Tackling the Challenge of Customised Content

The Twilio Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Sales team in the Asia-Pacific region faced a pressing challenge: they lacked adaptable, customised content for their speaking engagements across diverse markets.

Our team was tasked with creating a versatile presentation deck tailored for events throughout the year. The goal? To spotlight industry trends while focusing on two critical verticals in the communications technology resale market—telecom and technology.

Collaboration, Research and Visual Design Come Together

We began by working closely with Twilio’s subject matter experts to align on key objectives and priorities. This collaboration was followed by in-depth desktop research into telecom and technology industry trends across APAC, ensuring the content was both impactful and highly relevant.

The report produced during the research stage backed the PaperplaneCo team in creating a story around current trends, and gave the Twilio Sales team data to work with, in their own independent Sales initiatives. The desktop research report covered corporate spend in telco, consumer behaviour and trends in technology and telco, 

Drawing inspiration from the theme of construction, we developed a unique visual concept that unified the presentation. Alongside this, we crafted a cohesive narrative and talk track to elevate the impact of the deck at events. The result? A visually engaging and strategically versatile presentation that Sales teams successfully deployed across the region.

Designed for Flexibility and Thought Leadership

The deck was designed not just as a one-off tool but as a strategic complement to Twilio’s internal pitch deck, which delved deeper into specific solutions for interested prospects. Fully customisable, it features a series of slides with research tailored to multiple key APAC markets. This flexibility empowers Sales leaders and representatives to adapt the presentation to resonate with regional priorities and audiences.

As a global leader in communications technology, known for transforming the way businesses connect with their customers, Twilio needed two keynote decks that would elevate their Sales and Product leaders in the APJ region. They wanted dynamic presentations that could capture attention and drive meaningful conversations at key industry events.

One of the decks, initially created for Twilio Segment’s Head of Solution Engineers, became a powerful tool embraced by their sales teams, sparking new conversations and driving engagement on stages around the globe.

URGENT STORIES, COMPELLING NARRATIVES

The deck, titled From Puzzle Piece to Masterpiece: Do your data and technology strategies allow you to see the whole customer story?, addressed a key question for business leaders across APAC: Is our data actually serving our business?

The keynote adopts a thought leadership approach, likening data to puzzle pieces—interesting but incomplete without the right framework and technology. Twilio Segment’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) is presented as the solution that unifies these pieces, empowering businesses to assemble the complete customer picture—the masterpiece—and take action,

Originally commissioned for the Head of Solution Engineers at Twilio Segment APJ, the deck has gotten a lot of mileage, being used by multiple sales representatives on multiple stages and in multiple languages.

KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS: PRODUCTS AND MESSAGING

In our continued collaboration with Twilio, we’ve created over 16 unique decks for teams across Sales, Product, and more. We’ve supported their efforts to transform complex products like Segment, Flex, and Comms into presentations that resonate with their varying audiences. From executives to sales leaders in APJ, these decks have played a key role in both live and virtual events, fostering thought leadership content that connects and informs.

LET’S TELL YOUR STORY

Ready to tell more compelling stories to your audience? Learn more about our presentation design work. 

After a successful first season, the Adobe Commerce Accelerator Webinar Series came roaring back with a second season featuring six two-part episodes. Each episode contained a thought leadership part and a more technical part that showed off the software.

The first season of the series, under Magento Commerce branding, explored modern consumers and their needs. It explored how new technologies and business models were upending entire sectors, creating ongoing waves of disruption for every business — and it was a success with over 90% of attendees reporting that they found the series helpful. Season 2 was developed as a practical business roadmap, putting a spotlight on the Adobe Commerce tools that help organisations advance and adapt quickly.

A SERIES THAT EMPHASISES SIMPLICITY IN A SEA OF COMPLEXITY

Commerce, by nature, is full of complexities. Adobe Commerce’s target market includes commerce brands with varied product catalogues, working in multiple markets and using multiple currencies, and running on multiple sites and channels. The array of Adobe Commerce solutions is also complex, allowing enterprises with diverse needs to grow and optimise their performance. The aim of this series was to acknowledge the complexities of doing day-to-day business while highlighting solutions in a straightforward way.

