Forgoing the usual format of a media and analyst gathering to provide updates about products and innovations, SAP this year turned its Hudson Yards office in New York City into a lofty studio and live-streamed a broadcast that reached more than 50,000 viewers worldwide.
The Innovate LIVE by SAP event was a 90-minute broadcast hosted by Ramon Ray and live-streamed on the company’s event platform as well as on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. These channels made the broadcast the largest online event SAP has ever done and set the stage for future events.
The broadcast was both informational and instructive for SAP partners and small and midsize enterprise customers alike. In an interview, Gary Vaynerchuk, social media evangelist and successful entrepreneur and business consultant offered advice for companies large and small – as well as the 100+ audience members on hand – on best practices for success.
Vaynerchuk advised that companies not leveraging any of the eight social media platforms for marketing and brand awareness need to do so immediately – even if their marketing decision-makers are mired in more traditional advertising and brand-building approaches.
Businesses looking to get in on the wave of the future need to be open to less mature marketing platforms that may not be as obvious. Case in point: learn how promptly utilize TikTok, the short-form mobile video app that has become popular with younger generations – even if you think teens or young adults are not your target market.
“We are in a culture where people say no without knowing if the answer is yes,” Vaynerchuk shared. “You have never heard of a 16-year-old who has so much equity in their household that when they see a piece of your content, they may bring that up at the dinner table.”
“Do you not see the data that says teenage girls now carry more weight than ever in their households because moms want to be their daughter’s friend instead of their mom, and thus what [the teenager] thinks is part of the decision-making in the family household? People are so one-dimensional, so quick to say no. For no reason. We just don’t innovate. We are fear-based. We are no-based. So many people say no without realizing that if they say yes they can do a double leapfrog.”
Partners Move Their Businesses Forward
After Vaynerchuk offered his business acumen, several partners and customers joined Ray onstage at Innovate LIVE to talk about their products and innovations, and how partnering with SAP has moved their businesses forward at critical inflection points.
- Sports and Wellbeing Analytics CEO Chris Turner introduced his company’s groundbreaking Protecht platform, which features a smart mouthguard used by Rugby players in Europe that can measure the effects of severe head movements and impacts in the game. The Protecht platform employs SAP software, which was implemented by partner KeyTree, to help analyze data that helps Rugby teams – and, in the future, other sports – devise ways to lessen head trauma in contact sports.
- Scrub Daddy CFO Paul Francy walked the audience through his company’s remarkable growth – from being a contestant on the television show Shark Tank to selling 10 million smiley faced kitchen sponges a year. Scrub Daddy is regarded as the most successful contestant to have appeared on Shark Tank. SAP partner Saberpoint helped Scrub Daddy implement SAP Business One to help manage that growth and its various global business relationships.
- Paradox Founder Aaron Matas introduced Olivia. She was not on stage with him, of course, because Olivia, named after his wife, is an assistive intelligence chat bot that helps companies in the recruiting process. Instead of paying recruiters to deal with fundamental items like scheduling, Olivia uses SMS to streamline that process with recruits. Olivia is fully integrated with SAP SuccessFactors software and is available on the SAP App Center.
- Enable Injections CFO Tim Flaherty explained how his company is trying to revolutionize an aspect of the medical industry by developing a device that will allow clients to self-administer therapeutic infusions at home or on the go instead of having to go to a medical facility. While the innovation needs FDA approval, SAP partner Dickinson and Associates has helped create and deliver SAP software that is keeping the company FDA-compliant through its journey. Bob Meyer, the head of SAP partner itelligence, described how customer experience is now a key analytical touchpoint that can be married with operational experience to give businesses a full picture of a customer’s buying journey.
- Michael Pytel, a co-founder of SAP Partner NIMBL, demonstrated how the app his company developed can help manufacturing companies digitally transform their businesses to leverage and reduce friction on the shop floor.
To watch replays from the event, visit the Innovate LIVE by SAP website and see Vaynerchuk’s session as well as the above SAP partner innovation showcases.
Frank Hughes is a Silicon Valley-based freelance writer and editor covering the tech industry for SAP.
This article first appeared on the SAP News Center.
