Bloomberg introduced this panel in a series titled "Business is…" given that they are launching bloomberg.co.uk next month.
The panel featured L-R: Omid Ashtari (GM Citymapper), Jo Bertram (Regional GM Uber), Jonathan Forster (VP EMEA Sales Spotify), Nick Hungerford (CEO Nutmeg), Stacy Martinet (CMO Mashable) and Caroline Hyde (Bloomberg TV Anchor & Moderator)
How are your businesses disruptive?
Stacy Martinet (Mashable): At Mashable we grew up on the web and invest in own technology called Velocity that monitors 2000 URL's. We look for smart ways to bring tech into media.
Nick Hungerford (Nutmeg): At Nutmeg we help people manage their money with technology. Finance and healthcare are the last ones to change. For 600 years people have been managing money so we want to make it possible for everyone to manage their money on the web. Many people won't have pensions.
Jonathan Forster (Spotify): At Spotify we want to make it easy for people all over the world to listen to music and create revenue streams for music industry. Uber allows people to have music in the car even when they don't have a car
Jo Bertram (Uber): At Uber, technology allows traceability and trust while also bringing the cost down while keeping the driver busier and earning more. Now people use uber instead of own driver.
Omid Ashtari (Citymapper): Technology gives a fun and efficient way around modern transport. Covers everything even Uber and Barclays bikes. We are being cheeky in a space that is traditionally very serious. The app really focusses on solving the problem addressing all the aspects of a journey while nailing the user experience.
How are you marketing yourselves?
Jo Bertram (Uber): Uber does a lot through word-of-mouth. We need to reach riders and drivers. Give £10 to a friend and you get £10 in return because we believe that someone will re-use once they have tried. Same for drivers who are all private license drivers so also do some traditional above the line advertising. People all have heard about it through Twitter, Facebook and a friend. By building such a good app, the evangelists are spreading the word. We haven't spent a dime in London and have achieved successful market penetration.
Jonathan Forster (Spotify): At Spotify we obsess about Net Promoter score. The data is very useful e.g. Chelteham is the city with the most men over 40 who listen to Justin Bieber! Awareness goes through the roof when featured through partner advertising e.g. Vodafone in UK and KPN in The Netherlands. Just hired ex CMO from GAP so we expect new and exciting things.
Nick Hungerford (Nutmeg): Nutmeg used traditional marketing but need to attract people who will be valuable over time, get a lot of them but build trust. Traditional advertising allows us to gain trust as a bad financial experience much worse then poor Uber trip or downloaded music track.
Stacy Martinet (Mashable): Brand matters now more than ever, and Mashable recognise that. You need to be authentic but now the shift more towards relevance. Social media is word-of-mouth at scale, which has helped us grow our brand. We do a lot of work on social channels. We live in streams on our phones and brands need to be in those streams too. We do it with content marketing and video is one way to do that. There are new players in the video space as video is the closest thing we have to lean in engagement. We are more interested in Vine, Vimeo etc. that focusses just on that. With brands we can co-create offerings too. Nothing will be more different then real-time marketing with tweets which some brands have gotten right and others have had epic fails.
What is the big hurdle to consumer engagement and thinking outside the box?
Nick Hungerford (Nutmeg): For Nutmeg it's a big hurdle to engage around a boring subject. Must find a way to overcome that and reflects beauty and ease of use.
Jo Bertram (Uber): At Uber we offer different services in different markets. Only launched in London 2.5 years ago and now also a global brand. Have some exciting stories which now need to focus on how we get them out there.
Omid Ashtari (Citymapper): Citymapper emphasises need for partnerships, content and generally all stuff on scale.
Jonathan Forster (Spotify): Nick Hungerford asks: Is any PR good PR i.e. Spotify stealing music and Uber scandal. Yes, for Spotify as we see numbers increase.
Stacy Martinet (Mashable): Key factor for to differentiate is brand and user experience. There is no patience for faulty product and technology.
Jonathan Forster (Spotify): $1 billion market in digital audio in US but we haven't figured it out in Europe.
Citymapper: Wearables and new paradigms are essential to take into consideration and don't get distracted by the competition.
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