ad:tech New York Closes: Despite Economy, Optimism Reigns
While it’s said attendance was down slightly from past conferences, the New York ad:tech conference was, by all counts, alive and well despite 24/7 news reports of doom and gloom. It’s true the economy is not doing too well right now nor is it expected to improve over the course of the next year. But, thankfully, the online and interactive market space is one of the few bright spots amongst the graying economic skyline.
In his keynote address Tuesday morning eMarketer Co-Founder and CEO Geoff Ramsey said he expects to see a 14.5 percent growth rate in U.S. online ad spending in 2009, not bad for an economy that’s supposed to be tanking. Many other sources have proclaimed such health as well for the space which bodes well for those of us making our living in online marketing.
read more...The Revolution Will Be Widgetized! Among other Things
The Next Frontier: Advertising in Applications.
This panel struck me as one of the most relevant to marketers at ad:tech NY this year. Topics included widgets, in-game advertising and in-cloud applications (server-hosted productivity supplements to Word and Excel). A representative from Facebook also discussed what ad models work well for the social network.
Liza Hausman of Gigya introduced the talk on widgets. (See her discuss it, in part, in the video above. Try not to wince when Escourrou, bless his heart, says “marketeers.”) She observed people used to spend time on destination sites; now they bring content wherever they go: a social network, a blog, a desktop, their start page.
As a result, widgets present a real opportunity for marketers. ”Anything that can be done on a website can be done on a widget,” she pointed out. “Most importantly, widgets have to be installed by a user to a page.” That’s the world’s best validation of your value add - and obviously also a huge hurdle.
Half-ass a widget, and it’ll never move past your subsite.
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Hey, Cool-Hunters. I’ve Got Your Millennials Right Here.
Obama, Apple and Ice Cream - Building Brand Passion Among Millennials.
This ad:tech panel consisted of six Millennials, which—according to the official (coughs) definition—represent those born between 1979 and 1994. Wanna know if they actually respond to your email blasts and big Flash banners? Watch the video above. And if you happen to be shilling for Urban Outfitters, pat yourself on the back.
Alloy’s Samantha Skey served as moderator and cow prod. This company’s entire raison d’etre is to know kids better than they know themselves, then package them in silver spoonfuls to ravenous marketers. Once in awhile, Skey made an irrefutable statement about their transparent whims, backed by video footage of some poor dope proving her right.
read more...Booths, Booth and More Booths. Exhibit Hall Explored Photography-Style
On Monday and Tuesday during ad:tech New York, the exhibit hall was filled with activity. Every last square inch of available space inside the Hilton had been converted to booth space for the final appearance of ad:tech in the Hilton. Yes, the conference will continue. It’s just moving to the Javits Center next year so everyone wil have some vreathing room as they traverse the exhibit hall floor.
ad:tech blogger Andrew Paradies strolled the floor and took several shots of exhibitors booths on Monday and Tuesday. Check out Andrew’s photo album here and see who you recognize. And here’s another album from Steve Hall.
read more...It’s the Skinny on Search and Synergy.
At this jewel of an ad:tech session, each panelist lavished the audience with a drop of wisdom from their collective fountains. What follows are my scoopings.
Tips for managing a brand in the new media landscape, courtesy of MTVN’s Julie Sun:
- You’ve heard the expression “knowledge is power.” Well, sound social knowledge can protect a brand. Monitor user-created pages like Wikipedia; see what people say about you, and communicate your point of view. (Avoid the temptation to link-whore, though.)
- Do research to find out where your users are. (Don’t play with Facebook, for example, if your users aren’t there.) Given your objectives, ID which space works best for you.
- Support your online social initiatives year-round. (For chrissake, don’t take down a subsite just because you stopped running TV ads for it. What makes the web cool is its ability to keep ads going long after the money stops. KEEP THE SITE UP. DON’T DELETE THOSE VIDEOS, EITHER.)
Even Nimble Long Tail Media Will Suffer in Economic Downturn
The ad:tech power panel “Will the long-tail go bankrupt?” was extremely timely given current economic conditions. Digital content is everywhere online and is growing exponentially. This epic flood of digital content and unprecedented media fragmentation has produced a fundamental conundrum: it’s hard to make money. This panel explored how the long-tail can make money, and the barriers to growth, especially given where the economy is going.
MODERATOR:
Emily Steel, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
PANELISTS:
Matt Palmer, Executive VP, General Manager, Stardoll
Jordan Bitterman, Digitas
Matt Coppet, Head of Global Media Strategy, UBS
Philip Mitchell, Ogilvy
Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3
The Billion $$ Question. How can the Long-Tail make $$$?
