7 minutes
Two members of our team headed to Northern Marketing Festival recently and came away with plenty of ideas that really stuck.
As a full-service marketing agency in Hull (and the only one in East Yorkshire to feature in Prolific North's list of Top 50 Integrated Agencies), their annual conference in Leeds is one we try to make time for.
Some of what we heard on the day confirmed what we already do at Bluestorm, some of it gave us a useful new way of framing things we talk to clients about all the time, and some of it was just really good.
Here’s our Content Marketing Manager Matt Holden with his five biggest takeaways and what he thinks they mean for the brands we work with.
1/ Remember the unreachable when targeting growth
The first topic of the day cut through to a subject that we often discuss with our clients – how to grow your online audience. Embryo’s Dom Carter summed it up really nicely in his talk about reaching the unreachable. Who are the unreachable? They’re the potential customers who advertising platforms don’t prioritise.
Most platforms are brilliant at finding people who are already likely to buy from you, those at the lower end of the funnel. The problem is that's a finite pool and you end up fighting harder and harder for the same people.
Dom also touched on how targeting growth often means accepting that the results won’t show up neatly in your reporting, but that putting some budget in top-of-funnel channels (YouTube, Meta) will help protect the future of your pipeline.
What this means for our clients: Growth lives at the top of the funnel, not the bottom. Talk to us about where your next wave of customers might be coming from.
2/ If competitors can copy your look, you don't have a brand
The Harringtons pet food case study was one of my favourite sessions of the day. They'd built a strong visual identity (I’d wager most dog lovers will be familiar with their distinctive cocker spaniel) and then watched competitors copy all of it.
Their response was to look for a new edge, something their customers needed that nobody else was delivering. What they found was a gap in the middle of the market between the pet owners who were paying less for cheaper brands and those overpaying for premium pet food that was no better.
They decided to concentrate on something they’d always been doing, but just not shouting about – offering good quality ingredients at an affordable price. By taking inspiration from cereal brands like Cheerios who were experts in nutrition marketing, Harringtons were able to win on the shelf where customers often take less than three seconds to make their choice.
What this means for our clients: The best brands don’t rely on something everybody could offer. Find what makes you unique, even if it’s something you’ve been doing all along.
Bluestorm's Digital Marketing Executive Harry Neill and Content Marketing Manager Matt Holden at Prolific North's Northern Marketing Festival in Leeds.
3/ Good things come to those who wait
One of my favourite stories from the conference came from Jorvik Tricycles and their decision to run a TV ad for the first time. After a day of watching it air alongside the likes of Lorraine and The Chase, they’d had no enquiries. This prompted a panicked call to their ad agency to set up a crisis meeting.
By the time the agency walked through the door, the phones were ringing off the hook – only they’d forgotten to tell the agency! Awkward in the best possible way.
What this means for our clients: If you're pulling the plug on activity because it hasn't converted straight away, you might be cutting off something that was just about to work.
4/ Platform marketing is dominating for younger audiences
Bill Dennett from Uber gave a session that made me think differently about the power of the platform.
Uber perfectly understands how behaviour is changing, especially for younger audiences. We all now expect convenience and speed at our fingertips and we’re more open to trying alternatives, even while remaining loyal to certain brands.
Uber’s success has come from building trust and trying to be useful in the right moment. Examples included a coffee ad during a morning commute or a supermarket ad when you're heading home from the airport to an empty fridge. It’s less about pushing messages and more about solving problems at the right time.
They’ve become part of the daily life of their customers and because of that, users now trust them to help them choose other brands. And in terms of loyalty, Uber doesn’t waste time trying to stop them exploring, it focuses on winning them back time after time.
What this means for our clients: Find the right moments to reach your customers and figure out where they’ll be at the time. For younger audiences in particular, often the platform comes first and the brand comes second.
Jorvik Tricycles founder James Walker (left) discussing his team's move from just digital marketing to a wider mix, including TV advertising. (credit: The-Vain-Photography - Carl-Sukonik)
5/ You always get out what you put in – and AI is no different
This was the session I came away thinking about most, mainly because it articulated something I've been trying to explain to people for a while as a copywriter.
The central theme was that when it comes to copy, slop isn’t new. Humans have been writing slop for thousands of years, AI has just made it faster and cheaper to do on a large scale.
They ran a few examples where the audience had to guess whether something was written by AI or a human and it wasn’t as obvious as people expected. Some of the worst examples were written long before AI became mainstream.
The cause is usually the same. Not enough thought, not enough effort and rushing to get something out. The solution they suggested was increasing what they called friction. Put more thinking into prompts. Be clearer about what you want to say. Break tasks down instead of asking for everything in one go. Choose the right tools rather than defaulting to one.
In other words, use AI properly instead of expecting it to do the thinking for you.
What this means for our clients: If your AI output isn't landing, the issue is almost certainly the input.
In summary
Northern Marketing Festival is always worth a day of your time, and this year was no exception.
If any of these themes connect with something you're working through, I'd genuinely enjoy a conversation about it. That's what we're here for.
Event photography courtesy of Carl Sukonik from The Vain Photography, via Prolific North.
