Digital Bites November 2024 Wrap up and Slides

Last Thursday, we hosted our final Digital Bites event of 2024 at one of our favourite venues, the Everyman Cinema in Manchester. A huge thank you to all our attendees and speakers for joining us and making it a memorable day. Since launching Digital Bites in 2021, we’ve loved bringing marketers from the North together for afternoons filled with actionable strategies, expert insights, and networking – we’re looking forward to being back in 2025!

 

Ellie Kime – Founder, Eleanor Mollie/The Enthusiast & Co

Talk: Showing off your yoU-SP

Ellie shared her insights on blending personality and professionalism in business. She emphasised that a brand doesn’t need to be entirely formal – bringing out personality can enhance relatability.

One key point Ellie highlighted was celebrating your team, recognising them as a valuable asset. She reminded us that understanding the power of your team can truly elevate a business.

Another tip was to avoid neglecting the ‘About’ page. These pages often get significant visits, so making them personable rather than filled with company jargon can make a big difference. Ellie also encouraged brands to have fun—keeping up the vibes and energy is essential.

View Ellie’s slides here

 

Chris Nightingale – Director, Can-Do Digital

Talk: From Standout to Startup: The lessons learnt from leaving a giant retailer and starting my own marketing company

Chris, who recently moved from AO to freelancing, shared his journey of launching Can-Do Marketing and building his personal brand. His journey taught him the importance of adapting to new roles and skills, as he now manages all aspects of his business.

Chris emphasised the importance of positioning yourself as the unique puzzle piece your clients need. He shared how essential networking, collaboration, and expanding your network is in today’s freelance world. He also discussed the distinction between strategic and tactical roles, noting that a manager takes a strategic view, while an exec or assistant executes tasks.

He also touched on the rise of AI, citing tools like True Clicks for PPC and ChatGPT as essentials for modern marketers. Chris ended with an important reminder: learning to say both “yes”, but more importantly “no” is key. And also accepting and learning from failures.

View Chris’ slides here

 

Broghan Smith – Fashion Key Accounts Lead, TikTok Shop

Talk: Social commerce and driving sales through TikTok Shop

Broghan presented on the explosive growth of social commerce, focusing on how TikTok is redefining the shopping experience with its seamless customer journey.

He discussed TikTok Shop’s design to make the customer journey as frictionless as possible, highlighting four native ways users can explore and purchase:

1. Shoppable video: Offers a subtle way to purchase directly from videos.
2. Live shopping: Creates an engaging, interactive shopping environment.
3. Showcase: Fuses entertainment with shopping, making browsing more enjoyable.
4. Shop Tab: Uses algorithms to deliver curated shopping recommendations.

Broghan also discussed how TikTok is opening doors to new audiences and fostering strong community engagement in the social commerce space.

 

 

Charlotte Sharpe – Paid Media Team Lead, Connective3
Talk: Leveraging behavioural science to power international paid strategies

Charlotte Sharpe, the Paid Media Team Lead at Connective3, brings over four years of experience in the paid media field. In her talk, she explored how behavioural science can enhance paid media strategies and addressed some of the current challenges facing the industry.

With CPCs continuing to rise (+10%) and conversion paths becoming increasingly complex, reaching customers requires navigating multiple touch points. Increased brand competition across markets gives customers more options than ever before. However, Charlotte emphasised that by using data and adopting creative approaches, marketers can still influence performance effectively.

She concluded her talk by discussing the future of paid media and offering insights on how marketers can adapt and thrive in this evolving landscape.

View Charlotte’s slides here

 

 

Dan Marshall – Group Head of Digital, Moneypenny
Talk: CRO > Everything else

Dan Marshall, the Group Head of Digital at Moneypenny, has over 12 years of experience in marketing. His talk introduced the fundamentals of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and highlighted the need to balance various aspects of marketing.

