Brighton’s thriving digital community is currently playing host to digital creatives from the UK and further afield as the sixth Brighton Digital Festival (1st – 30th September) gets under way.

As CEO of a Brighton digital company I am proud of our ‘silicon beach’ status and the fact that our city has the highest density of digital companies in the UK, pumping £1bn into the economy.

So how does Brighton do it and what can other marketers learn about successfully merging the crossover between technology and creativity? For starters Brighton Digital Festival is a perfect showcase of Brighton’s creativity, entrepreneurship and smart thinking.

Our conference, Dots (one of over 130 events) on the 16th September will feature an inspirational line up of speakers from the marketing industry and beyond, including Caroline Webb, author of ‘How to Have a Good Day’ and acclaimed artist Chris T-T, currently a Creative fellow at the National Trust.

Whilst many UK industries and businesses do not have Brighton’s unique blend of creativity, technical talent, community and start-up culture, there are a few practical tips that all marketers can act on.

The digital landscape is changing fast

At a business level, ideas about how to make money and the intellectual property required to be profitable are challenging old certainties. The big ideas in digital are affecting every aspect of creative industries, and the way these ideas are applied is evolving at an incredible rate.

All businesses need to take careful note of the digital revolution as it continues to unfold. We are all susceptible to something called “narrative bias” - thinking that we have arrived at a moment in time and now completely understand what’s going on.

The evolving nature of digital means that all industries are still vulnerable to the massive changes in their business models, competitors and customer base.

One danger for creative companies is working with too narrow a definition of what digital culture is, and focusing solely on the bright shiny things of youth and major social networks.

Whilst these platforms are important, they represent only the mainstream of digital culture, as it were. Creatives should be able to filter and focus on the things that are useful and inspirational to their brands, but still remain open to new ideas.

In embracing the new work cultural norms of digital - networked teams, agile planning methods, collaboration and speed, to name a few - businesses can learn how to adapt and succeed.

Information must flow throughout organisations

Cultural change is desperately needed in many marketing departments and organisations because whilst they don’t lack the talent or access to technology, their culture is often a stumbling block. These cultures are overly risk averse, slow to innovate and learn, and put the business at a big disadvantage in the age of digital.

Change needs to be driven by leaders in the business, and these leaders such as CMOs need to understand digital and change at a personal level.

The most successful digital marketers have already started to recognise that brands now operate in complex systems and have started introducing in-house ‘newsrooms’.

These newsrooms ensure that knowledge flows more freely to where it is needed and marketing decisions can be made faster in the face of digital transformation. Culturally, like-minded individuals and groups can find one another quickly and work together.

The more marketers and businesses can understand the need to pair cultural change with digital transformation, the more they will be able to achieve digital excellence to match Brighton’s head start.

As The Brighton Digital Festival begins, it is my hope that the UK’s largest celebration of digital culture helps to bring ideas and ways of working from the most innovative organisations into the wider marketing industry.

Antony Mayfield is founding partner and CEO, Brilliant Noise.