Socialize NYC events always refresh guests with the latest in digital marketing and social technology. This year's event, #SocializeCruise, welcomed over 150 marketers on an exclusive cruise ride overlooking east Manhattan's skyline. Speakers Ritesh Patel, Chief Digital Officer of Oglivy CommonHealth Worldwide and Global Innovation Director Elav Horwitz of McCann Worldgroup, presented new insights in the digital marketing  space that will absolutely transform the way social media content is curated for short term influence devised towards long-term success.

Social cocktails and great food were a-flowing and we were happy to welcome some of our favorite brands including Mashable, Amazon, National Geographic, Metlife, the NBA, JP Morgan Chase, L’Oreal, The Financial Times, TravelZoo, Sony Music, Havas Media, FleishmanHillard, DigitasLBI, TBWA and more. Check out the recap below!

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Ritesh Patel's 5 Guiding Principles for marketing strategy

Ritesh Patel of Oglivy CommonHealth Worldwide is all about the numbers, bringing compelling case studies from various industries including Healthcare, IT, Consumer Goods and more describing how the latest trends in content strategy now rely on targeted storytelling.

We have come a long way from learning about all of the products we loved from the local marketplace in the 1800s. Since then, we have innovated and pivoted to reach far-reaching audiences through newspapers, magazines, radio and television to websites, blogs, social networks and now targeted marketing.

Patel shares, in our digital world influencers make up 1%, while advocates make up 9% and 90% of online users listen and learn from the content created and shared. The challenge is, consumers are drowned in content and with a 1.3 second attention span, this creates a barrier to reach them.

To break through this, it is important to understand your audience and “deliver an editorial and creative framework to reach the right audience." Major brands like UPS, GE and British Airways India accomplish this. So how do we? Here are Patel's 5 guiding principles to lead the way:

1. Listen to the user
2. Deliver value
3. Think beyond views
4. Build an ecosystem
5. Fish where the fish are

A cool point to mention is Patel’s metric system. Measuring content success has to be more than impressions and views and more of "what can this content do beyond this?". A technique to tackle this is the point system. For example, an impression is 1-point, the landing page is 3-points, account set-up is 4-points, etc. Through this point system a continuum is created that breaks the content creation to publication silos leading to a value change within an organization ecosystem. Fellow marketers! Capture your audience, measure, improve and capture more! Aye captain?

To remember, content marketing is now storytelling marketing. Target your audience and create content that is touching and basically non-markety. People don't like that.  The success of your campaign will be evident in your social impressions, engagements account sign-ups and your chosen KPIs. Sail high.

Creativity and pragmatism bring innovation to digital marketing with Elav Horwitz

Where does innovation come from? Well Elav Horwitz shares the doings of the creative and idea bursting right brain and syncs it with the logical and pragmatic left brain to demonstrate how both merge to bring new technology that is changing art, science, social, analytics and more. 

For example, Lockheed Martin is literally creating technology that takes our next generation, a group of school children, to Mars. Through the virtual reality experience, a school bus embedded with high definition windows with transparent display, the children were able to enjoy a “communal” learning experience that is undoubtedly changing the propensity of immersive teaching. Horwitz also shared other tech advancements such as the first smart watch for the blind created by Dot and The Emotion Simulator, a product that aims to bring emotions to artificial intelligence (AI).

How does McCann tie into this? The brand creates compelling content for brands that changes the way the user experiences products. This can only be done through a deep understanding of their audience and how better than to engage in social listening strategies to help curate content for their communities. The selection of innovative technology to engage the user is beyond powerful, it is the future of marketing and innovation strategy.

Horwitz closed with quote from WIRED's co-founder, Kevin Kelly who shares “most of the big technology that will exist in 2025 still haven’t been invented.” Maybe our guests will be the innovators of the future? We wouldn’t be surprised (wink!).

The event was a sparkling success and we are always elated at the new faces and innovative brands sparking change in the industry. Socialize NYC is an event for social marketers. It brings out conversations that may lead to the next change in digital marketing and social media technologies. Who wouldn't want to cruise on that wave? 

Big thanks to all those that came out to network and share the social buzz with us! If you weren’t able to make it to this event, follow us on Twitter @digimindci and monitor #SocializeNYC for announcements of our next exclusive party.