Dan shared three primary examples of CRO in action. First, he demonstrated how live chats can boost conversion rates by 12-20% and weighed the pros and cons of using AI versus human operators. Next, he discussed exit-intent pop-ups, pointing out that the average user spends less than a minute on a website, and showed how pop-ups can help retain visitors. Finally, Dan talked about optimising existing channels and understanding what truly drives value online.

 

 

Ronja Ostner – Senior Digital PR Executive, Connective3
Talk: Unlocking EU markets: The native insight advantage

With a background in social media and influencer management, Ronja Ostner transitioned into digital PR over 18 months ago and has since played a crucial role in link building across German-speaking markets.

Ronja’s talk provided an overview of the EU market and underscored the importance of native language proficiency for establishing authority and achieving “local” relevance.

In the second part of her talk, she covered the do’s and don’ts of EU link building. Key recommendations included researching the media landscape, engaging with journalists, and exploring newsjacking opportunities.

She concluded by cautioning against common pitfalls, such as expecting instant results or making direct comparisons to the UK market, as these can lead to frustration and early abandonment of EU campaigns.

View Ronja’s slides here

 

 

Andriy Starukh – Head of SEO, Iglu Cruise
Talk: Data overload? Practical strategies for managing SEO data for mid-size enterprises

Andriy is the Head of SEO at the UK’s largest independent cruise and ski agency. His talk centred on how to avoid data overload, and ways to manage SEO data at an enterprise scale.

He began his talk by sharing that enterprises are companies that have an annual revenue range of up to $10 million – over $1 billion. Andriy talked to the audience about the challenges of working with enterprises such as security concerns, change resistance and competition. He shared the model of why, how and what. Why is to feel less stressed and become more confident as an SEO, how is by using the right tools and automation and what is to track the right metrics. He advised to review your process at least every quarter for better clarity and context.

Andriy shared the five-step process that can help you make better decisions:

• Categorise queries and pages into groups
• Track each group’s performance
• Check keyword distribution by position
• Monitor events such as core updates
• Blend multiple data sources

 

 

Lizzie Lewington – Head of SEO Strategy, Connective3
Talk: Why GEO is the new SEO, and how to master it

Lizzie shared insight on how the AI overview will kill SEO due to various the changes taking place. According to Lizzie, the AI overview does pose issues such as pushing regular search results down yet holds opportunities such as driving more clicks through to site.

She discussed the point that SEO’s need to adapt to keep up with the evolution. For example, from 2014 to present, we’ve seen the unveiling of featured snippets, product listings and continuous scroll, all of which have improved the user experience.

Lizzie went on to explain how we can get better at generative SEO, through tactics such as picking the right keywords which trigger AI overviews, ‘Ai is improving and learning through different interactions.’ She confirmed that being unique is key, and we need to provide content which matches the query intent and is reliable, so Google chooses you over competition.

Lizzie finished her session by sharing how to optimise product feeds and use enchased schema mark up for shopping with the audience.

View Lizzie’s slides here

 

 

Mercy Fulani – Marketing Executive, GatenbySanderson
Talk: It starts with a like

Mercy is a Marketing Executive at GatenbySanderson and her talk focused on the importance of taking content creation further than a like, and the importance of knowing who you are speaking to.

Mercy shared her personal story of running with a content idea without conducting in depth research of her audience’s behaviour. The content did not yield the results she anticipated as she admitted that she didn’t know anything about who she was creating for and ended up teasing a service which no-one had knowledge about.

According to Mercy, the most important factor is, ‘who are you speaking to, where do they go and what do they do’. She spoke about the best way to gain audience information, through the likes of competitor analysis, asking your core audience directly and platforms such as Reddit. Mercy’s key points to taking your audience relationship beyond the like are:

• Clarify who are you speaking to and keep messaging consistent
• Share why they should want you – share the problems you can solve
• Diversify content – short form videos are growing
• Tell a story to build deeper, lasting connections
• Be for real – authenticity can help you reach people

View Mercy’s slides here

 

 

Molly Bartram – Senior Influencer Marketing Manager, Connective3
Talk: The key to cross-generational influencer marketing

Molly began her talk by discussing that authenticity is not enough, people need great content to convert. She explained that trust is built differently across generations, and no campaign is the same. Molly believes that there is never a one size fits all model for cross-generational influencer marketing and went on to explain the platforms each generation uses the most.

