Talking “Voice Revolution” in Charlotte

On Tuesday, November 27th, FCS Charlotte staged a sold-out luncheon on the topic "The Voice Revolution: The Next Wave of Opportunity."  The event featured a keynote presentation by Ally Financial's Marketing Research Director Ashely SpringA copy of her downloaded here.

Ashley then moderated a panel discussion with:

  • Jason Cook, VP, SEO Team Lead, Bank of America
  • Kim Genobles,Chief Privacy Officer, Ally Financial
  • David Dodson,Technology Director, Quartz
  • Annie Granatstein, Head of WP BrandStudio, The Washington Post

A few takeaways from the event include:

  1. Financial Services Brands were the heaviest podcast advertisers with 18% of the total ad spend in 2017
  2. Podcast growth is driven by two very desirable audiences:
    • Affluent
    • Millennials
  3. Podcasting advertising models include:
    • Ad Insertion (manual or dynamic)
    • Branded Podcasts
  4. "Voice kills Choice"
    • Audio Search eliminates audience control of viewing option
    • For example, when using Amazon's Echo ("Hey Alexa, buy AA batteries"; "Ordering AA batteries") Alexa will selects Amazon branded products
  5. Marketers must now extend their Brand Strategy to include:
    • Brand Voice (what does your brand sound like?  who does it talk like?)
    • Brand Verb (what's the action word to enage your brand?)

 

PHOTO (l to r): Dodson, Genobles, Granatstein, Spring.

This luncheon (the last of 2018 for FCS Charlotte) was also significant in that it was the first event planned and organized under Brian Roach of Ally Financial, who took on the role of FCS Charlotte President.  Along with chapter VP Michael O'Donnell of The Business Journals, Brian coordinates the participation of committe members from within and outside the Charlotte market.

For the November luncheon, The Washington Post was the Partner Sponsor.  Table sponsors were Dow Jones, Insider Inc., and Quartz.