4 Key Takeaways from VivaTech 2022

Paris was hot three weeks ago and it’s not just because of the heat wave that was passing through Europe, Viva Technology (VivaTech) is back at the Porte de Versailles in full force, following two years of Covid restrictions. The energy at the event was palpable. A few of us from Publicis Le Pont team from Warsaw attended the event, to take in as much knowledge, insights, and trends as humanly possible.

Co-founded by Publicis Groupe and Les Echos in 2016, Viva Technology has grown from strength to strength. It is today, the largest start-up and technology event in Europe attracting CEOs, C-leaders, VCs, and startups from all around the world. This year’s event saw the attendance of 90,000 in-person visitors and 300,000 digital connections.

I feel especially proud of the fact that the event is co-founded by Publicis Groupe - showing that we don’t just talk about innovation, we are leading the way to enable and create innovation.

For those of you who have been to one, you would be familiar with the intensity of the VivaTech experience. The scale of the exhibition and the rich discussion across the different stages is both exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time.

Here, I will attempt to bring my highlights from VivaTech in four key themes.

Talent

Health & Well-Being of Employees as a Priority

According to Microsoft, 53% of employees today prioritise health and well-being overwork, while 18% of those surveyed changed jobs for work-life balance over the last 12 months. In an increasingly demanding business environment and an always-on era, we as companies need to step up on ensuring Health & Well-Being is a key part of our talent strategy to protect our talent and consequently our business. 

Bosses as Coaches

In an aligned way, a mandatory skillset required of managers today should include “coaching”. Managers today should be upskilled to provide emotional support for employees, to drive a more positive and supportive work culture. 

Culture Drives Clarity

A strong culture drives clarity. The clarity of thought and stewardship of the mission helps guide employees to make informed and clear decisions. This is how you build trust and talent flocked to trusted leaders who can help them navigate through uncertainties of the future.

Skills as a Currency

Ryan Roslansky, CEO LinkedIn said that with skills becoming currency, Linkedin Learning is a top priority and provides a platform for professionals to grow and be more successful.

Beatrice Kosowski, President of IBM France urges us to look at employees from the potential that they bring (skills) and not through their past experience. She also added that,” We have to care about the symmetry of care. We have to be not only client centric but people-centric.” 

Personally, this is my top mission with Publicis Le Pont.

Trust and the Experience Evolution

Building Internal Trust on Data is Key to Success

Data science has allowed companies to have a data-driven insight into where to allocate their budget. However, how data is collected and managed is not always perfect, resulting in low quality or outdated data. This creates distrust in data internally with employees whose work and outcome are meant to be guided and aided by data. The message from Dior and Sanofi is loud and clear in that beyond building the right data infrastructure, it is essential to build the trust with employees that the data and info they are getting through the tool are in favour of the work they do.

Building Trust of the Customer

All the discussions around content and digital adoption at VivaTech touch on challenges. We’re reaching a plateau on mobile usage for content exploration - about 56% of users are mobile-first.

And because the consumer journey is fluid, the entire digital experience needs to be truly rewarding and aligned with consumer intent. The biggest challenge to breaking through the noise is to make sure that digital content builds consumer trust. And it can be done only when it’s aligned with consumer values. There was a very clear message from the Contensquare session: content personalisation at scale is the next frontier for successful brands in the digital landscape. I’m pleased to share that at Publicis LePont, we’re at the forefront of this mission.

The Experience Revolution

And what’s the next big thing? According to Snap: AR. We’re looking at experience revolution, which will bring a new understanding of what content can bring. AR can be the next big thing, by enhancing reality, but not replacing it.

Throughout the entire VivaTech we could feel how important it is to see, feel and understand where innovation can take us. It might seem challenging, but at the same time, absolutely inspiring.

Future of Tech

AR + Personal Consumer Experience = New Long-Term Trend in Tech

For Evan Spiegel, the co-founder and CEO of Snap, the trends in future innovations are about computing becoming more personal, the overlaying of computing in the world in front of you. We went from desktop (information revolution) to mobile (communication revolution) and now smart glasses (experience revolution). Augmented reality (AR) coupled with the personal consumer experience is a new long-term trend in technology. With 250 million people engaging with augmented reality (AR) via Snapchat daily, these are certainly not baseless statements.

If you consider the adoption process of AR via these new experiences with Snapchat, Gen Z is in fact, growing up with AR.

It is probably also key to consider the profound ways in which AR can ‘change’ the way things are today, for example, retail. The ability to try clothes via AR increases conversion rates, a mode of shopping much loved by the Snap community, who are also your soon-to-be big spenders.

Metaverse Dominates the Discussion

A Developing Chapter…

Metaverse is unsurprisingly a consistent theme at VivaTech, even though it is still very much a developing chapter.  Evan Spiegel of Snap reminds us that, the Metaverse, in scale and activities, is still small compared to the number of people creating and using AR (which is already a reality and not an imagined future) today.

…that Publicis Groupe is Diving into With the Help of New Chief Metaverse Officer, Leon

This year at Viva Tech, Publicis Groupe announced a new interface or rather, the ‘appointment’ of Leon, a new chief metaverse officer, to further help our clients understand, navigate, and develop Web3 strategies. Created by Publicis Conseil, Leon is an avatar (with a Linkedin profile) who is tasked to:

1. Accompany clients and help advise how to navigate and approach the meta jungle, with strategies unique to their business
2. Act as a guide to employees with the support of the right expertise and teams at the Groupe
3. Showcase the very best examples of Web3 from our clients and from across the Groupe

Marco Venturelli, creator of Leon and chief creative officer of Publicis France said it best when he said, “The metaverse is an endless, unknown territory to explore with creativity. To truly innovate we have to experiment and learn as we go. Leon’s mission is to motivate all of us to be brave and progressive; because the earlier we move, the further we can go.”

And we couldn’t agree more! Very pleased to see Publicis Groupe stepping up to boldly Lead the Change once more.