FICOD

Madrid, 23 November.  Today, the 5th International Forum on Digital Content (FICOD) held its second day at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid. The event, which keeps its doors open until tomorrow, 24 November, enjoyed yet another day full of activities related to digital content.

Vaynerchuk and business success

The VaynerMedia founder, Gary Vaynerchuk, participated in FICOD thanks to TheRanking.com with the plenary lecture "The Economy of "thank you very much". Through his presentation, the expert provided advice for entrepreneurs on adapting to, and using, the economic crisis that we live in today.

During his presentation he explained his business philosophy, which is based on the humanization of businesses through social media, i.e., buying from the recommendations of their friends on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network because "you always buy more from your friends than those who are not your friends".

According to Vaynerchuk, the environment and context in which we find ourselves has to be very much taken into account so that every step we take in the business sphere is not in vain. The expert invited participants to reflect on the buying and selling techniques of our ancestors, noting that "our grandfathers were concerned with customer care and we should not move away from that habit". He considered that the collective voice that was used in the towns a few decades ago was very powerful and that today it "can remain so if we learn how to apply and use it in social marketing".

As a final conclusion, the speaker defined the concept of "The economy of thank you very much", which is based on the idea that in life there is, and there will be, only two kinds of businesses: that which can be perceived through the eyes, that is, what we can see, and that which we can hear, because many times we hear about a product and we rush to buy it. "The economy of thank you very much" is based precisely on that, on recommendations.

Marlow analyzes human behaviour towards advertising

The second day's plenary lecture, The Power of Relevance: a biometric study of our reactions to online advertising, was given by Tony Marlow, Strategic Research Director at Yahoo!. The lecture revolved around the analysis of user reactions when faced with an advertising message and explained the latest research related to human behaviour towards these impacts.

Thus, the expert presented the key points from one of the studies currently underway, based on the use of biometrics, which analyses the skin pH, the heart and respiration rate, body movements and the pupil dilation index of the receiver. The expert admits that "through these data, the degree of importance which the user attaches to a particular message can be determined, and therefore, this is valuable information when orienting the advertising that we launch as businesses, allowing the ideal target group to be sought and the design of specific information that provides the maximum effectiveness".

Marlow noted that recent studies show that when the pupils dilate more than 27% we have a strong impact in the human brain, and thus the message is largely internalized.

The Research Director of Yahoo! explained the methodology of another of his projects which is based on facial recognition. "Through a computer web cam we are analyzing the facial expressions that characterize different users at the time of receiving promotional information. We are providing a lot of information about human behaviour towards the advertising phenomenon". He also confessed that it is a study that could soon be represented in reality through any personal computer.

To end his speech, he pointed out the importance of issuing simple messages. "In some low complex images, the human eye moves much faster and retains the information", he concluded after explaining that, by subjecting the user to a sequence of images, they could remember more if the pictures were simple and striking and, therefore, Marlow called for reflection and rethinking the way advertising is received today.

Special for entrepreneurs, tomorrow at FICOD

The range of activities planned for tomorrow consists of a total of 37 workshops, 8 debates, 3 round tables  and 10 seminars. In addition, Paul Rodriguez (Telefónica Digital) will be present, and will give a speech entitled The Future of Data, which will address trends and recommendations for the use of data and the importance of privacy. Through the second presentation scheduled for tomorrow, Your Tuenti: the new Telco 2.0, the expert Erik Schultink will give attendees advance information about launching the first virtual mobile operator of a social nature.

Tomorrow there will be a special nod to the entrepreneurs. Specifically, 4 seminars are planned, conducted by organizations such as red.es, BizTeachDay, StartupDigest and The Ranking.com, the new Spanish start-up - presented exclusively in FICOD 2011 - which aims to revolutionize the world of global rankings. The range of activities in this area is completed with 2 round tables to discuss the current business situation and provide advice about opening new businesses.  

More information: prensa@ficod.es - Tel: 91.230.52.09. Www. Ficod.es 

Photos available at: www.flickr.com/photos/ficodoficial , www.flickr.com /photos /redpuntoes