Collision Conference 2021 Last Day Highlights: Real The New Currency

The Collision Event 2021 has come to a close and with it, I would like to start by mentioning some of our favourite remarks.

Real is the new currency - TikTok

Necessity the mother of all inventions - Mercedes

Mentors give advice, sponsors provide advice and opportunities - Reddit

We should stop calling them consumers we should call them customers - Collins

Every decision is a reflection of what you believe - Collins

Brands don't have the option of standing neutral anymore, their community wants them to stand for what they believe and support their values, pick your battles and what matters to your community - Collins

Make your team understand the community they serve - Biz Stone (Twitter)

Create a purpose statement for the company, it will have a moral impact and your team will know what they are doing and why - Biz Stone (Twitter)

Marketing nowadays is purpose-driven - Hootsuite

Some of these remarks make us rethink what we do, why and how we do it.

What is the purpose of your company? Does your team understand the community they serve? He wasn't talking about just some sections of the company. The entire company needs to understand the purpose and the community they serve.

The Collision event has been as always filled with great speakers, insightful talks masterclasses, and great networking opportunities, but this year was unique.

You can feel how COVID -19 has changed the world, and every one of us, forever. No matter who you are or what you do.

The talks were less about the businesses and more about the human part of the business. It was less about how to deal with the challenges and business growth and more about the community and their purpose. Community, purpose, real, human, values, believes, support, were the most common words said in the talks. 

We can't wait for the next event, and we are counting the days already for the WebSummit 2021 in Lisbon.

These events bring people from everywhere in the world and pretty much from every industry and background because they are like no other, they have disrupted the event industry in a way nobody thought was possible, not just with the online platform but in every aspect of it.

Now let's share with you some of our favourite talks on the last day of Collision 2021

“So you want to become an influencer? Flighthouse can help” was a great talk this afternoon with the founder and CEO of Flighthouse Jacob Pace, a digital content studio and marketing agency. 

2.3 billion likes on TikTok doesn’t happen by accident, and Pace explained the behind-the-scenes of how it’s done. Having had much of his own success in viral content creation, Darragh McCauley asked Pace how it all got started. Pace says he started out on Musically, the original iteration of TikTok, and that’s where he found Flighthouse. He admits he’s not a TikTok expert, and that people on his team are the real experts, “a lot of my success has come from my curiosity and my willingness to try – my willingness to see what’s next, what’s around the corner.

In terms of his day to day, Pace spends much of his time keeping the team engaged and on the right path, and looking for new talent. One viewer asked how a brand can be sure when working with an influencer, that it will turn into sales. Pace replied, “Engaging with any influencer, there’s never any guarantee that they will translate into sales. All you can really do is get them to give you previous case studies in terms of prior sales conversions. All you can do is ask for prior data, other than that you’re still taking a risk.” And if you want to become a successful, paid influencer, you need to be able to present yourself using data: likes, views, swipe-ups, etc. Additionally, try and create content that can easily “plugin” with brands, but it’s important to still allow things and ideas to develop organically.

Getting your brand ready for social justice- Amy Choyne (CMO at US Tennis Association), Frank Cooper (CMO at Blackrock), Xiaojun Ji (Host of icon at CGTN).

In this talk, they largely focussed on how each corporation interacted with the black lives matter movement in light of it being the biggest social issue from the past year. Amy spoke about how the USTA focuses on using its platform and influence to help fund underprivileged areas and communities. She also spoke briefly on increasing their digital footprint in support of causes that align with their core values as an organisation. 

Xiaojun Ji asked that with social issues being so numerous and often very nuanced, how did both organisations cut through the chaff and decided which issues they would allow their brands to interact with. Frank Cooper was very happy to speak on this at length, stating that the only way to decide was, to first understand the core values and principles the company was built around and then, use that to interact with and educate on a social issue, this is one of the many reasons why Blackrock aligned themselves with the BLM cause as it was attempting to address and produce a change in relation to the racial inequality within America. He also clearly stated that inaction in the face of social upheaval could be more detrimental to brands, no matter what brands choose it is always possible one consumer or another will not agree.

