The DMEXCO Debrief
OMD EMEA
30 September 2020

View our DMEXCO Debrief here.

Like most events this year, the Digital Marketing Expo & Conference (DMEXCO), which usually takes place in Cologne, Germany, became DMEXCO@Home. Within 3 months they transformed an established live event into a “digital only” experience with over 800 speakers delivering 100+ hours of content over two days. Whilst we are all navigating this new virtual conference space, the DMEXCO festival certainly had some challenges, by way of criticism of the amount of pre-recorded content, the lack of being able to share these links with you now post-conference, and the lack of subtitles, did create some tensions.

Overall though, the quality of the sessions was high, and we all appreciate the willingness to act fast and try their hands at a virtual event. We were happy to see some consistent themes pulling through, which we have summarised here for you now. These sessions may become available for you to check out on YouTube in due course.

The festival’s overall motto of “Attitude Matters” had been used in 2019, but it couldn’t have been more appropriate for 2020. With the rapid changes of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, privacy regulations etc. a brand’s attitude is likely to be critical now more than ever, becoming a strong emotional anchor as customers have more choice than ever before.

Consumers will choose the brand that fits their specific needs, meets their expectations and in some cases even shares their values. That’s why, as already seen in the Cannes Lions Live Debrief, the importance of Empathy continues to be a key theme as we all navigate these current times. Great for OMD, as Empathy is one of our core values, and has been since we launched OMD Design in 2018, to ensure we are always putting empathy at the core of our craft to create valued and valuable experiences for consumers and our client’s brands. At DMEXCO we saw Snap Inc., Facebook and SAP all take to the virtual stage, to discuss how employers can be more empathic in the workplace. We also hosted our own session which we link to on page 7.

The importance of brand safety was another critical theme coming out of the festival. With consumers being available to receive more information and data than ever before, ensuring they feel safe and protected regarding their data and how it is used, is something under scrutiny on a continued basis.

Along the same vein, we also explored data, and how the changes in third-party data and cookie collection are impacting our industry.

Finally, we are delighted to have an eCommerce section authored by our eComm specialist team at Transact. We all know that COVID-19 has accelerated eCommerce, but what are the long-term implications the virus has unearthed?

Click here to view the full document online. 

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