Efficiency vs emotion: How brands can strike the right balance

By Woven Agency, Thursday November 3, 2022

In response to the covid pandemic, luxury and premium brands rushed to digitally transform their offering through CRMs, targeted digital advertising and ecommerce optimisation.

All well and good. But design-conscious brands need to do more than provide efficient online experiences — they need to connect emotionally. If they don’t, they’ll accrue an ‘experience debt’, where a customer’s expectations of a brand isn’t met by its reality, leaving them feeling detached, disillusioned and ready to shop elsewhere.

And with efficiency improvements and digital acceleration being top priorities for CMOs, emotive brand-building risks being further overlooked. This is a problem for those who fail to recognise it — but it’s an opportunity for those who do something about it.

The key lies in combining efficiency and emotion to create brand experiences that convince people not just to buy, but to love who they buy from. So when you win a customer, the chances are, you win a repeat customer — one who’ll tell all their friends about you.

How do we do this? Our webinar below explains all.

Your panelists

Mark Bower, executive creative director
Woven

Mark has spent over 20 years in marketing. His focus is on strategic direction and brand engagement. He’s fascinated with understanding what drives human behaviour and using technology to deliver unique and compelling brand experiences.

Si Muddell, chief growth officer
Woven

Si has 15 years of experience leading digital transformation, brand, marketing, engagement, acquisition and product innovation across the globe. He’s helped create award-winning subscription products, has leading digital strategies for Heineken and Nestle, launched a Pay TV platform across Asia-Pacific and helped Woven combine efficiency with elegance when dealing with clients — and in the work the agency produces.

Graham McDonnell, senior director of creative & brand
TIME

A multi-award-winning creative, speaker and lecturer, Graham creates immersive, emotionally driven stories for a wide variety of brands. He’s also a founding member of the international content studio for The New York Times. Graham has spoken alongside presidents, leaders and CEOs, and lectures for design schools across London, Paris and New York. He even finds the time to serve as a judge for The World Media Awards and the FWA.

Alessandra Gallo, senior presidential associate
Estée Lauder

Alessandra is involved with several Estée Lauder brands and departments, giving her a 360-degree picture of the beauty industry. Having recently graduated from Imperial College Business School with an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management, Alessandra supports her teams with innovative thinking and disruptive ideas at a time when retail is going through its most challenging time yet.

Natasha Towey, head of marketing
Carrier 

Carrier is one of the finest brands in the travel industry. In her 10 years there, Natasha has developed a brand strategy based on human connections that has shaped the entire organisation. Establishing Carrier amongst the luxury landscape, Natasha has crafted communications that capture the attention of affluent audiences and developed the company’s customer-centric model, putting the dreams and desires of people at the heart of the business.

Stephen Rankin, director of prestige
Gordon & MacPhail

Stephen is a fourth-generation member of the Urquhart family that owns Gordon & MacPhail, the world’s leading malt whiskies specialist. Stephen was appointed the company’s first director of prestige in 2017 — a role in which he forges relationships with lovers of the world’s finest whiskies. In their 2021 Power List, Walpole recognised Stephen as one of the 50 most influential people in British luxury.