Join Adweek for welcoming remarks for Social Media Week Los Angeles 2021 Day 2.
 

As humans and marketers, the consequences that come with speaking up and making rooms uncomfortable often overcome and outweigh the best-case scenarios.  To fuel change that will truly, meaningfully impact our lives, we must become professional troublemakers: people who are committed to not letting fear talk them out of progress and reinvention. 

Referencing insights from her new book "Professional Troublemaker" join Adweek and Luvvie Ajayi Jones for a conversation unveiling how we can leverage the power of our own voices, personally and professionally, for a greater good and how to drive actions needed to prove the truth of our words in a noisy social media landscape.

In this session, Nick Bianchi, Director of Social Media for the AT&T video business, and Karyn Spencer, CMO of the influencer company Whalar, discuss how launching The Crib Around The Corner - the first TikTok house in Los Angeles for Black creators and Adweek’s Creator House Of The Year award-winner led to big organic performance for AT&T TV, and how a new, innovative approach to fully integrated creator collaboration can lead you straight to new desired audiences.

According to Instagram, meme content gets shared 7x more than non-meme content on the (Instagram) app. Additionally, memes & funny content are the #2 most desired form of influencer content by U.S. social media influencer followers and social media users are sharing more memes as a result of the global pandemic. Memes have become one of the most culturally relevant methods for digital communication. Through ‘The Meme Economy’ panel, learn how memes are applied to real-time Culturally Relevant Marketing (the new CRM) and how top meme creators (@Shitheadsteve, @Middle Class Fancy, etc.) produce branded content that capitalizes on real-time trends.

Attend this session and learn:

• How to remain culturally relevant, authentic and engage in real-time
• How to effectively navigate the business of memes 
• How some of the top meme accounts were created and meme marketing best practices

When it comes to influencers, leading brands think small. Micro-influencers are real people with real influence. They may have smaller follower counts, but when properly activated by a brand through user-generated content, these influencers drive a sense of authenticity and brand affinity that can outperform larger content creators. Brands, like Canon, are using micro-influencers to celebrate creativity while building brand affinity with new customers.

Attend this session and learn: 

• Explore the stats and measurables behind micro influencers
• Understand the opportunities and challenges around activating small audience influencers
• Dive into how Canon is using micro-influencers to build awareness, drive sales, and connect with a newer, younger audience of digital creatives

Ben Trinh, Global Head of Entertainment and Cultural Marketing at Uber will share insights on the successful strategy of leveraging influencers and celebrity partners to create 360 marketing campaigns from his time at Postmates (acquired by Uber) and how he is thinking about it now at Uber. Entertainment and talent partnerships sit at the core of Ben's marketing strategy and he will speak on how him and his team thinks about weaponizing pop culture for the brand. 

Attend this session and learn: 

• How to work with celebrities and influencers, and what to pay, or not pay, them 
• How do you build real relationships in the entertainment industry 
• How to navigate the intersection between tech and entertainment
   

As reliance on technology to streamline and accelerate digital transformation continues to sweep the marketing industry, many wonder if influencer marketing can be automated. In its current state, most influencer marketing remains manual and archaic in its own right, but with the next wave of technology, we are beginning to see the introduction of end to end business process automation. How can brands quickly and efficiently scale the power of creators in a time where content is decentralizing and advertising is shifting to within the content rather than outside of it?

Join CEO of BEN Group and digital entertainment and influencer marketing pioneer Ricky Ray Butler along with Chief AI Evangelist Ben Taylor of Data Robot for a fireside chat on automation in influencer marketing today and the necessity of navigating this through AI and technology.

Attend this session and learn: 

• Why the adoption of automation has been slow in influencer marketing, and how technology can be leveraged to solve the unique industry challenges
• The role of data-driven, efficient processes and infrastructure in achieving success in influencer marketing
• How BEN is driving ROI and automation today through AI and technology

We are seeing a seismic shift in how content is consumed and it’s becoming clear that influencers are driving that shift. With the announcement from SAG-AFTRA, the largest union in the entertainment industry, that influencers can now join the union - it’s clear that the business of content creation and influencer marketing is changing how brands reach consumers. Forbes has stated that by the year 2022, the influencer marketing industry will be worth more than $15-billion.

Consumers are turning to a different type of celebrity when they absorb oftentimes unsolicited advice. GenZ and now Millennials are following the trendsetting influencers and content creators - the community of icons who are creating viral moments and not following them. This is the creator economy who come across to their audiences almost as friends instead of celebrities because these creators know their audience and what they want to see when tuning into their channel. A content creator won’t just post a staged photo with a clearly scripted copy - their audience will find the lie and lose trust in the creator. Over the last 5 years, content creators have taken a vested interest in working as creative partners with brands instead of as paid spokespeople.

This discussion will center around the changing landscape of influencer and content creator marketing. We’ll talk with top thought leaders in the industry about the trends in the type of content influencers are making, how influencers are partnering with brands, and the value of co-creation for brands.

Main Stage Closing Remarks for Day 2 of #SMWLA.

*Open to Premium Pass holders

Join like-minded peers for intimate open discussions focused on top of mind industry challenges and trends.

Pre-registrants will receive email instructions on how to access Meetup 30 minutes prior to the start of the Meetup

*Open to Premium Pass holders

Join like-minded peers for intimate open discussions focused on top of mind industry challenges and trends.

Pre-registrants will receive email instructions on how to access Meetup 30 minutes prior to the start of the Meetup

* Open to Premium Pass holders

Beyonce collaborated with adidas on the Ivy Park collection. Travis Scott’s hosted a concert series on Fort Nite. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played video game Among Us on Twitch. And Damian Lillard recorded a bop called Hulu Doesn’t Just Have Live Sports. To reach Gen Z audiences, word-of-mouth marketing has been reinvented to become “Influence Culture."