She stated that Gen Z are more loyal than other generations and Millennials respond well to video content, but they are open to social content too. An important factor Molly said brands need to note is that ‘Gen X are everywhere; they don’t focus on one platform’.

She shared her insights into generation cohorts and purchase behaviour between them, a wider consensus is that consumers are trusting influencers more than A-list celebrities, and brands need to adapt and use them in campaigns if they’re not already. Molly went onto outline the key messaging for each generation:

• Gen Z like to see the good and bad, genuine content wins over scripts, so influencer briefs should be loose to let the creator lead.
• Millennials respond well to reviews, product demonstrations and discount codes.
• Gen X are price sensitive and prefer nostalgic content.

Molly finished with the underlying messaging that campaign messaging should not change between generations, the key is to keep it simple.

View Molly’s slides here

 

Chris Hockin – Director, Business Development, The Trade Desk
Talk: The future of retail explained

Chris began his talk by covering what retail media is – a focus on targeting actual human shoppers by identifying and engaging with the real people behind purchasing decisions. By focusing on real shoppers, retail data allows for refined targeting based on:

• Purchase behaviour
• Product category preferences
• Competitors’ customers
• Lapsed shoppers
• Customer life stage

Chris covered how retail data empowers brands to connect with highly engaged, relevant audiences in real-time and by using controlled activation solutions, brands can reach across various segments—categories, competitors, lapsed shoppers, lifestage, etc. Chris’ session finished with the statement that retail data consistently outperforms other data strategies, showing higher engagement and relevance, further showing its significance.

View Chris’ slides here

 

Tom Higgins – Co-founder, GIFTA
Talk: Cutting through the noise: How strategic influencer gifting at scale strengthens brands

After starting GIFTA as a passion project, Tom is the Co-founder of GIFTA, an influencer gifting business which has worked with brands such as Dove, Adidas and New Balance.

Before GIFTA, Tom was an influencer and after experiencing brands reaching out for gifting opportunities with restrictive demands, he was inspired to start GIFTA. Through GIFTA’s alternative approach to gifting, they have a success rate of 92% of products gifted, being posted by influencers which is a significant increase from typical rates of 10-20%. Tom delved into why gifting works as consumers value social media recommendations and authentic and real content that resonates with the audiences.

To finish off, Tom shared a case study of the work GIFTA did with Dove where they worked with 1,500 influencers on a gifting basis and from this they achieved 3.7 million impressions and 151,000 engagements, demonstrating the impact of gifting.

View Tom’s slides here

 

Ben Martin – Partnership Manager, Powerhouse Studios
Talk: Gen-AI & Virtual Production – Using emerging technologies to level up your visual content

Ben Martin, Partnership Manager at Powerhouse Studios began by talking about how although AI has existed since the 1950s but recent generative AI developments have raised concerns about replacing creative roles, especially in photography with it being most effective for backgrounds and environments, not final products.

Ben covered that virtual production was originally used in films however has now become a powerful take in advertising. Virtual production is ideal for:

• Impossible or environmentally challenging locations
• CGI replacements, which can be costly and resource-intensive
• Transparent or reflective products, where controlled conditions matter
• Saving time and budgets, allowing for “multi-location” shoots in one place

Ben explained how generative AI is a tool, not a replacement, but it can be used to handle costly elements, freeing up budget to focus on authentic product shots. The audience were left with the key takeaway to embrace new technologies to tackle creative challenges, but retain brand authenticity by balancing AI with traditional processes.

View Ben’s slides here

 

 

Check out the event photos here and make sure you’re following us on social to kept in the loop with our latest updates!