One day at Digital First, the most important Digital event in Belgium
On October 22nd 2022, one of the consultants of the Belgian office had the opportunity to attend the Digital First Event, which took place at Tour & Taxis in Brussels.
For 17 years in a row, Digital First is the most important event in Belgium for the digital industry. It highlights the latest trends in the digital sector and gives an overview of market evolutions and upcoming innovations. This year, the emphasis was put on entrepreneurship.
This event is the perfect occasion for digital professionals to network, create leads, or even create business opportunities. It also gives the chance to attend numerous conferences given by both national and international speakers willing to share their experiences and insights.
Here is an overview of some of the conferences that were given during this Event:
“The 5 pillars of a successful service company” by Teamleader
Teamleader is a fast-growing SaaS (Software as a Service) company that provides personalized and customizable services to companies (mainly SME’s). During this conference, Corentin Gastel, Strategy Consultant at Teamleader, highlighted the five pillars of a successful service company, namely:
- Customer growth (through account management and customers’ retention)
- Operational excellence (regarding quotations, projects, and time management)
- Revenue management (invoicing and purchases)
- Centralized analytics (reporting on projects, financial and organization level)
- Connected services (operations, HR, finance, IT, …)
Each of these pillars was illustrated by concrete scenarios and situations.
“Move to a Digital Retail Company” by Carrefour
Gregory Pierquin, IT Director (Data, CRM & Loyalty Platforms) at the well-known Retail Company of Carrefour, spoke about the importance of digital and data in Retail, and how the company evolves with it.
Indeed, he put forward the fact that Carrefour invests increasingly more in digital, and especially in ecommerce, in order for their customers to look up and buy their products online. According to him, three key trends make the success of an ecommerce platform: the speed of order and delivery, the digital convenience, and the customization / personalization of the service.
He also put the emphasis on the fact that there is an increasing will of customers to use apps. As a matter of fact, apps make their purchases easier and enable the company to create a real relationship with customers through loyalty, making them want to come back and on a more regular basis.
Furthermore, Mr. Pierquin also explained that Carrefour is building one of the biggest data lake in Europe. With all the data collected about their customers, the company is able to propose them a personalized service (e.g.: send personalized messages, propose specific promotions, etc.). For them, all is about data and how to use it to reach and win the loyalty of the end customer.
Delhaize Delivery+: understanding customer behaviors when launching a subscription model” by Delhaize and Contentsquare
During their contribution at Digital First, Frederik Van Baelen (Delhaize) and Nicolas Bruyns (Contentsquare) spoke about ecommerce and how it is a booming business. Indeed, even though it is now used by many companies, Delhaize was the first retailer to go into in ecommerce in Belgium. Today, their customers can order products online and come pick them up in one of their 121 pick-up points all over the country.
On that note, both speakers were pleased to talk about their collaboration, which has enabled them to launch, in May 2022, the first subscription system for home-delivered food in Belgium: Delhaize Delivery+. As from that moment, customers could order the products they want online, but also have them delivered directly at their house. Delhaize proposes this delivery service via a subscription system.
Contentsquare, the company with whom Delhaize created the platform, now allows the retailer to track and analyze its customers’ behavior on the website by anonymously tracking all mouse movements, clicks and mobile interactions.
For the creation of this subscription model, Delhaize and Contentsquare highlighted four key elements to keep in mind:
- Keep it simple
- List your do’s and don’ts
- Attract new customers
- Focus on profitable growth
“Ten predictions for influencer marketing in 2023” by Brandwatch
In today’s world, companies must be present on Social Medias if they want to be well known by consumers. Indeed, platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are used on a daily basis by millions of people, which makes them essential for companies’ and brands’ awareness. On top of that, hiring influencers to promote products and/or services on social medias has become common practice for many companies.
This is what James Creech from Brandwatch highlighted through the ten following predictions for influencer marketing in 2023:
- Robots will take over your social feed
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube will copy TikTok’s approach to algorithmic discovery and content recommendations.
- Short-form videos will remain a key battle ground
TikTok, IG Reels, YT Shorts, and others will continue to fight for creator content, audience attention, and advertiser interest.
- BeReal will BeGone
Incumbents will copy BeReal’s 2-minute candid prompts and dual feature, stifling its growth.
- Influencers will become a direct response channel
Affiliate marketing will overtake pay-to-post as brands embrace performance-driven influencer campaigns.
- TikTok will expand ad monetization
As the battle for creator attention intensifies, platforms will be forced to offer talent more attractive earning potential.
- Podcasting will become more social
Podcasts will become increasingly important for creator platforms, especially YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
- Private interests will proliferate
More countries will block Western creator platforms in an effort to build their own internet with local players (e.g.: Russia, Pakistan).
- Adult content creators will find a new home
OnlyFans will face serious challengers in the adult content creator space.
- Social commerce will continue to lag
Creator platforms will continue to struggle with social commerce, but off-platform solutions will grow, especially among niche communities.
- More brands will collaborate with virtual influencers
Brands will seek to cash in on the growing popularity of CGI (Computer Generated Influencers).
On this, he proposed three key takeaways on how to use these predictions as well as social medias for your business:
- Understand your audience
- Experiment with new platforms
- Measure performance and continually optimize your results
”Sovereign cloud demystified for digital leaders” by Proximus
As a leading partner of Sovereign Cloud (Microsoft recognized), the company Proximus thinks that this technology is revolutionary and that it should be more used by companies in digital. This is what Jetro Wils (Product Manager Hybrid) and Thierry Van Nuffelen (Product Manager Cloud) talked about during their conference at the event.
It is not a secret, many companies use Clouds for their (and consumers’) data as it is the ideal way to store huge datasets. However, the issue with this is that people do not exactly know how their data is used and who has access to it.
Well, the solution for this is the Sovereign Cloud. Indeed, the use of an encrypted server in this Cloud makes it impossible for Cloud providers to read your data, which is not the case in a “normal” Cloud. Data can be stored in different levels of Clouds, depending on its sensitivity. And this is possible thanks to the use of a technology called “Confidential compute”.
In a nutshell, this technology makes the share of confidential data more secure and easier for everybody.
As a conclusion, Digital First is the place to be if you want to enrich your knowledge about the digital industry. As Headmind Partners is a player in the sector, it was important for us to be able to discuss future innovations with visitors and to get a glimpse on the companies that have shaped the industry in 2022. So, see you next year at Digital First ?