How do you create hype? Can you “be” digital? Those are question Nils Seger posed at Gründen heute, speaking in his hometown at one of the country’s premier startup-focused events.
At RCKT, we are focused on providing our clients an array of communication services across a variety of platforms. Increasingly, those platforms are digital — where, luckily enough, we feel at home.
But for an agency that eats, sleeps and breathes digital, we wanted to delve more into the topic with our clients. It’s one thing to produce a sticky digital campaign that resonates with the right target group, but we also want to help our partner companies achieve a level of digitalness that will propel them into the stratosphere (B).
Photo credit: Ole Hoffmann
Digital transformation is certainly a hot topic in 2015. As additional proof: the Gründen heute conference by hannoverimpuls was the No. 2-tweeted event in all of Germany over that weekend. For a country whose reputation for welcoming digital change is mixed, that shows the interest is there for entrepreneurs, consumers and founders.
Look at the growth of FinTech businesses in Germany, a topic to which Die Zeit devoted a full magazine recently. Businesses like Number26 prove that the old way does not always define the path to success.
But it takes more than a fancy website and branded text. In order to be digital we need to embrace digital. As Seger told the audience in Hannover, “the classic style of marketing is nonsense. What’s needed is Agenda, Branding, Content.”
“Digitalization is more than just a website,” Seger added. “It’s a cultural state-of-mind.”
We need to understand not just the technologies that are currently operating in the space, but be aware of the ones coming down the road. That doesn’t mean signing up for Periscope because it’s the shiny new toy in the window.
Photo credit: Ole Hoffmann
They’re also smarter. The Internet is full of thinkpieces on how to market to Generation Y. You can waste time reading them, or you can focus on producing authentic content. There’s no generation in the world that has developed a better bullshit detector than Millennials, so content today needs to be authentic, relevant and engaging. That’s something we picked up from Vice Media on our trip there in April.
Companies who have successfully leveraged digital tend to grow fast — sometimes faster than they can manage. So how do you manage communications when you’re a hyper-growth company? Part of the learning experience at Rocket Internet is “mastering the launch process.” (I) Plainly said, that’s propelling Internet companies from idea to product in 100 days.
If you think that’s fast, you’re right! But time moves in hyperspeed in the digital space. (N) The hyped Internet companies such as Snapchat and Periscope all operate in real time. That’s why businesses need to communicate with a similar urgency: to participate in real-time conversations, run real-time social media analytics and react in real time to take control of a message or topic. At the end of day, the combination of trust in young talents who create authentic content and revelant real-time actions will take you one step further.
In short, be digital.