The extent to which advertising can be incorporated into content in a relevant and natural way has great effect on the “worth” of the ad impression. And this goes beyond display-based advertising. Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 used an example of how a beer sponsorship was incorporated into their podcast. The DiggNation podcast has long featured guys drinking beer. Incorporating sponsors for the beer was a logical and natural tie-in, without the need to directly relate it to the content. (DiggNation is a technology/news blog). According to Jim Louderback sponsors see as high as 100% unaided awareness from sponsorships which is significantly higher than display based ads.
read more...Mobile Social Networking: Now Is The Time for Innovation
“Mobile is both the most personal device and location-based device..its also the only 24/7 session,” stated Evan Tana, Director of Product Management and Marketing at Loopt. And so very true! I had just Twittered from one such mobile device a few minutes before to notify my followers of my presence in the session—how very appropriate, eh?
As the last session of the day, the last remaining stalwarts filed in to hear about this still very emerging platform, and disappointed we were not! With a solid panel consisting of some of the most active doers and thought leaders in the space, the session remained relevant and to the point (and kudos to moderator Mickey Alam Khan, EIC of MobileMarketer.com for keeping the audience engaged with frequent breaks throughout for Q&A). Ok so lets get down to the good stuff:
MODERATOR:
Mickey Alam Khan, Editor-in-Chief, Mobile Marketer magazine
PANELISTS:
Evan Tana, Director of Product Management and Marketing, Loopt
Mike Howard, VP of Sales, Kiwibox.com
Polly Lieberman, VP, Advertising Sales, buzzd
Andrew Osmak, Senior VP, Business Development, Lavalife
Jordan Greene, Principal, Mobile Media, Mella Media
DigiPublishers: Context is (Still) King, and Don’t Be Afraid to Leer
Publishing in the Digital Age—Context is King.
It’s odd that an ad:tech panel about publishing need reiterate the importance of context. Even before digital blew our minds or whatever, wasn’t that still the case? Great newspapers were forged in the fires of noteworthy current events. Great books exploit widely-felt (but little-articulated) sentiments.
Context has always been king. Tactical marketers have always fed on that: This is my message. How best to package it for Demo X? Where is their mind? Can I speak to a shared passion or crisis?
This sesh gives a fresh coat of paint to a trusty old model, with the crucial addition of being whiplash-worthy. (That is, encourage some hardcore voyeurism.) Highlights below.
read more...Wednesday an Eye Blasting Arena of Massive Guitar Hero Action
While not as busy as Monday or Tuesday night, Wednesday at ad:tech New York offered up quite a few things for ad:tech attendees to do after the day’s panels ended. Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuk gave a “motivational speech” to several hundred people at The Volstead but it didn’t turn out quite as planned. Even with a few hundred people there to hear Gary speak, the club refused to turn down the music in favor of serving the eight people in the club not associate with the Mashable event.
read more...Master Class Roundtable: Growing Online Brand Advertising Dollars
This my favorite panel of Ad:tech because it included five marketers with a pragmatic view from the trenches on a hot topic. As with many Ad:tech sessions, the panelists didn’t stay totally on topic, yet I liked it because the panelists shared real experiences and talked candidly about what specifically works and what doesn’t work for their brands. I got some good, tangible takeaways and hope you will too.
Moderator: Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen Online
Panelists: Brian Kalma, Zappos
Scott Wilder, Intuit
Kevin Ranford, 1800flowers.com
Jeffrey Graham, New York Times
Andrew Markowitz, Kraft
Search Marketing Tactics and Strategies: Best Practices
... across current and emerging digital search platforms, that is.
It’s been a long week, and the day is growing longer and this is the final session of ad:tech. With all of that said, what the heck: I’m gonna try liveblogging the session (which I suspect may be a good way of blogging the sessions overall, but we’ll see how this goes).
read more...Headlines and Heroes Pacha Party Gets Photorific
If you didn’t get enough of the Money Makers II party at Pacha during New York ad:tech, here’s a photo album for you to relive the night. Or, live it for the first time if you didn’t make it.
read more...Beyond the Banner ... Beyond the Network ...
... beyond the sea
somewhere waiting for me
my Web ad stands on golden sands
and watches the clicks that go sailin’ ...
Okay, it’s the last day of ad:tech, so things are bound to get a little punchy. Still, I’d love to hear some Bobby Darin mixed in with whatever this is that’s being piped through the sound system before the session begins (which is pretty good, I have to say; sort of a modern spin on Motown).
Anyway, this is a session with big promise, “designed for the more advanced online marketer seeking new tactical approaches to leverage the unique features of the web beyond standard IAB units placed blindly across ad networks.”
Now we’re talking.
read more...Idea For Next Year’s ad:tech NY
How about setting up “laptop zones” in the main presentation rooms?
There’s a sizable contingent of people using laptops in sessions, so why not take, say, a quarter of the room and run power strips along the floor so everyone can plug in? Added benefit: All the keyboard-tappers are kept in one area, so won’t be as annoying to someone else who doesn’t want to hear it.
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