MOMOT: the new -1 moment of truth

We all read the big news flash innovatve ZMOT theory that “Think with Google” published back in 2011 defining for all businesses for the very first time the zero moment of truth as the “online decision-making moment” when a customer reaches out to research a brand online before they even start their customer journey down the well known AIDA sales funnel and get into the brand’s marketing team “radar”.

ZMOT was disruptive and shook the whole industry through revelaling a new way of thinking that completely changed the outlook on succesfull business strategy that has been followed by generations of marketers.

Revolutionary and undoubtedly true, this theory has been ruling the markeing world for almost 10 years now but I think the time has come for it to make place for a new one.

Minus one moment of truth or MOMOT.

What is it? This is the first time when, consciously or more often unconsciously, a customer witnesses a brand’s presence with no obligation of a brand name, logo or defnition to be noticed or perceived by this customer. This includes all new and innovative forms of product placement done in digital through native or sponsored content, blog, vlog or any other no brand conducted or no brand published content.

This includes all the content that is created and distributed in the online environment by various categories of influencers, opinion leaders or celebrities.

MOMOT is already such a big part of our everyday customer journeys that we even cannot realize how vast is its presence. And this is exaclty where the significance of it stems from. MOMOT introduces us to a new brand on a subconsious level, gives us the opportunity to get familiar with the brand and its products through their unobstrusive presence all around us day after day until we are finally one day exposed again unobstructively (which makes it feel even more natural for us) with branded information.

Let me give you one example: You are a young independent woman in her early 30s working as a publishing house employee in Chicago, you love cooking, sports and you go cycling with friends every weekend.

Or you are a middle aged divorced Finish man, working for his brother in law’s accountant firm who loves enterpreneurship books, sports and his dog.

Or you are, in fact, simply you - doing whatever it is that you do with your life.

You use social media and consumer soical media content. Or if you don’t - you have friends who do or relatives who do, or colleagues who do - and tell you about it, sometimes they even show you their posts and send you social media memes and so on.

You also consume all kinds of advertising in media - with or without your benevoloence because billboard are always there for us even if we have adblockers on all our devices.

You shop, buy newspapers and magazines, watch TV, Netflix ect. - you are already in the brand game, you have no choice. You know Apple’s apple logo, you know McDonald’s brand colors, you have seen Microsoft’s logo at least once - or if the answer is still no - come on you have seen at least one logo in your life because you’ve had to go shop for food products. So you are in the brand game.

Now if a brand overloads you with content, ads, sponsored promos, pre-rolls etc. - they loose you, you hate them, you block them, report them, don’t shop them. Right? We all do so.

But how could they win you over them?

According to ZMOT they shall have great SEO, great online reputation, they should use all kinds of additional voice of the customer tools in order to make sure you will find only the finest of reviews and the best of feedback about their products or services online. Hard and let’s be honest - very often impossible to ensure. The internet is so strong exactly because it cannot be controlled.

But what shall a brand do according to MOMOT? It shall create and continuously nurture a system of well established image among opinion leaders and influncers who would then find relevant an unobstrusive way to showcase the brand products in real life scenarios and environment, who would tell their genuine stories about their experience with the brand and how it improved their lifestyle. Genuine and unobstrusive are the key words here!

The potential customer might see or might not see the brand name/logo/colors, the content might not be sponsored, the products might not be tagged - but once a story is told, a story is told and it has it’s reflection in online as well as offline communication. It’s no wonder why all genius mnemonists use storytelling to remember a great amounth of data or numbers - it’s because stories are unforgettable.

Once such a strategy is succesfully implemented by a brand it is only a matter of time until a customer develops a positive attitude and is becomes ready to researching in the ZMOT or to be introduced to the brand’s marketing communication in order to be encouraged to see more information. But this person is already not persistent, not negative, not just present as an email on a newsletter list, not just a passerby ignoring your billboard - he is ready to be marketed and curious to hear another brand story.

