WHAT M&M'S, MEAT LOAF AND TAPAS HAVE IN COMMON WITH MARKETING

In recent months we have been able to clearly establish that the way to a man's heart goes through his stomach. With us, this is also true for exiting marketing topics: Our Marketing meets Tapas series is establishing itself in Germany, Switzerland and recently also in Slovakia. Why Tapas? We are sure: today's marketing landscape is as diverse as Spanish delicacies.

In the last quarter of 2019, W4 invited guests to Basel, Baden, Winterthur and Bratislava for a marketing breakfast and again had two promising and hot topics from the marketing cosmos in its luggage. The presentation on headless content management systems (CMS) was not at all headless: the demands on the tools change just as quickly as those on the companies and employees. Thanks to the latest technologies, CMS today can do much more than just provide content. Especially blogs, websites and co. have to adapt to the various end devices of the users and present the content adequately.

While a while ago, we relied on the classic CMS, which our specialists call the "meatloaf architecture", content and its presentation were "baked together" to form a solution, the Headless CMS service-oriented architecture uses the administration and presentation of individual services. To illustrate the principle, an ingredient list of various spices was used, which can be mixed according to taste (or marketing objective) to provide the perfect service – a meat loaf on demand, so to speak.

If one sets up examples based on food, it is only logical if there is time for refreshment and networking in a relaxed atmosphere between the impulse lectures.

Well fortified, we went into the second round: By the way, all three events took place in cosy tapas bars, some of which even had a direct view of the Rhine, lots of sun and of course excellent tapas.

Our aim is to be fully in line with the trend even after or even because of the company's 25 years of existence – we are up to date with regard to new and technical possibilities in marketing. Therefore, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is indispensable in the portfolio of W4. Studies reveal that at least one AI skill was used by 47% of managers in 2018. This was 27% more than in the previous year! The tendency is increasing significantly. And we are sure: AI can be used in any company as well as in any industry, because artificial intelligence can reduce acquisition costs by up to 50%, increase sales by up to 15% and optimize expenses by up to 30%.

What sounds logical is still a dream of the future for many companies - this was also the response of our participants: Many of them do not plan to use AI in their company within the next two years. Accordingly, the implementation of AI poses great challenges for some companies, which must be well planned both strategically and organizationally (e.g. large amounts of data). The fact is that, and here comes the next food example, collected data can tell you a lot about your customers. The quality is as important as the AI application that analyses the data. This was illustrated by the colorful chocolate nuts: artificial intelligence separates the database into its individual parts and then links them to form a uniform picture. According to Jörg Wenzel, even simple statistical tasks can be solved with AI – the days of maintaining endless Excel lists are over – because these tasks can be performed faster and automatically by AI applications.

We would like to thank you for the positive feedback on our marketing breakfast and all participants in Switzerland and Slovakia. Already at this point we are putting our heads together again to prepare relevant topics for our next meeting.