More than 700 people filled the auditorium of the Centro Cultural La Rambleta in Valencia on Wednesday 30 September for this year's Hoy Es Marketing (HEM), the marketing conference run by ESIC Business & Marketing School, according to Economía 3 and El Ecosistema Startup. The theme was "Marketing will be judged" (translated): the audience acted as a jury and, after each talk, held up signs reading "guilty" or "innocent".
Five brands in the dock
Patrick Sievers, Global Head of CUPRA Marketing, opened with the case of the car brand and its bet on an identity built around culture rather than the codes of the motor industry. Ester Marinas, head of marketing for Google in Spain and Portugal, focused on the impact of AI and on measuring marketing beyond clicks and immediate conversions.
Clara Vila, Head of Marketing at Froneri Iberia, took sponsorship through Maxibon's presence at Ibai Llanos' La Velada del Año, where the brand played on the line "no tires la toalla" (don't throw in the towel). "Not everything goes when sponsoring an event," she said (translated): there has to be a connection between the event and the values the brand stands for.
Íñigo Vallejo, Brand Manager at Octopus Energy, spoke about building trust and standing out in the energy market, and Marta Domínguez, marketing director of MediaMarkt Spain, about working with content creators, which means giving up part of the control over the message.
An Olympian and a local brand
Paula Leitón, Olympic water polo champion, brought the talk back to people, with lessons from her sporting career. The programme also made room for a Valencian company: Álvaro Lloret and Pablo Nita presented MEUA, a cosmetics brand that works with a laboratory in Alcoy, looks for local suppliers and sells a facial routine of three products.
The verdict
As planned, marketing was found "guilty": of building brands and turning stories into experiences, in the organisers' words. The verdict tied in with "Culpables", ESIC's corporate campaign. Agustín Carrilero, ESIC's director general in the Valencia region, recalled that HEM has been held since 2000 and said that "no company executive can consider standing still right now" (translated). Eduardo Gómez, president of ESIC University, closed the day; according to El Ecosistema Startup, his message was that "the marketing of the future will be more technological than ever, and precisely for that reason it will also have to be more human than ever" (translated).
