The recent Connective3 Digital Bites Manchester Event brought together industry experts to share actionable insights on video SEO, content creation, brand performance, and the role of AI in digital strategy. Here are the standout moments from the event from the perspective of our social experts…

Climbing the Ranks: Video SEO Tips That’ll Get You Discovered – Emily Waywell, Paid Social Strategist

Elle Pollicott highlighted the growing significance of video in SEO and shared actionable strategies for optimising video content across websites, YouTube, and TikTok, as Google’s search results now feature videos. In today’s digital landscape, where video is championed across all platforms, it’s essential to get it right. Elle walked us through a streamlined approach to creating engaging videos. She emphasised starting with tools such as Keywordtool.io to find trending searches with-in each platform and then clustering these trends to determine the most relevant search terms.

When a key trend is identified, the content should be tailored per platform. For ex-ample, deciding whether the content should be animated or person-led. Videos on TikTok should be short and punchy, while long-form content performs well on YouTube. To optimise further, keywords should be included in speech, captions, transcripts and copy.

Elle also discussed the importance of video within blog content. If a blog post is already performing well this can be the foundation for video content and if you are creating both at the same time live blogs should be taken into consideration when conducting the trend and keywork research.

Key Takeaway: Video SEO is crucial for visibility—customise content for each platform and integrate keywords strategically.

Driving Brand Narrative Through Content Creation in 2025 – Kasey Healy,  Paid Social Manager

Very quickly into their talk both Jess Farnham and Allen White from Connective3, chatted through the importance of diverse content especially when it comes to UGC and EGC creative, something we predicted in our 2025 eCommerce predictions at the start of the year! We’ve seen a switch from high-production creative mainly for brands with big budgets to push across various traditional media place-ments to, User Generated Content where creative is filmed from the perspective of the user and, Employee Generated Content that’s free if not low-cost that can be filmed, edited, and posted right from your team’s phone.

The way we consume content is changing, we’re driven by what we see online, and the food industry dominates this space as you’re most likely to make a recipe you’ve seen online. They touched on how people want to see who’s behind the brand. So, be like an M&S and encourage your local stores or employees to set up their own TikTok or Instagram accounts as this could triple your reach!

Key Takeaway: Authenticity wins—leveraging UGC and EGC enhances brand trust and engagement.

Bridging Brand & Performance: Maximising Digital Impact – Harry Garrity, Paid Social Strategist

Aiden O’Sullivan, from Pets at Home, covered the true impact of brand activity and how to capitalise on those campaign. He stressed the importance front weighting budget when search volumes serge due to the brand activation. There was an overarching sense of an omni-channel approach to ensure correct tracking is im-plemented which will allow a business to truly see where new users are coming from and in turn be able to create LAL audiences to further your business messag-ing.

Brand uplift and brand awareness campaigns will always be a helpful tool to pro-vide strong insights when combined with organic. You can use external tracking tools to help paint a stronger picture of the true impact rather than assessing on traffic metrics.

Key Takeaway: Smart budget allocation and data-driven tracking amplify digital marketing success.

The Power of Simple: How Abstract Thinking Can Transform Communication – Kam Klodzinski, Senior Paid Social Executive

Helen talked us through abstract thinking being a strength, not a weakness. Her slides about neurodiversity in the UK were very insightful. We learned that 50% of the UK creative industries are neurodiverse, with 35% of UK entrepreneurs being dyslexic. She then emphasised how we can learn to create intentional, distinctive, yet memorable customer journey to make a brand stand out and create a genuine connection with the buyer. The takeaway from Helen’s talk was that we should use abstract thinking to our advantage, as it’s often the most creative, out-of-the-box ideas that are original, disruptive and distinctive.

Key Takeaway: Harnessing abstract thinking can drive originality and brand differentiation.

Magic, Machines, and the Mess We’re In: AI’s Role in Digital Marketing – Helena Taylor, Paid Social Lead

Tom Lanaway started the talk with the challenge “adapting to AI at speed and not losing people on the way”. He discussed how machines cannot replace people as people have five key characteristics: creativity, social connection, emotional intel-ligence, human trust, intuition and judgement.

With AI he explained how it’s taken only 65 years since the birth of AI to learn how to speak in comparison to humans (70,000). This has led to a lot of fear around adopting AI, however it is here to stay, and it can benefit us in huge ways. The key takeaway from the talk is not to build products at the rate of AI, but to build them at the rate of people. Don’t build a product because you can. Centre it around a hu-man need and use AI as the solution. That is how you avoid losing people along the way.

Key Takeaway: AI is a tool, not a replacement—use it to enhance human-driven innovation.

Final Thoughts

The Connective3 Digital Bites Manchester Event underscored the importance of adaptability in digital marketing. From optimising video SEO and embracing UGC to leveraging AI effectively, brands must stay agile and prioritise human-centered strategies. As digital trends continue to shift, those who innovate and embrace new approaches will lead the way in 2025 and beyond.