Creativity guru, former Disney exec to keynote SEPC conference
Marketing will no longer exist in a decade, said Duncan Wardle in a TED Talk. It will be replaced by the experience economy.
“Why? Marketing implies ‘at.’ I will communicate ‘at’ you. I will create content. I will disrupt my consumer,” said Wardle, former head of innovation and creativity at Disney and founder of iD8 & innov8.
He’s keynote speaker and one of several dynamic leaders to share their cutting-edge ideas at Southeast Produce Council’s April 6-8 hybrid Southern Exposure: The Rise of Produce trade show and conference in Orlando and online.
“Engaging with the consumer and creating immersive experiences implies ‘with.’ And we all know that a one-way communication campaign is the same as a one-way relationship, and one-way relationships don’t work,” Wardle said in that October 2019 talk filmed at South Florida’s Boca Raton Innovation Campus, or Bric.
But engaging with consumers and creating immersive experiences is a two-way relationship.
When you think of experiences, you think of Disney, where Wardle spent 30 years of his career.
The council has wanted Wardle as a speaker for a long time and had a contract signed three years ago, said David Sherrod, president and CEO of the council.
“We listened to Duncan and think he’ll be great with his strong emphasis on creativity and how that relates to a person and how that relates to their job,” Sherrod said. “He’s a very interesting person, he’s very motivated and his creativity is off the charts.”
Wardle and his Disney team helped Imagineering, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar and Disney Parks create new storylines and experiences for consumers around the globe.
Now he brings his extensive Disney experience to audiences worldwide using design thinking, which not only places the end user at the core of the creative thinking process, but also looks in new and usual places to uncover insights for innovation. That tactic helps people capture unlikely connections, leading to fresh ideas.
Wardle is a multiple-time Ted X speaker and contributor to Fast Company magazine. He teaches master classes at Yale, the University of North Carolina, Duke University and the University of Florida. In 2008, he received the American Citizen of Choice Award at the White House. In 2014, he was awarded an honorable doctorate from Edinburgh University in Scotland. He also holds the Duke of Edinburgh Award presented by Queen Elizabeth.
In that October TED Talk, Wardle discussed how his team turned around Disneyland Paris and drove record sales by swapping a product-centric strategy for a consumer-centric culture strategy, focusing on cherishing experiences with your children while they’re still young, still holding your hand, still believe in magic and still living at home.
Parents brought their children to Disney World to create memories of a joyful experience unique to young children, not because of the latest and greatest product or feature.
Walt Disney also transformed company culture in the 1950s with the ground-breaking idea that the people weren’t customers, but guests. Workers weren’t employees but cast members.
He also used crowdsourcing to find out what consumers liked and didn’t like, before others were doing it.
“I think there will be a lot of takeaways we can use in the produce industry,” Sherrod said, “especially this year. This industry is getting spring-boarded because of our need to use technology to connect more than ever.”
Produce leaders and marketers can strive to re-engineer the customer experience and reinvent the relationship with the consumer by having the courage to step away from data sometimes and simply spend a day in their lives, Wardle said.
“And by not asking the question how might we make more money, but asking how might we solve the biggest consumer pain point,” Wardle said.
“I believe you can not only survive but thrive in what I believe will be the most disruptive decade in our lives, in what I call the experience economy.”