CREATING A PRACTICAL BUSINESS ROADMAP

Sometimes, the best approach is to take it step by step. To encourage viewers to put their knowledge into action and drive business transformation — without feeling overwhelmed — the episode list was developed to reflect a step-by-step approach, moving through specific areas of the business that can be optimised with Adobe Commerce. The premier episode gave viewers a high-level look at Adobe Commerce. The second episode focused on increasing customer lifetime value among current customers, an easy yet valuable place to start for any existing business. The episodes moved forward through improving the checkout experience, reducing purchase friction, and keeping customers engaged via content. The season wraps up with a recap of the many key ways Adobe Commerce technology can help.

DESIGNED FOR ENGAGEMENT

No lectures found here! This series was designed for interactivity. Each episode of Season 2 contains two separate events, helping to separate thought leadership content from solution and demo content and preventing viewers from needing to digest too much information at once. Each part-one “webisode” was divided into sections, including introductions, learning objectives, theory and research presentations, case studies, and a coffee chat segment, followed by a live Q&A session and resource sharing. Each part-two “webisode” included introductions and learning objectives, a product demo or case study interview, and time for Q&A, giving viewers a chance to see Adobe Commerce features in action. Having a host, multiple speakers, and the coffee chat format made each episode lively.

BUILDING OUR TEAM’S KNOWLEDGE

The first order of business when we create a thought leadership keynote is getting to know the speaker’s objectives, as well as understanding the keynote’s target audience and pain points. This process includes an interview with the speaker, who is the subject matter expert. Then, we work with stakeholders to create a concept that both resonates with the speaker and aligns with business objectives. 

The process continues with research on the topic, including resources provided by the client and external studies, where we build the main arguments. In this case, we made the case for turning to individualisation early and collecting quality zero- and first-party data before third-party cookies go extinct.

LETTING THE SPEAKER’S PERSONALITY SHINE THROUGH DECK DESIGN

This speaker wanted a keynote that would extend beyond the show, so he could use it time and time again, and make it a part of his personal brand. We were asked to take a fresh and fun approach to this project, with memorable imagery and thought-provoking quotes and data. In terms of style? Think delicious-looking cookies and GIFs, not bullet points!

DRIVING CONVERSATIONS AND CONVERSIONS

By incorporating the speaker’s style and personality into the keynote, we were able to drive conversations after the keynote session. By driving attendees to Twilio’s booth, where cookies (the edible kind, of course!) were conveniently available, the conversation continued. Attendees were also encouraged to download Twilio’s recent CDP report, giving Twilio another lead-capturing touchpoint with prospective customers.

To take the speaker’s presence and the cookies and cream topic even further, our team also created an accompanying blog post based on the keynote’s content and deck imagery.

Customer experience has never been as vital to a brand’s success as it is today.

In fact, research shows that 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience. By 2020, customer experience is expected to be the key brand differentiator among consumers leaving price and product behind.

No one knows this better than Nicholas Kontopoulos, Head of Commercial DX Marketing at Magento Commerce, the leading e-commerce platform. With more than 20 years experience in the industry, Nicholas has always been a CX evangelist and passionate about putting customers at the heart of a brand.

GETTING CX RIGHT TAKES WORK

Even though omnichannel was a hot topic, Nicholas realised there was substantial FUD around its practical application within organisations. Putting the customers’ needs first as opposed to selling to them required thinking and operating differently. From the C-level down to customer-facing teams, decision-making now needed to focus on the customer. Business silos had their own operational structures, processes, and technology. Breaking down these silos and developing new capabilities around People, Process and Technology to deliver a differentiated, personalised experience seemed highly intimidating.

Having led several digital transformation projects, Nicholas began looking for ways to share his expertise and knowledge.

