Things happen in Berlin that happen less often elsewhere. For example: real breakthroughs. Such was the case at the beginning of November. The 50th Web Excellence Forum - our specialist conference just for digital communicators - took place here, almost exactly 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A double anniversary, then, pure coincidence. And yet, somehow fitting the time and place, this specialist conference in Berlin was also a real breakthrough. Because the Web Excellence Forum can state, "Hey, we're through!" The issues of "KPI" and "measurement" have been resolved. They are behind us, once and for all. From now on, it's time to harvest.
Web Excellence leaves the "analytics focus" and enters the control loop.
And what happens when you no longer have to discuss how to measure and compare the performance and impact of communications? That what happened when 30 communicators from 15 companies discussed confidentially in Berlin - about open benchmarks and many fantastically unvarnished reports from internal practice in communications and marketing.
As if pulled by a string, the speeches repeatedly intertwined, circling around the same topics again and again despite different starting points. The coherence of the content, the way in which one contribution fit together with the other, was palpable in the hall. The focus was on what is really important for communication and marketing in companies: Content, goals, organization, processes, leadership.
The discussions not only took place in a completely new quality professionally, there were also real gains in knowledge! What was going on here?
We at .companion asked ourselves the same question. And we realized that we must have made a previously unnoticed breakthrough. With the Web Excellence Forum, we have left the "engine room" and from now on move in a new quality: in a control loop, as cybernetics knows it.
If the data is well organized, it drives a management cycle. The above-mentioned topics, quality, excellence, goals and processes, move to the center almost by themselves. Aha. On day 2 of the conference, the matching model emerged: the "Web Excellence Loop" was outlined. The Excellence Loop for Communications is a new standard model for data-based governance (leadership) of communications. The model is a blueprint for successful transformation driven by data. Anyone in their communications or marketing department who wants to get out of fruitless "analytics discussions" should take it to heart.
"Standards for Digital Communication" - they will be in full operation as of 2020
In 2005, the Web Excellence Forum was founded in Berlin. "Standards for Digital Communication" - that was the declared goal of Siemens, Daimler, 12 other companies and the initiator .companion.
With the 50th symposium, Web Excellence has reached its goal. The standards are there.
"KPI", the measurement and evaluation of communication, are no longer an issue, they just work. Web Excellence bench markets 20 websites, 12 different digital platforms with 150 accounts and 7 billion impressions per year. We evaluate our own output (performance) on our own outcome (impact) and can correlate which content works better. Discussions about KPIs and methods are a thing of the past.
And now? Welcome to a new quality of support for leadership, projects and ongoing communication. #DigitalExcellence
In 2020, Web Excellence leaves the engine room and enters a new level of quality.
From 2020, every Web Excellence participant will receive automatic monthly interpretations of their communication performance, across all digital channels. There will be monthly rankings of their own content quality. There will be automatic monthly reports on the media response to the board. And even those who do not book access to the Content.ONE dashboard, nor integration of their media response data, get an analysis webinar with the basic module. Together with a consultant, your own published content and media performance are evaluated and discussed.
A very big thank you to all the participants of our anniversary professional day!
WebXF and its participants are approaching digital excellence with giant steps. This is also due to the very valuable specialist day contributions, directly from the companies. Our sincere thanks go to all the speakers at the anniversary symposium
- Alexander Romantschuk and B.Braun, who are actually blowing up their organizational charts with a radically different Circle model (Teams & Tasks).
- Kai Fetzer and Bosch, for illuminatingly unvarnished insights into the multiple award-winning #LikeABosch campaign (best rating of all presentations).
- Sabine Henrichs and Covestro, who were able to show live what it looks like to be at the forefront of integrated and data-driven communications management with their internal excellence initiative.
- Carsten Lucassen and Viessmann, for very stimulating views, of what awaits communicators beyond the "internals."
- Martin Degeling and the Ruhr-Uni Bochum, for very exciting and relevant research results on the use of cookie layers.
- Martin Virtel of dpa, for a very descriptive overview of "Data Journalism Today and Tomorrow."
- Florian Röhrbein and Kärcher, for refreshingly realistic and practice-oriented classification of "AI
- Christoph Ringwald and Rolls Royce, for a decidedly open and substantive discussion of the everyday tensions between communications and marketing.
- and of course: Justus Hug and the Content.ONE Dashboard, for fascinating views on the correlation of performance and impact of Web Excellence companies' communications.
See you next time, on March 5 and 6 at Krones in Regensburg!
Anyone who has a suggestion for field reports from companies - we look forward to feedback! The Web Excellence Forum will cover the travel costs. Especially female speakers are welcome (who unfortunately cancelled all but one in Berlin).
