David Shing, at MABS2017: “you have to concentrate on the story and less on how to tell it: more story and less telling”

The Australian thought leader and self-proclaimed "Digital Prophet", during his presentation at MABS2017, organized by Atresmedia, assures that "technology changes behavior, but not needs. Understanding needs is not easy."

Management & Business Summit, #MABS2017, el evento líder entre directivos y personalidades mundiales organizado por Atresmedia, ha arrancado este miércoles su convocatoria de 2017. El consejero delegado de Atresmedia, Silvio González, ha abierto la jornada inaugural en un acto conducido por las presentadoras Mónica Carrillo y Mamen Mendizábal, de Antena 3 y LaSexta, respectivamente. El líder de pensamiento australiano y autoproclamado “Profeta Digital”, David Shing, conocido como ‘Shingy’, ha abierto las ponencias vespertinas con una intervención salpicada de ejemplos memorables de marcas e innovaciones, casos prácticos y experiencias de ayer y de mañana para dar las mejores claves ante los retos de hoy.

"Computers are useless, they don't give you answers, Pablo Picasso said it and I love it. Innovation is change, invention is creativity," 'Shingy' began his dynamic intervention, but not before expressing the joy he felt at being able to participate in this forum in particular and being able to be in Spain in general: "I'm struck by its culture about Spain, I'm amazed by you, you drink, you go out, you are party animals and, the next day, meetings at 8 in the morning! tomorrow! I like it when the culture stays local.”

The creative has continued to focus on emoticons: "the Oxford dictionary introduced the word 'emoji' in 2015. Now we live in a totally different culture. Now we use the word disruption, everyone talks about disruption and it is not the technology that is going to be disruptive, but the business model."

“Einstein discovered quantum theory, he was a violinist with a great training, he could be a scientist or an artist and that is what you have to do,” he assured, telling the attendees that what he was interested in was transmitting to them “the artistic part.”

Maslow's hierarchy

Recalling 'Maslow's Hierarchy', the Australian leader stated that "when we think about this, technology changes behavior, but not needs. Understanding needs is important, but it is not that easy."

"When we talk about connecting human beings, everyone talks about virtual reality, when you have been wearing the glasses for a minute it is incredible, virtual reality is not something new, the difference today is that if we go to see a movie you laugh and I cry, with the glasses you are the protagonist of your own experience," he assured about the latest developments in this sense, adding: "Virtual reality interests me a lot. In China they are studying a lot, to transfer the real to the physical, but reality is sometimes much better than fiction."

“The physical experience is very important and that is what we have to consider with our brand: the internet of emotions,” he stated, then listing the number of existing inventions and those that will come: “maybe you don't have a screen in the future and what you have is a tattoo, we are looking at portable devices, there are many.”

In this sense, he has shown attendees, through videos, from devices to pay with a chip on the sleeve of the shirt, to techniques to feel the same impact as an American football player, a 3D suit that changes and evolves when you look at someone.

"So what, we have all these opportunities, so what?" he asked himself, to answer: "Now we are in the business of emotions, 75% of the decisions we make today are emotional and the 4 'Ps' model that we learned in Marketing no longer works for us."

"The public you have today has its own public, its own audience. What you publish, they will then share and have their own experience," he noted.

"Young people have completely different ways of expressing themselves, they want to be entertained, the word boredom is very present, kids grow up with a screen, the word creativity must be redefined," he added.

"You have to sympathize and what matters most today is sharing. We are not talking about selling in real time, but about connecting with other humans, we have to return to experimentation," he suggested to the audience.

“70% of people only try applications once, we have to find ways to connect people, make them fall in love with your application,” he continued, while emphasizing that “in a world of word of mouth we will be able to connect with those people, we must always be within the media, you can invent ways but, please, be simple, simplicity is the maximum sophistication, Da Vinci already said it,” 'Shingy' remarked.

“We want tribal loyalty, it's incredible what you can achieve when you achieve it with your brand,” he said, giving the example of Ray Ban, which “never advertises its glasses without a legend to wear them.”

In this sense, he has assured that it is essential to “connect with the DNA of your brand”, because this is how “you can have the opportunity to reinvent the product”, he said, using Carlsberg beer as an example, which he saw how its ingredients work very well as a facial tonic or how Coca Cola has changed the caps in Vietnam so that they do not become garbage and are useful products. Or also the case of Nike with Pokemon Go, which "instead of providing a digital experience, made a range of sneakers that reflected Nike's culture, a nod to the Pokemon characters."

“We have a problem with authenticity, we have to be trustworthy with the DNA of the brand,” he stressed. He also wanted to emphasize among the attendees the practice of 'hacking', something that he considers "very interesting" and that does not always have to be negative; “Many brands complain about being hacked,” but the digital leader has presented to the attendees specific cases of how to reverse this situation to create a positive campaign.

"The main message is that content matters, you have to generate good content. My advice is that you have to concentrate on the story and less on how to tell it, more story and less telling," he concluded, giving among other examples the John Lewis advertisement for the 2016 Christmas campaign.