Q&A with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone

The Q & A had so many questions we will share with you the ones we found to be the most interesting. He was asked about moderation, how do they do it and how it can be done properly. Biz said that moderation is incredibly important, but also that the rules put in place have to be communicated clearly and explained why they are there. He said that to filter you need to look at the behaviour on the platform more than the content. He also said that political ads shouldn’t have space on social media as they don’t add anything to the social conversation.

Biz stated he couldn’t reveal any future plans to improve or update twitter but just that they take notice of how users are trying to use the app and try to serve them to make this easier.

There was also a mention that despite Twitter being around for some time there are no direct competitors within the social media industry and that rather than competing to keep up with the likes of Youtube and Instagram, Twitter instead has more of a symbiotic relationship with other social networks as well as with the media.

Full article coming soon.  

TikTok and Liam Payne: A new Direction for entertainment

Nick Tran (TikTok head of global marketing), Liam Payne (Musician), Rebecca Jennings (Vox)

TikTok head of global marketing Nick Tran and musician Liam Payne discussed how TikTok has influenced pop culture and entertainment, and the power the platform has given to artists, brands and communities.

Liam Payne revealed early in the talk that he, like most people in the UK, was hesitant to join the app at first because it was perceived as all dancing and lip syncs, “and England as a culture I don’t think is very ‘dance’ if that makes sense.”

When he finally did join, he realized there was so much more to TikTok, and still is, that people don’t realize. Nick Tran jumped in mentioning all of the sub-culture’s that emerge every day on TikTok, that create a community people don’t really expect, like plant-tok, clean-tok, art-tok, and so on. Liam continued that people often don’t realize the educational aspect of the app, recalling times when he opens TikTok in the morning and sees a video from Gary V, a media entrepreneur who post motivational videos. “What a great way to start your day.”

“My point of interest in joining was wanting to show a bit more personality, something that’s not so perfect,” Liam said, referencing his time in the band One Direction. In the music industry, you’re often gifted an image, as he was in the band, and he likes that TikTok allows him to show a different side of himself.

Other celebrities have taken advantage of this as well, for example, actor Kevin Bacon who Nick Tran mentioned, is now posting videos giving cooking tips – something you wouldn’t expect when you look at roles he’s played.

TikTok isn’t only for celebrities, it’s quite the opposite actually. Nick Tran spoke about the democratization of celebrity. Because of the format of TikTok, anyone can go from zero followers to 50,000 with a single post. It’s a platform where normal people can become celebrities, and conversely, celebrities can be their normal selves.

Liam says the whole music industry is being altered by what’s relevant on TikTok, which shows how powerful it really is.

It doesn’t go both ways, however. He continued, “there’s that one magic line” that people pick up on in a song and it goes viral, but you can’t try to create that in a song, “it won’t work, it has to be authentic.”

Nick agreed by adding that their advice to brands is “don’t make ads, make TikToks,” and authenticity is key.

Pretty much every talk has something to reflect about or to learn about, but we picked the ones closer to our community of readers, the ones related to Social Media Networks and social media marketing.

And that is all for now until the Web Summit 2021 hopefully hosted in Lisbon this November. 

Read the highlights of the previous days here:

Day 2: Highlights

Day 1: Highlights

Mili Ponce

Entrepreneur, International Speaker on Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Social Media Strategist, Trainer, Writer, Blogger, Mother, Daughter, Dreamer.

Follow her on:
Twitter: @MiliPonce
Instagram: @MiliPonceOfficial
Facebook: /MiliPonceOliver
Pinterest: /MiliPonce
LinkedIn: /in/MiliPonce

Talks insights collaborators:

Jack Glidewell

Senior Editor, Writer, and Podcaster at Social Songbird
A self-taught writer and news enthusiast, with a deep love for new and exciting developments around the globe. Aspiring Novel writer and traditional and pop Japanese culture lover.

Adrienne Lucas

Executive Editor

A passionate writer with experience in editing, content creation, and social media marketing. A lover of animals, helping others improve their writing, and 2000's pop culture.