"Data wellness". A new term stood as a motto over the entire program of the Fachtag #54.
What teams and managers in communication and marketing can imagine under this term was shown by 2 intensive conference days, filled to the brim with practical reports, data slots, workshops and diverse networking by almost 50 digital communicators from 30 companies.
The general conditions in Düsseldorf were - perfect 🙂 .
For this, a very warm thank you from the entire Excellence Forum goes to our equally perfect host from HENKEL!
The venue made a special contribution to the "stickiness" of Fachtag #54. The brand new Inspiration Center of the Adhesive Technologies business unit shone with an open atrium, modern ambience and transparent high-tech laboratories.
Day 1: Morning
Carsten Tilger, SVP Corporate Comms & Public Affairs at HENKEL, provided an initial definition of being comfortable with data right at the beginning of the conference program. In a duet with Monica Campestrini, Data Lead in HENKEL Communications, he formulated his data credo as follows:
"I don't believe in data driven. I believe in informed decisions."
In his keynote, Tilger thus marked the first two items that the Excellence Forum (XF) can add to the Data Wellness Handbook:
- Data wellness in no way means being driven by data.
- Data wellness means that decisions are supported by information, but not preempted.
In the subsequent panel discussion with Florian Hiessl (SIEMENS ) and Rainer Berghausen (TRUMPF), Rabea Laakmann (HENKEL) addressed a crucial third aspect of data wellness:
"What I associate with data wellness is more security and sovereignty in the process."
- Data wellness must be anchored in processes; data-supported routines in the organization are essential.
Florian Hiessl added: "Data triggers stress because it creates complexity that didn't exist before." His wellness recipe: "The art lies in reduction."
Data wellness requires reduced data tailored to the situation at hand.
Justus Hug showed how data can be brought to the point with the new benchmark dashboard in the EXCELLENCE FORUM. The "Longterm-KPI-Dashboard" shows all key figures of all companies in an indexed time comparison (access is only available for paying members). For example, the organic reach of all companies on "Social" could be seen. In the long-term trend, they fall, for all companies, to about a third of the initial values from 2020. These benchmarks are important arguments for the next internal rounds on the paid media budget.
We hold:
- Data wellness does not exist without benchmarks and comparison data.
Rainer Berghausen followed. The CCO of TRUMPF brought a new keyword to the 54th Forum during his insights into the status and goals of the company's own digital transformation journey: Data quality. However, data quality did not mean: accuracy, correctness, completeness or timeliness of data. Rather, data quality meant: homogeneous data.
This means that data on communication is delivered in such a standardized way that statements about a cross-channel whole are just as possible as detailed analyses (deep dives) to answer questions. By the end of the second day, this requirement had been taken up and confirmed in many discussion contributions.
Let's hold on:
- Data wellness only exists with harmonized, unified data from one source
Stefanie Babka, Data Culture Lead at MERCK, described in a very convincing way that successful data processing in companies is a major technical task, but an even greater cultural one. She took the whole forum with her on her excursion into building data culture. At MERCK, an entire team is working on the mission of establishing a new mindset as well as new skillsets in the company.
- Data wellness: needs new mindsets and new skillsets
- Data wellness: required extensive and protracted cultural and organizational change.
Day 1: afternoon
In the second data slot, Frank Sielaff presents the first results of the new XF benchmarking service "Search Visibility".
Who gets how much traffic from search engines through qualified search terms? Who mainly through their brand? For which search terms and topics is there content competition? The answers will be provided in the future by a dashboard designed by a working group to which all Excellence participants are cordially invited.
The realization that data wellness is more about mindset than skillset was also underscored by Florian Hiessl from SIEMENS. His workshop report not only described the status of his own discussions, but also concrete action plans. Starting point: What do we need to move away from "green light reporting"? His answer provided the next characteristic of data wellness.
- Data wellness: requires error culture and mutual trust
SDG-Echo.com, the sustainability benchmarking service of the Excellence Forum, examines with Meltwater more than 1000 corporate brands worldwide for their media visibility in the context of "Sustainability". Moritz Steneberg from COMPANION guided confidently through the results of all present companies. And as always, one large company was at the top of the Sustainbility rankings: SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC. Why actually?
Impressively substantial answers to this question were provided by SE Marketing Director Christine Beck-Sablonski: "Sustainability" has been part of the corporate strategy at SE for years and also of the target agreements.
At the end of the first day, another highlight. Nico Reinhold, newly appointed Head of Digital Comms at ERGO, inspired the forum with the same energy and creative power with which he tripled the engagement rates of the Group channels within a few weeks. His recipe: reliable data on the wishes and needs of the stakeholders - and then a lot of courage for creative content that serves them. The results speak for themselves. Chapeau!
- Data wellness: must align with stakeholder wants and needs.
Day 2
The second day focused on the tension between data wellness and CommTech.
CommTech is the term of the day for the ensemble of tools needed to support all steps and processes in the content loop in a coordinated and efficient manner. If this succeeds, CommTech creates value - from planning, through production and publication, to analysis.
Aileen Scriba from HENKEL described very clearly how this is done with the enterprise tool Sprinklr. She did not talk about processes, she showed them in the tool. Her message: a tool is always just a building block. The real effort is internal communication and training. Both are necessary for coordinated processes.
Janine Langlotz from DHL EXPRESS faced a similar challenge, on an even larger scale. Please rebuild the global intranet so that it would be used. She mastered this gigantic project management task with a similar recipe as Nico at ERGO: take the interests of the stakeholders seriously. Janine's most important stakeholder group: the employees, of course. Her recipe for success: build the intranet in such a way that it gives users, teams and communities of interest room for the personal and the engaging. A social intranet. The success in building and rebuilding a globally rolled out app proves her right. The forum was impressed and we congratulate!
Susanne Scherbaum, head of online at ZF Group, showed how large the channel universe is that has to be coordinated with data and CommTech. She makes clear how important it is to support a diverse multi-channel landscape with a central reporting hub that is able to make relevant and understandable statements across all channels. To do this, it is necessary to bring together data sources, see above!
Gisela Fritz came to the same point. She gave a tour of the communications powerhouse, the name for TELEKOM's own content hub/newsroom, at the end of the symposium. What sounds inconspicuous is internally spectacular. Old departmental boundaries have fallen, data and teams now have a common platform. These are the best prerequisites for successful next stages in the transformation marathon!
We look forward to the next Excellence Forum
Please note: the next Fachtag#55 will take place on 25 and 26 April 2023 in Nuremberg at SCHAEFFLER. We are excited and very much looking forward to next year! 🙂
Here voices of the participants
"The interesting program including excellent organization and the great impulses from all participants... was really a lot of fun" (Susanne Scherbaum, ZF)
"It was fun to present in front of such an active group! Thanks for all the interesting questions, ! I am looking forward to further exchanges" (Aileen Scriba, Henkel).
"Thanks Michael for the great organization and moderation! 👍 and Bettina Fischer and team for the great location and host role!" (Florian Hiessl, Siemens)
"A great event!" (Isabel Henrich, MTU)