My experience attending BRANDfest 2023
What kind of event is this?
The two-day event featured over 20 Malaysian experts presenting a number of useful case studies along with frameworks, tools, and techniques to add value and revitalize brand marketing plans.
Before entering the venue, I met a woman who works in marketing in the advertising industry. This event is now in its 18th year, and she has attended every year for 10 consecutive years.
She said it is very informative because top marketers from Malaysian companies perform, so she gets the latest data. To my surprise, she was coming from Penang, an island a few hours by plane from Kuala Lumpur.
The registration desk opened at 7:30 in the morning. Last year, the reception desk opened at 8:00 a.m., but it was moved up by 30 minutes due to the great success of last year’s event. My expectation was rising.
I arrived on time, finished registration, and headed to the venue. To my surprise, breakfast was already prepared.
Every time I visit Malaysia, I appreciate the wonderful hospitality of Malaysian people.
On the day of the event, many people came to the venue, and the seats were filled with 520 attendees.
According to the presenter, the event was fully booked. When I checked the tickets again on the website, they were already sold out. It appears that the event was also being held online.
The target audience seemed to range from 25-65 years old, but I got the impression that there were relatively more young people.
The moderator greeted the audience and encouraged them to steal one idea from each session. All participants were eager to learn and absorb.
Here are some of the performances that I found particularly impressive:
CONTENT MARKETING METAMORPHOSIS
The Exciting New Opportunities for Content Marketing in the Age of
Rapidly Growing Digital Marketing
Content marketing is the strategy of creating and distributing valuable and relevant content with the goal of attracting and inspiring action from a specific target audience.
While the field of content marketing itself is not new, the rapid expansion of digital media and the growing influence of social media and new technologies are changing content marketing.
I was struck by these words:
“Nine out of ten companies engage in content marketing. It goes beyond traditional sales techniques to promote brands through publications, videos, information, ideas, and entertainment that consumers appreciate.”
Something that is not new yet continues to evolve and change its methods from the previous years. I realized that this is the kind of marketing that wins their hearts and minds.
There were four main tips for creating engaging content, and the success of content depends largely on how each element is connected to one another.
- Create memorable characters
- Use compelling stories
- Reinforce with appropriate emotions
- Deploy and amplify with the right timing
It is important to leave a lasting impression, to target the right audience, and to communicate precisely.
I was reminded that no matter what position you hold, even if you face a PC every day, the person you are dealing with is always the customer beyond that point.
CHATGPT, AI & BRANDS
“What Does the Intense Battle for AI Supremacy Have to Do With Us?”
Are You as a Brand Marketer Asking, Thinking Deeply, and Getting Prepared?
There was a Session on our cornerstone, ChatGPT, with three examples on the subject of what ChatGPT might look like in the future.
The three main AI tools discussed in the talk were Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Adobe Firefly. Midjourney is a visual generative AI that can create visual art. Speakers recommend using Midjourney to create storyboards, but not as a final piece of art. Another issue is that AI art is not copyrighted. This is because AI art is not created by a person and therefore has no intellectual property rights and someone can reproduce the art elsewhere.
Adobe Firefly is another visual art AI, but this time it does not have the same problems as Midjourney, and since Firefly uses all licensed stock photos from Adobe’s database, it is not technically plagiarism, and therefore a “final work” as the “final work”. Therefore, Adobe also has a stock image library, and all images can be legally used if they have a license agreement.
However, he also highlighted one problem that could be faced This is that AI art is currently very new and is still considered highly controversial by those who fear and misunderstand its capabilities.
Because the Midjourney model is trained on images taken from the web, people think that AI art is plagiarized.
Finally, ChatGPT can help with content generation, but some of its suggestions are very generic and may not apply to your culture or situation because it has no real-world experience.
Therefore, if you ask ChatGPT further questions, it may suggest that you do not use the situations that ChatGPT initially suggested.
A final piece of advice he gave was that although AI is very good, we should not actually fear it. Strategically, he says, AI’s generative models work faster than humans and can cut down on many processes.
However, speakers say that AI output is based on what you tell the AI. In other words, if you don’t tell the AI the details, the output will only be mediocre. But if you put your heart and soul into something, you can make something amazing with the AI.
This was the idea.
As for AI and ChatGPT, I believe that they will become more and more indispensable in our lives, and since there are many people and companies that are helped by AI, I do not believe that one is smarter or more right than the other, but that they will definitely be partners with whom we should coexist in the future.
I look forward to delivering more convenient, faster, and useful products together with AI.
Wrapping Up
This event was aimed at local people, and many of the performances were about products that originated in Malaysia, which was a good opportunity for me, as a Malaysia fan, to learn more about the country. With little breaks in between, I believe that this event can be enjoyed without getting bored until the end.
I highly recommend this event for Malaysians, as well as marketers and designers living in Malaysia. All the speakers gave easy-to-understand explanations and their presentations were full of humor.
I would like to thank the staff for their kindness and hospitality, all the visitors, the organizers for keeping my seats, the chefs who prepared and served breakfast, lunch, and snacks (the food was delicious!), and the team members who gave me this opportunity.
Thank you so much and I look forward to seeing you there again in 2024!
And last but not least, one piece of advice.
The venue is very, very cold, so I highly recommend bringing a jacket!