- Nicole

Webit festival 2019

First, the basics: Webit festival is an internationally recognized and significant business event gathering professionals from all around the world to discuss on the topic of latest trends and technologies. The event gives all attendies a chance to dive into a dynamic program full of amazing presentations, workshops and all kinds of topical and networking events. Start ups and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to present their business to future possible partners and what is even better: to pitch in front of world leading investors and compete for a great prize.

Webit is a great chance to keep up with the latest in digital knowledge and technology advancement as well as to see live speeches from some of the most famous speakers and business professionals in the world. 

And this year for the first time - I had a chance to attend the festival. My experience was more than amazing, I learned a lot and saw some amazing professionals sharing their vast experience, people like Sabine Everaet, Jesus Mantas, Paul Misener, Paul Willmott, Dirk Hoke and many more. I saw a flying man, electricity produced by plants, an AI robot and a lot more. Now, that's why I love being in the digital and innovation business. 

See some photos I took during the event:

The grant oppening was Instagrammed, Facebooked and Live streamed from almost everyone in the audience.

Here you can see photos taken during some of the presentations in Hall 1 during the two-day event.

And here are some shots from some presentations part of the Digital Entertainment and Media summit where great professionals gave advise on how to set and execute digital strategy that will achieve your goals. We even saw the actor Vladimir Karamazov who told us about his entrance in the digital marketing world.

The winner of the great prize this year is WeFarm, a really impressive and creatively invented digital network for farmers that helps real problems to be solved to secure better work process for farmers around the world. The company is Bulgarian and this makes the victory even more amazing!

I also want to share with you some useful information so I would like to give you simple but very crucial tips & tricks that would be helpful if you decide to visit the festival in the future - Webit Tips & Tricks: 

MAP

Print it, screenshot it, if you have to - draw it on a napkin, but be informed on The different venues. The program for all venues is very tightly organized and has almost no breaks in between so all the presentations happen simultaneously. This means that in order to attend all events you want you will surely have to do some running around the venues and so you have to prepared and to know where you’re heading to.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Preparation - also in the course of this - it's highly recommended that you review the agenda, get some more information on the startups exhibited as well as the presenterors in advance. You will have to decide what presentations you want to attend so that you can organise your whole schedule.

SEIZE THE MOMENT

With this busy agenda if you are a FOMO person you will barely have any time to meet people and talk with them. And this is bad! One of the greatest things about the event are all the amazing atendees so please make sure you take the time to network and check up on some acquaintances you might meet. For example I met a few people I know during presentations and we didn't have the time to talk, lost each other in the crouds or whatever so now we're discussing on when to go grab a coffee to catch up because we know we have all started working on many projects and there must be a lot to tell each other. 

Thank you for reading! Next year Webit will be hosted in Valencia, Spain and I hope to see you there!

- Nicole

Instagram is taking a step towards e-commerce with brand new “Check-out” update

The platform just launched a new update that enables users to shop directly from their feed. While up until now shopping on Instagram could only happen through redirecting customers form a brand’s account to a website, now a purchase is literally just one click away for each potential customer.

After fine-tuning its targeting to a very high extend, Instagram has set for itself a new ambitious goal – to make an big step towards facilitating shopping. The new update makes it possible for users to buy products within seconds and it is entirely cohesive with the branded content strategy and product placement features’ implementation with previous updates. The update is also fully aligned with the announcement of the platform owner company, Facebook, that its future efforts will shall indeed include and be based on development on the areas of ecommerce and payments.   

Reportedly, the app has detected that about 130 million users on a monthly basis click on product tags on posts thus identifying great sale potential. 

The payment process from the new check-out update will be possible through a Paypal partnership and users will be processing their data through a very simple form directly from a post. The product to be bought shall be tagged and also available for purchase. All you are required to fill in is an email for processing the order and a payment method. More than 20 different brands, many of which – fashion retailers, are included in the feature update and their products will be available for purchase. For providing the medium for the sale process, Instagram will charge these retailers a fee to turn a profit.

It’s really curious to wait and see what results and customer feedback generated for this update will be. Thank you for reading, expect more Insta news.

But now, go Insta shopping and then come back here to share details and opinion on the experience with me in the comments below!

Source: The Verge, Ink, CNN

- Nicole