Not since living in Berlin after the Wall came down, have I seen so much excitement and optimism as I’ve seen at the Dublin Web Summit recently.  It was a kind of chaotic and positive growth.  With the kind of excitement we’re lucky to see maybe once a generation, something deeper and real purpose, sharing the hopes of the current generation with learnings of the past.  Such was the buzz for all things possible at Dublin Web Summit recently, where 4,200 eager folk from all round the world came to tear down their old walls and build new bridges.

The stats are amazing – so ripe for a great infograph – given this fledgling event is so hot yet only in its third year.  According the press office, there were over 500 formal investor meetings, 270 start-up exhibitors selling their wares and networking brilliantly, with over 250 global media and press members covering it live for the many thousands tracking from abroad, alongside the flawless live streams.  In terms of investors, there were 100 or so on site, managing billions in funds and investments.  Numbers aside though, as summit founder and new tech hero Paddy Cosgrave himself says, it’s all about the people. And it sure was.

As an honoured speaker, when talking ‘Broadcast Reversal’ to the hugely diverse audience, I thought it’d be a tough or too niche an area to appeal to such a broad group.  Instead, I found an impressive level of interest in the shifting media epicenter, moving from traditional ATL billboards and top-down brand activity, towards consumers and essentially their mobiles. I wanted to illustrate how important it is for brands to find new conversation points to sell with, even in unbranded ways. Remembering we need to work hard to win new favour from brand weary influencers, so rightfully savvy and adept at decoding brands and their ‘clever’ efforts.

Considering the relationships between brands and consumers, beyond social or other media there’s an oft forgotten common ground, that of meaning and relevance.  We need to ensure the new generation doesn’t get caught up in the ‘messaging’ game, to instead ‘keep it real’, through heightened brand experiences each and every time.  Metrics are of course important, though they aren’t everything.  Nor are Likes.  We have to see modern marketing as means of telling stories, albeit nowadays in the 21st Century with new tools and tales.  We have to move away from the traditional ideas of controlled ‘messaging’, or even ‘PR’, which even now can be overly controlled and contrived to consumers.

With social and new media the messaging gold rush exploded, driving consumers away with noisy requests for Likes and mis-fired incentives, ultimately eroding any equity which may or may not have been there to begin with.  Don’t be fooled however, they continue as for one metric reason or another, such online clicks and often over-rated Facebook ‘Likes’ appear to – on some spreadsheets anyway, still tick campaign success targets.  So how long can that last and is that enough? Is marketing doing the good job in relating to consumers anymore?

The Backlash Will Not Be Televised

Especially for consumer brands, there may yet be a backlash on the way, if brands don’t cool it and get it right.  However the backlash will not be televised, customers will just trickle away.  Online it remains ironic, as brand literate and perfectly suited target consumers are being continually desensitized by the very brands they’re wishing to engage with.  Metric mad brand ads cry out for eyeball, making it harder for consumers to discern the proverbial quality wood from the trees.  As Cindi Gallop, former ad exec and all-round media heiress said after the summit, doesn’t the clue lie in the fact advertisers actually admit they are asking consumers to sit out 10 seconds of YouTube ads before they can skip them, with the annoying countdowns they place in the ads?  I’ve personally always felt the term ‘Skip Intro’ would make a great track title, though that’s for another day, maybe for next year’s Dublin Web Summit.

Brand Tree House – Positioning & Team Rooting Tool

To emphasize to Summit guests the shifting human engagement each person has with even their employer brands, here’s the light-hearted Brand Tree House – http://img.mu/Ykt47S – free to download and use with your team.  Let me know how it goes, there’s always plenty of debate filling this out.

There were so many great folk, its impossible to mention.  Likewise with so many great talks and ideas.  Many of which are even already resulting in public partnerships and relationships.  Some of my many personal highlights and take-outs:

  • #WebSummit team – fresh faced and fired up. You know how to run a smooth operation like I’ve never seen. Good job you’re peacekeepers and fun loving criminals or we’d be in trouble!
  • Enterprise Ireland – there at every turn and super-efficient. It’s totally imperative governments and their agencies act up the challenges facing us all in today’s economy. Thus it was inspirational to see EI take to the summit so excellently. Good job guys.
  • Sebastien & Francois – team Coteries. One of too-many-to-mention cool and driven teams. They stood out with their gutsy approach to nailing folk and getting stuck in. Including me, after my talk(!)
  • Decoded – Kathryn & Anika – Chics with Code Appeal! Really wowed with their all-new approach to coding. Love the way the cross boundaries to show, in coding terms, ‘yes we can’!
  • Andrezj Moyseowicz of Saatchi & Saatchi – apart from his focused talk and excellent anecdotes, reminded me to get out and buy Born to Run for after my first marathon that Sunday. It was a social meet-up also of course J
  • Lawyers with Personality (well, flirting Robots) – Great to see a law firm step up as lead sponsor for the summit, with the foresight of Philip Nolan and his team. Kudos to sponsors Mason, Hayes & Curran for rolling out their flirting robot, showing their fun side and getting involved.
  • The Hubspot, Dogpatch and others – of the many investors, it was good to see some highly respected US houses bringing it all back home. The Dogpatch Labs for start-ups in Dublin is the start of something special. HubSpot is already proving it’s influence in Dublin and abroad there with many international eyes on it.

So let’s see how infectious this New Economy Movement can be.  Let’s see how successful the start-ups are at putting together their best ideas, even helping the vanguard now learn to find its way in this great new century. This is truly a great time, for technology, for youth, for business.  Let’s work together and not waste it.

Slides from Dublin Web Summit – #websummit – http://www.slideshare.net/hubgre.