ICP's Event Launch: Unlocking the Value of Technology through People & Process

Sophia Thomas and Nina Randisi share their takeaways from ICP's first in-person event at our London office, centred around the theme “Unlocking the value of Technology through People & Process”.

After two years of Covid, we were overjoyed to find out how much hunger there is for a community within the Martech and Content Operations sector, and we witnessed a newfound appreciation for the value of face-to-face interactions after a prolonged period of virtual communication.

Sophia Thomas: The morning as a whole was a fantastic experience, and the opportunity to spend time chatting with colleagues and industry peers over coffee and breakfast was truly invaluable. However, the real highlight for me was our first panel session which was chock-full of incredible insights and learnings from the vast wealth of experience our panel brought to the table.

Focusing on How planning the business case, change management and governance are key to unlocking operational model success, the session was moderated by industry veteran Theresa Regli and featured a panel of ICP consultants and Kerry Gilzene, Head of Regional Digital, DAM & CRM Centre of Excellence at Abbott Nutrition.

One of the key points which resonated with me, in particular, was the importance of always keeping the long-term goal and ambitions for the business in mind as this will help make strategic decisions aligned with the long-term vision, and this is where you will see real results. But also, it is essential to be looking out for what comes next, such as short-term changes and what risks are there. They also highlighted the importance of ensuring your vision and story is always delivered with the audience in mind.

Another important point made by the panel was that what matters to your CFO vs CMO will be different and therefore, building a solid business case which has considered all angles and elements is essential.

Nina Randisi: I was very impressed with the second session run by ICP’s Senior Client Partner Kristen Martini, which was followed by a discussion with Sarah Bunting, Kingfisher’s Head of Brand Content & Creative Operations.

Kristen gave a brilliant overview of Content for Life, ICP’s innovative solution that helps brands plan the creation of their assets for a lifetime of value. Seeing what Content for Life actually looks like in ICP’s work with clients and understanding how Kristen works closely with brands to help them plan out future production and distribution was particularly interesting.

The discussion with Sarah Bunting tied in nicely with Kristen’s keynote as it gave a practical example of how this approach is used at Kingfisher and illustrated how this can be beneficial in terms of time and cost savings. Sarah provided great insights into Kingfisher’s approach to content creation and how they see it as an investment or a lifelong relationship. She discussed some of the hurdles Content Operations people run into when attempting to plan campaigns, such as Marketing’s desire to create content “from scratch” and the notion that reusing an asset is often perceived as being less innovative or less engaging for creatives. 

However, this misconception seems to be evolving, as significant time and cost savings are encouraging people to develop a “do more with less” approach. Sarah explained that the change in perspective is also due to advancements in technologies, for example with CGI renders now becoming increasingly realistic.

She emphasised that the journey towards having content reusability completely embedded in the Production and Operations process is not a simple or a quick fix, but there are active steps that can be taken towards that, such as making sure that everyone at every level of content operations is involved in the process, with the lifetime value of the asset in mind from the creation stage.

Overall, the event was a wonderful opportunity for us to see colleagues and meet industry peers face-to-face. It provided a unique opportunity for us to reconnect, learn and build a sense of community. We truly felt and a renewed sense of engagement and enthusiasm from our attendees for these types of events, and for sharing in-depth knowledge and expertise, and building connections organically.

We are excited for our next ICP event in a couple of months’ time. Watch this space.