Your brand story and how you position the value you offer to customers, potential customers and employees is evolving... We’re skeptical about what marketers want to say; now, consumers want to know what the influencers have to say, or what user-generated content has to say.
Much of the discussion at AXS centered on how rapidly-evolving technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, the metaverse and robotics are transforming both customer and employee experience (CX/EX), as well as wider business models and attitudes to content.
As people are less sure of who or what has created the content they consume, how can businesses maintain trust in their content and safeguard its value?
In an online environment increasingly powered by artificial intelligence (AI), practitioners had much to share about the impact that reduced control over content is having on the value of words and images.
Hosted by Constellation’s CEO, Ray Wang, and his team, the lively event featured a carefully curated set of thought-provoking presentations and panels. After the ‘Graffiti Battle’ held on the first day, the program really took off on during day two of the gathering.
One session took a deep dive into the next steps in CX and EX, while another explored the potentially competing interests of AI and end users.
Brightspot CMO Adri Nowell was one of the panelists discussing the claim that, “Content Isn’t What It Used To Be”.
The session was hosted by Constellation VP and Principal Analyst, Liz Miller. The other panelists were Rob Felton, GM and VP Sales and Marketing at clothing company Threadbird; Amisha Gandhi, Marketing Executive at accounting software leader Tipalti; and Joanne Moretti, Chief Revenue Officer at custom manufacturer Fictiv.
Liz was quick to guide the debate and challenge the panelists. Highlighting previous attitudes to content, she said: “We've had this mindset—I think for decades now—that a lot of us are comfortable with creating our content because we can control it: where it goes, its presentation and so on.”
But maintaining that control is becoming more difficult and she added: “In the same way we have had to rethink data in the age of AI, the time has come to rethink and re-architect content.”
Adri accepted this point of view and layered her own thinking on top. She said: “Your brand story and how you position the value you offer to customers, potential customers and employees is evolving.”
“People’s behaviors change, and we're all skeptical now—look at all the dialog today about AI and things like that,” she continued. “We’re skeptical about what marketers want to say; now, consumers want to know what the influencers have to say, or what user-generated content has to say.”
“So, the lines are very grey on where the content boundaries are going forward—because it's all interconnected,” Adri noted. “And CX now is all about the overall experience that someone has with your company.”
But Adri was quick to stress that content remains immensely important. Yes, it might be more difficult to control exactly how it’s generated and consumed. Yes, people are turning to content from external sources as well as consuming the content that’s created by your company. But quality content that lands directly with recipients, still has immense power to bind them to your brand and cement their ongoing engagement.
As the discussion continued, it was clear that even though organizations might not be able to control content about their products and services in the way they once did, it’s still imperative to understand the content that people find useful and to make it easier for them to consume it wherever and whenever they please.
There was plenty of food for thought during the debate and Brightspot would like to thank Constellation for a fantastic AXS 2024. It’ll be exciting to see how quickly things change before AXS 2025 comes around.