A TEAM EFFORT

As the producer of these webinars, Maryel Roman-Price, Field Commerce Marketing Manager, was instrumental in bringing the series to life.

Acting as the enthusiastic bridge between Magento and PaperplaneCo, she ensured each webinar covered multiple viewpoints in an engaging way. Whether it was finding and coordinating speakers and panelists, getting statistics or information about the webinar platform, or providing deeper insights into who our audience is, she made the most out of our content by promoting the series across new and established audiences.

CREATING ACTIONABLE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The question we asked ourselves was: how could we help break down a vast and evolving topic like CX transformation into digestible, practical knowledge? How could we instill in the audience the confidence to make the shift?

Piecemeal resources such as research papers, blog posts and webinars on the omnichannel experience are freely available across the web. What we wanted to create was a series of webinars, much like a TV series, that would serve as a complete guide towards developing and implementing an omni-channel CX strategy.

The Magento Accelerator Webinar series, would help companies understand their customers’ needs, and use that knowledge to plan and optimise their buying journey. Retailers would then be able to provide a seamless, personalised experience to their shoppers across channels, keeping them coming back for more.

DESIGNING WITH THE CUSTOMER IN MIND

Nicholas was single-minded about the audience: mid-market enterprises, and later stage SMEs who were looking for an e-commerce platform to further their business growth.

Having a clear idea of the audience was crucial. Without this clarity, the webinar would need to appeal to a broad audience and lose its purpose to deliver meaningful content.

We broke down the webinar series to address each stage of the customer journey to enable the audience to step into the shoes of their customer. Each episode explored what the customer is thinking, doing and feeling, together with strategies on how to tip them into the next stage.

FINDING THE STORY IN THE FACTS

We knew that the knowledge we had to share could have a big impact on how businesses approach e-commerce, but we were also aware that we were offering a new perspective and the information could become quite dense.

Content strategist, Tim Marsh, enjoys challenges like this because he believes complexity can seem simple when delivered in the right order. “Developing each episode starts with a deep dive into the customer psychology, and how that’s being met in the marketplace. At first the bulk and variety of concepts can be almost overwhelming. Then when it begins to crystallise and become clear, I get this rush of enthusiasm. It becomes like a revelation that I can’t wait to share.”

Asked if this is what he likes about his role, he replied, “Having your work really appreciated by people such as Nicholas and Maryel who certainly know their stuff, and then seeing them turn it into so much more when delivered, that’s what keeps me interested.”

MERGING PERSONALITY WITH INFORMATION

Nicholas is a natural thought leader and host for the series because he has a genuine passion for optimising every customer experience. His charisma is born of a desire to really help people. We worked to capture this instinctive ability while providing structure and supporting research for his content. To achieve this, we share many engaging conversations with him, and then work his patterns of speech into the script. This results in a smooth and confident delivery of material that Nicholas relates in his own words.

Using visual storytelling tools, each episode is designed to be engaging and energising with plenty of audience participation. To make the series relatable and interactive, we incorporate fireside chats, polls, and audience Q&A. We also examine useful tools, and use real-world case studies and success stories to translate theory into hands-on practical action.

IT PAYS TO BE INVESTED IN YOUR CUSTOMERS

From the beginning, we wanted to create not just a webinar but a whole learning universe. Apart from the webinar, Magento’s Accelerator Series also offers the audience opportunities to view Demos On Demand, participate in live events, workshops and self-assessments.

The Q&A session is highly interactive, with members from the audience peppering Nicholas and guest speakers with questions and sharing their own experiences. The active participation in polls is evidence of a high-quality, highly-engaged audience.

Almost in its second season, the webinar has been well-received with 500 viewers registering for its first episode and an average of 290 registrations taking place per episode. On average, each episode is attended by about 100 participants.

While the audience’s attendance speaks for itself, every new lead generated through the series is an opportunity for Magento to continue the conversation and nurture prospects on their customer journey.