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Over the past few years, Nottingham has been steadily establishing itself as hub of progressive change, drive and ambition, with key standout successes in technology, healthcare and entrepreneurship. This week Hallam Internet, in collaboration with Framework Housing Charity and alongside sponsors such as WpEngine, MissionRoom, Studio Softbox and NottinghamBID, helped to reinforce this view. Putting together their first ‘digital summit’, in the heart of Nottingham at the Playhouse theatre, Hallam not only managed to raise a fantastic £15,00 donation to Framework through attendance donations, they also put on a brilliant event. With guest speakers from global companies like Google to local brands such as Capital One, the event was a great way for local companies and individuals to meet, network and learn from some of the best in industry. For Roller, as an established Creative Technological Agency, the Digital Summit was a great opportunity for us to explore some of the latest developments in digital marketing and how businesses were using technology to market to their buyers. From brand awareness and UX design to marketing automation and voice activated search, the topics varied throughout the day, and helped to share some important and inspirational messages on the future of digital marketing.

For our team, some of the talks we found engaging were from speakers Kirsty Hulse, of Many Minds, Barry Adams of State of Digital, and Owen Gill, from Hallam Internet. Kirsty’s shared her view on idea generation and the unique way her business works and how she creates ideas, to how to successfully pitch and get potential clients on board with your idea through asking questions. Discussing her process of campaign delivery, she listed some of her favourite affordable strategies, as well as her tips for strong link building practices, introducing the audience to tools such as Fake Instagram Generators and Timeline builders. ‘In order to help content marketing to remain future proof, it needs to have a big, aspirational impact.’ - Kirsty Hulse, Many Minds. From Barry, one of the standout messages was that our devices will continue to know everything about us and will continue to get smarter and more predictive because of it. Google being able to have access to the data we share on the internet was a particularly challenging topic, and a view on why progressive web apps are being pushed forward by Google.

It was also great to hear from one of Hallam’s own employees, showcasing the extent of their knowledge and their knowledge for targeted advertising. Owen delivered an informative, yet engaging talk, teaching the audience the unique possibilities for paid advertising, beacon marketing and offering up the idea that by 2022, 80% of all advertising processes will be automated. Automated marketing, visual language and the use of big data appeared to be the standout themes of the Nottingham Digital Summit, and our team left the event with plenty of new ideas for our future content strategies. The Summit was, undoubtedly, a result of the hard work put in by the team at Hallam Internet, as well as all of their sponsors, collaborators and volunteers, and their ongoing dedication to digital marketing. Our Five Key Takeaways

‘Content Marketing isn’t what you are doing, it’s what you are trying to achieve’ - Kirsty Hulse. Kirsty taught us that the end goal of every campaign is what people will pay attention to, whilst the small steps that you take to reach that goal should be varied, cheap, and diverse. She described that putting too much effort into big, shiny marketing projects can be like putting all of your eggs in one basket - and can often be a bad move.
Contextual triggers are likely to have the biggest commercial impact in future. In Barry’s talk on ‘Search in a screen less world: how voice search & contextual triggers change everything’, we learnt that there are many external factors that are going to affect how search functions and mobile prompts are activated which will ultimately create a more personalised service for users everywhere.
‘Steal with Pride’ - Through her ‘fireside chat’, Meaghan Rogers delivered an insight into the way that Google employees work collaboratively, by sharing all content with each other through Google Drive. Every idea is shared to Google Drive and Google employees can have immediate access and insight into other teams projects, so that it can be worked on and improved upon without ever needing to start from a blank slate.
‘Design with people, not for people’ - Gavin Holland, Capital One. Gavin’s presentation on Great Inclusive Design Processes discussed issues of collaborative working and creating the essential relationship between a creator and user when it comes to UX design. His talk reminded the audience the importance of the creation of a united end goal, and the idea that a shared vision for ‘success’ is crucial for good quality product delivery.
A bad digital experience can be fatal. Through her talk on ‘Looking through a new digital lens’, Rachel Starling described some of the experiences she had when designing a product page for the new Speedo Goggles. Citing that ‘88% of consumers won’t return to a site after a bad experience’, her presentation clearly illustrated just how much first impressions matter, and why we should be paying so much attention to flawless CX.

Overall, the Digital Summit was a fantastic event with so many brilliant speakers, we can’t wait for next year’s event! To find out more about our experiences at the Nottingham Digital Summit 2018, make sure you catch up with us on our socials. Or to speak to one of our team about some of the exciting recruitment opportunities we have coming up, drop us an email at info@rolleragency.co.uk.

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