Event Recap: CATFOA Part 3 with Jen Faucon: New Technology Thinks Global

MIMA Event: Conversations About the Future of Advertising (CATFOA) with Jen Faucon was held on August 16, 2018, at Amsterdam Bar and Hall, St. Paul.

Capping off the Summer of CATFOA, Jen Faucon, Chief Customer Success Officer at Codelattice, delivered an impassioned pitch for the importance of AI, Bitcoin, and Blockchain, in creating global connectivity, solving real business problems, and making the world a better place for everyone.

Here is a recap of her presentation and conversation with Tim Brunelle, former MIMA President, and CATFOA founder.

Technology creates global connectivity

The digital explosion has provided people in the emerging world with connectivity, and connectivity has enabled opportunity.

While living in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Jen was amazed to realize that despite fundamentally different cultures and lifestyles, technology gives us a shared platform. In a remote village in northeastern Thailand, a bead craftswoman used her iPhone to make mobile payments, safely transfer money, and partake in the e-commerce market.

“Here I was in these cultural moments, but really everybody was just like you and me”, Jen said.

 Future technology solves real business problems

Jen is a believer in harnessing the power of the digital explosion: AI, Bitcoin, and Blockchain. Her tips?

• Staying curious
• Prioritizing academics
• Learning all the time – she reads and researches 20-30 hours a week!
• Assigning IT people and creatives to learn about new technologies
• Integrating technology and creative teams to brainstorm proactive solutions to business problems
• Thinking of marketing as a service, a tool to serve people
• Learning how other countries, like Japan, Korea, Dubai, and Brazil, do business and adapt to new tech

 AI drives better business decisions

“I really believe that we can do something special”, Jen said, “solving our marketing and business problems and also solving our world problems.”

With examples from the public and private sector, Jen demonstrated the benefits of incorporating AI to predict and deliver on customer experiences that are rich and rewarding, from increasing customer satisfaction at a TGI Friday’s to helping refugees on the run.

Whereas we put emotions and biases on the decisions we make, from conscious to subconscious and important to trivial, the computer program can go through reams of information without being swayed by opinion.

 Bitcoin expands payment options

A proponent of cryptocurrencies, Jen sees them as especially helpful in emerging markets where there is volatility.

Bitcoin is the first of its kind and now there are over 1000 cryptocurrencies. It is a completely democratized and anonymous system, run by the people who use it on their own computers, not controlled by companies or governments.

Blockchain increases security and transparency

Jen’s personal passion, Blockchain is a crypto database where every transaction, including bitcoin purchases, becomes a block in the chain and is completely uneditable, traceable, permanent, and safe. The benefits:

• Protecting people in the poorest of countries and in the most precarious of situations
• Solving big problems in business, by increasing transparency in supply chain and ad buying
• Solving humanitarian crises, by giving global access to secure information
• Companies like Meta X unlocking the Blockchain for digital advertising, helping with ad fraud prevention and blocking

The right mindset

For Jen, mindset, more than education and skills, is the shaping force behind careers. She is inspired by Daymond John and follows his advice on marketing strategy and even daily routine, like spending the first hour of the day only sending emails, not replying to others. She reminded the audience that vision creates opportunities, and concluded: “we are going to be the ones who take this to the next level.”

Written by MIMA Marketing Committee volunteer Keren Kroul