Day 1: “Make sure to be different”
Dozens of speakers. Hundreds of marketers. And thousands of conversations where the word marketing falls sooner or later. That's the BAM Marketing Congress. The common thread on the first day was clear: “Make sure you're different, that you stand out from other brands.” How? Opinions differed on that.
The USP or Unique Selling Proposition is now almost 100 years old, but apparently we have forgotten the concept somewhat. Or at least forgotten how to give it a contemporary interpretation.
Being different was clearly the common thread in the presentations on Day 1 of the BAM Marketing Congress. It started with Congress Captain Steven Verbruggen talking about an ‘unfair share’. Those who are not strong (read: have smaller budgets) must be smart.
Marketing Renaissance
For Ann Handley, it was at the heart of her Marketing Renaissance. “Make sure you are human and that you are different,” she echoed. Freely translated: do the opposite of what others do. The example of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District was striking. The intercommunal water supply district tackles its communications - especially on X - in a very human and distinctive way. This means that by now, the Communications Manager has also become the face of the company.
Matt Navarra - a social media specialist - also returned to the importance of being distinctive. ‘If everyone zigs, just zag’. That's what it came down to. He denounced the fact that every brand uses the same techniques and that a challenge on social media is immediately claimed by numerous brands.
A 76-year-old provided best presentation
And yes, the latest technologies such as AI and Web3 were also discussed at the conference. But there, too, the goal is to make a difference. At first, that might be by just taking advantage of it (while your competitors are not yet doing so), but in the long run, of course, that advantage does not last. With AI, the intention is just to use technology to make brands more human, while Diego Borgo in his presentation on Web3 just talked about how dangerous it is to follow trends.
The search for distinctiveness as a brand was interrupted only by Catarina Occhio's unmistakable message: you’ll be damned if you make green claims you can't back up. The Green Claims Directive will become reality in 2027 or 2028 and will ensure that every sustainability claim has to be very firmly substantiated.
But on that front, the BAM Marketing Congress was already sitting pretty. The best evidence? The best presentation was one by a 76-year-old (Luc De Brabandere). So no agewashing at the BAM Marketing Congress.
And then the Belpop Bonanza show had yet to begin....
