14 July 2022  – Future Leap Clifton 

In Collaboration with Event Sponsor, Six Agency

A bright and sunny morning provided the perfect start for our breakfast event on branding. This made a welcome change from the dark and gloomy starts in the winter-time. A warm summers day seemed to have encouraged flowing discussions as we joined in collaboration with Six agency to explore thinking differently through behaviour change, video content and the successful use of data in marketing.  

Our very own Katie Clubb, Network Accounts Manager at Future Leap, welcomed everyone to the beautiful old chapel in Clifton, home to Future Leap’s second hub. This event was particularly special as it was Katie’s first time chairing one of our events, and she did a spectacular job facilitating conversations, encouraging questions and making everyone feel at home. We’re all looking forward to more events with Katie!

Laura Miller – Strategist, Six Agency

Our first speaker was Laura Miller, Strategist for Six Agency, who led the audience through ways in which brands can activate positive behaviour change.  

We are currently seeing a shift towards businesses working on ESG reporting and engaging with social and ecological sustainability, while also making money at the same time. This in turn creates a new model for economic and social theory. We are moving from social and environmental responsibility adversely affecting an organisation’s financial performance, to societal and environmental responsibility contributing to the overall success of a business, as well as its financial performance.  

But where can we start with brand purpose? Laura bought things back to basics, explaining that we should look to why, how and what. Why will help us to outline our purpose. How establishes out our differences. What identifies products and services.  

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it

Simon Sinek

Being able to articulate you purpose to your customers, audiences and communities is a great place to start. This gives people a reason to believe in your company. We know that businesses tend to do better when they are purpose-led, with customers more likely to purchase and champion organisations with which they share an emotional connection.  

Now for the behavioural science. Laura Miller introduced the audience to two brain systems: 

• System 1: Thinking in a near-instantaneous process, driven by instincts and experience.
• System 2: Thinking in a slower way, requiring more effort, more conscious and logical.

Changing behaviour requires a change to system 2 thinking, as this will affect longer-term thinking, and in turn doing. In order to shift this behaviour, you must also understand barriers that may prevent a person from thinking in a different way.  

But how can an organisation put all of this knowledge and theory into practice?  

Six agency provided a breakdown of how they inspire businesses and brands to be more human. First, their strategies are grounded in human insight. They explore your audience’s behaviour and the drivers behind it. Their creativity is focused on behaviour change. They use storytelling and human-centred design to engage people and motivate them to act. Finally, Six deliver this through intuitive technology, enabling people to connect more easily with your business by removing barriers.  

Jon Mowat – Managing Director, Hurricane Media

Following on nicely from Laura, Jon Mowat, Managing Director of Hurricane Media, introduced attendees to the psychology behind video and the world’s most powerful visual tool.  

Jon steered the audience through ways in which marketeers can manipulate behaviour through the use of video footage, appealing to human behaviour patterns to stir a particular emotional response to a product, service or cause.  

We are conditioned to add a narrative to stories. When we see a story, our brainwaves change and the chemicals that trigger certain emotions kick-in and we essentially become ingrained and embedded within the story we are presented with.  

Driving the message home that there is always an emotional driver, Jon expressed the importance of connecting with our audiences emotionally if we have a long-term goal of raising brand awareness and impact.  

Jon has written two books on video marketing:

• Video Marketing Strategy: Harness the Power of Online Video to Drive Brand Growth – 2018
• Video Marketing: Create Engaging Video Campaigns to Drive Brand Growth and Sales – 2021

We highly recommend reading the above and following Jon on Linkedin to keep up-to-date with incredibly helpful insights into the world of video marketing.

Helen Tanner – Founder, Data Cubed

Finally, we were joined by Helen Tanner, founder of Data Cubed, an award-winning data consultancy in which Helen works as a self-professed data fanatic.  

Bringing our attention to the importance of data for branding, Helen shared that data-driven businesses are 23 x more likely to acquire customers, 6 x more likely to retain those customers and 19 x more likely to grow. 

Helen’s top tip for managing data for marketing and branding purposes was to avoid being overwhelmed by the many different systems in which we collect data, instead, starting with an objective and knowing what we are aiming to achieve. We can drown in data, and so we must identify our goals surrounding growth, retention, conversions and so on. This starting point enables us to approach the data systematically.  

Data Cubed offer free consultations in managing your business’ data, and encourage you to engage with their free marketing dashboard – mydata3.com.  

Helen has also written a book that enabled SMEs to apply big-business strategies, take advantage of cutting-edge tools and monetise data to accelerate business growth.  

• The Data Escalator: Make more money for your business with the data you already have – 2020

Data isn’t necessarily for everyone, and so do reach out to Helen and the brilliant team at Data Cubed should you be looking to improve the management of your marketing data to help better understand your business performance.

This talk was followed by an engaging Q&A session in which our speakers joined as a panel to tackle questions surrounding branding, behavioural science and data optimisation.

60 Second Pitches

In the usual fashion, this event was wrapped up with the ever-popular 60 second pitches! This provides an opportunity for businesses to reach out to others and promote their products or services to a targeted audience.

• Rin Hamburgh & Co – Copywriting and Consulting Service
• Simon Forsyth – Representing both Carbon Lens and Future Leap for carbon measurement and reduction
• Garrett Creative – Independent design studio and artist collective