based on which country and audience, he said.
An engineer by training, Chicco did not train as a marketer, but he does not see that as a handicap. Interest in people and processes helps bridge that gap: “Engineering is my scaffolding. I might think in a certain way, but it’s not the antithesis of creativity.”
Looking over the recent finalists and winners at the Lovies, production quality is not the differentiating factor between campaigns anymore, but instead how it manages to tell a story, said Chicco.
Marketers are becoming more economical with language when telling their stories, including a wider use of video and visual tools such as emojis. This requires its own set of skills, such as accounting for cultural differences and tone, said Chicco.
Some trends, such as voice, transcend markets, said Chicco. “Voice is happening globally,” he said. “It’s a very natural way to communicate.” But personalization is one area where craftsmanship will make a difference, he said.
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