The MSIX 6: Adam Ferrier – ‘The day is as much about sharing ideas as it is receiving them’

Taking place from 4 -5 September at Ovolo Woolloomooloo, the Marketing Science Ideas Xchange (MSIX) will see the return of Thinkerbell’s Adam Ferrier as the content curator.

Ferrier gave us some teasers about what to expect and what he is most looking forward to delving into. 

We sat down with him to chat all about it.

In the event guide, you reference Daniel Kahneman’s quote: “Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats; they can do it, but they‘d prefer not to.” Will you use this MSIX to challenge marketers to think differently and embrace the chaos of human behaviour rather than resist it?

The output of marketing subscribes to that quote. The output of marketing is to make it easy for people to make decisions and choose one brand over another.

The input is that marketing organisations often find it hard to believe how little people think about their brand. It can be a challenge to get marketers and companies to think like consumers do when they’re shopping and [realise] how obvious and clear you need to be.

As the curator, what’s most exciting for you?

Marketing Science Ideas Xchange; I like the duality of that. Marketing sciences is boring, plonky, and heady, but Ideas Xchange is fun and interesting. I really like curating, so we can put those two things together. There is no speaker-audience relationship. The whole thing’s one big mishmash of sharing ideas. The curation is as much the content of who’s coming along as it is how we create an environment that allows everyone to participate, talk shit, share ideas, and enjoy some ‘intellectual banter’.

Is there a theme or message you want everyone in the room to walk away with?

Marketing science ideas exchange. If you think about the world of science, it provides evidence for what’s effective marketing. You’ve got a hypothesis setting.

Part of the theme this year is moving forward into what might be. I think that’s driven a little bit by AI. New tech platforms are encouraging people to do their jobs differently and think differently. There’s also a good conversation around ethics in marketing sciences, AI, and robotics. At the end of the day, there’s a debate about what you build first – your audience or your brand. I think that’s an interesting emerging theme.

For those who were at the CRA event a couple of months ago, your presentation was really unique; for half of it, you weren’t even on stage. What can we expect from the MSIX presentation?

There are two things I’m bringing to the table. The basic interactive stuff like quizzes and panels, where people can get on stage and be part of a panel. Then, we are going to put everything to the test. Anything that’s learned at the beginning of the day, we’re going to put into practice during the day to see if it works. We’ll find out the results at the end of the day when we’re all having a drink.

We’ll take advantage of the fact that everyone’s on their phones and laptops out. We’ll be having transmedia storytelling or multimodal forms of communication, and people can join the conversation on second screens during the presentations.

Is there one particular behaviour you’ve seen grow this year that you want to spend some time on?

The short answer is no. The slightly longer answer is I’m still fascinated by action-changing attitude fast and attitude-changing action. The concept of getting people to interact with marketing messages, not just receive them. We will be putting that into practice by getting people to interact with what they’re hearing.

Thinking about what’s been happening this year in media and marketing – AI, budget cuts, and redundancies – is there something you want people in the room to take away?

Evidence-based marketing. I want people to realise if what they’re doing is evidence-based, there are two parts to that. Number one: it’s much more likely to be effective. Number two: it’s much more likely to be explainable. It makes people more likely to go ahead with what you want them to do, and it’s more likely to be successful. Make sure everything you’re doing is evidence-based.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t need to be creative, avant-garde or breaking new ground. It can be that you just need the right evidence for the principles around what you’re doing.

Any last words for people who haven’t bought a ticket yet?

They should definitely come along because the day is as much about sharing ideas as it is about receiving them. It’s a type of learning environment I like to participate in and be involved in, and that’s what I’ve tried to create. You’ll get lots of good information, but it’ll be an enjoyable day too.

The Marketing Science Ideas Xchange (MSIX) takes place 4-5 September 2024 at Ovolo Woolloomooloo. Get your tickets here.

topics Adam FerrierMSIX

Share Tweet Share