Join Hulu's Head of Brand Social, Tatiana Holifield, to unpack this cultural phenomenon and learn practical ways to reinvent your influencer marketing strategy with credibility and authenticity. 

Attend this session and learn: 

• How word of mouth marketing creates a halo effect that drives Earned Media
• Why an Active Listening strategy is integral to mastering ‘Influence Culture’
• What key forces and consumer dynamics are behind today’s hyper competitive marketing landscape

* Open to Premium Pass holders

Despite all of the uncertainties lingering from 2020, one thing remains clear: influencer marketing remains a highly effective form of storytelling. While the overwhelming majority of marketers see the value in working with influencers, the metrics involved in this rapidly evolving space, including ROI, are still mostly a mystery to many businesses.

Join Eric Dahan and Maggie Reznikoff of Open Influence as they explore the tips and tricks necessary to build the right influencer marketing strategy that captivates your audience and stays true to your brand.

Attend this session and learn:

• How to develop and adapt influencer strategy to meet customers’ needs
• How to craft winning strategies that identify the right influencers for your brand
• How to strike the balance of direction and freedom to unlock a brand’s creative potential

* Open to Premium Pass holders

Gen Z is notoriously hard to reach. This generation of digital natives consumes less traditional media with higher amounts of screen time than any other preceding generation. Though they are constantly online, they block, skip and ignore traditional ads at astonishingly high rates which makes it hard for brands to connect with them.

Join Brad May, Head of Strategy at Reach Agency and Michael Bull, Associate Brand Manager at Nestlé USA as they share successful and strategic ways to effectively connect with Gen Z consumers through the lens of the key principles and learnings from the award-winning campaign, Hot Pockets for Bits.

* Open to Premium Pass holders

As influencer marketing keeps growing, so does the need to demonstrate impact. To comfortably put spend and resources behind it, marketers need to understand the return on investment, especially in the context of other channels. Put simply, the question is not whether to incorporate influencer marketing but how to elevate it to a credible channel.

Join Google’s Tobias Rauscher as he shares how he and his team managed to elevate influencer work to be a part of the broader marketing mix. He’ll also debunk commons myths around measurement frameworks and selling impressions and likes as impact. 

Attend this session and learn:

• How to prove the return of influencer marketing and compare effectiveness across the marketing mix
• How to think of vanity metrics vs. brand lift
• How to think of long-form vs. short-form

Join Adweek for welcoming remarks for Social Media Week Los Angeles 2021 Day 3.
 

Social media 1.0 created somewhat of a false narrative and safety net by convincing marketers that alignment with culture was as easy as identification of influential voices and trends and deploying investment into what looked like an easy bet. Today, culture moves faster than ever, defies and scoffs at the platforms and challenges brands to reevaluate the way they communicate, operate and evaluate. 

Join James Andrews, founder of Authenticated Ventures, as he addresses key questions as we navigate this next chapter including If culture is defined by where consumers are paying attention, what are you paying attention to? If authenticity is measured by credibility, how do you know when you are respecting or disrespecting the genres and sub genres? If we have now moved into a fractured and confusing media landscape, how do you know if you have the right personnel on the team with the right skill sets?

Attend this session and learn: 

• The power of communities as a barometer of culture and opportunity to identify advocates
• Trends in social media & the power of social audio as a medium for storytelling and brand building
• The new famous: A different take on the role of celebrities and influencers

How did brands like ColourPop, Boohoo, and Fashion Nova build empires on social media? By putting influencers at the center of their digital strategy. While many brands treat influencer marketing as an add-on, today’s biggest names in beauty, fashion, and lifestyle make content creators an integral part of their brands’ DNA.

Join Conor Begley, Co-founder and President of Tribe Dynamics, and Brit McCorquodale, EVP of Revenue, as they outline the strategies billion-dollar brands are using to dominate conversation on social—and what your brand can learn from the best in class.

Founder of HBFIT, author, and DJ Hannah Bronfman built her reputation as a celebrity and influencer through her work as an investor, entrepreneur and health and wellness expert. More recently, she continues to dedicate the use of her platform to social activism – increasing her followers’ awareness of Black History and the current challenges that the country is facing.

Join Adweek in conversation with Hannah as she shares insights and tips learned throughout the evolution of her presence as an advocate and a host, how mommyhood now shapes her views and strategy on social media, and how influencers can make small strides each day to drive positive change in our society from racial injustice to reimagining default standards of "beauty” and “healthy.”

Join Adweek winners for Creator House Of The Year The Crib Around The Corner as they discuss the strategies behind their millions of views on TikTok, how they really feel about diversity initiatives, and what it takes to make a branded post take off.

Cryptocurrency, built on the Blockchain has seen explosive scale and volatility in 2021, however despite so much uncertainty there is one area that is gaining considerable momentum and attention.

Specifically, Creators are beginning to harness cryptocurrencies by inviting their audiences to show support and invest in their success which in turn gives them a way to earn revenue that is not dependent on the platforms like YouTube or other social networks. During this session, entrepreneur and founder of N2N2, Justin Rezvani will lead a discussion that explores all aspects of what’s next for the Creator Economy and what marketers need to know to navigate this nascent space.

Main Stage Closing Remarks for Day 3 of #SMWLA.

*Open to Premium Pass holders

Join like-minded peers for intimate open discussions focused on top of mind industry challenges and trends.

Pre-registrants will receive email instructions on how to access Meetup 30 minutes prior to the start of the Meetup

*Open to Premium Pass holders

Join like-minded peers for intimate open discussions focused on top of mind industry challenges and trends.

Pre-registrants will receive email instructions on how to access Meetup 30 minutes prior to the start of the Meetup