Top minds visit Detroit to talk digital marketing stategy

DETROIT (WJBK) - They get to you in your Facebook instant messages and email-- marketing where you often least expect it. The top minds in digital are in Detroit to talk about how to get your attention.

Actress and comedian Chelsea Handler was in Detroit for the digital summit. 

"I like when brands Stand up for human rights.  I like when brands stand for Black Lives Matter. I like that Nike ad. That shows the integrity of a company when they're willing to take a stand on something so divisive and say no, we back this guy, we back this movement," she said.

The two-day meeting brought together the top minds in digital marketing, revealing some of the secrets that you may not have thought about. Consider the last time you were on Facebook messenger and maybe wrote to a friend about that new SUV you want and minutes later see ads for SUVs. Maybe you told a relative you're thinking about a cruise and then you'll see ads for the next best one.  

The summit identifies how to advertise and do it in a targeted way.  

"We all should be aware that at any given moment whatever we are doing on Facebook or whatever we are doing an email or a website is being tracked somehow. I would not call it covert. I think that we all know that at any given level, if we are not using an ad blocker or we haven't said hey, you can't track me, we're being tracked in some way. The key for us marketers is to make sure that when we do track customers that we give them a better experience," said email marketing expert Michael Barbor.

Then there's branding. Consider the Las Vegas shooting massacre last October -- how companies respond on the digital platform affects the way people think about them. Brandon Chesnut, social media and digital marketer at Identity Public Relations explains how MGM stepped up.

"They did an amazing job responding to a situation that they couldn't have planned for and really who could have? But they used their channels in the most effective way possible to unite their community--not only for the customers but the people who love Vegas and look at it as a destination. That's just one example of how companies have to be prepared for anything that could happen," he said.

But it's not just what you see on social, it's also email. Brands are trying to beat each other to the punch to land in your inbox. From the subject Lines to the colors, the secret sauce is being talked about in Detroit. 

"We're studying how long you spend on that email, where you're actually reading, what parts and components of that email you're reading," Barbor said.