ad:tech IMPACT Ft. Lauderdale - Rick Bruner

event: ad:tech IMPACT Ft. Lauderdale, FL
session title: Best Practices for Optimizing Digital Advertising Effectiveness
presenter: Rick Bruner, Research Director, DoubleClick Digital Advertising Solutions
date: April 6, 2006

I've previously listened to Rick Bruner speak knowledgeably from the podium on many occasions both as a fellow speaker and an audience member. Rick's solid presentation at ad:tech in Ft. Lauderdale had me rapidly scribbling highlights that included:
> behavior correlation
> why controlling frequency is important to ROI
> 4 tenets of optimization

There were two items that particularly interested me and I caught up with Rick after his talk and asked him to elaborate on:
> the importance of questioning assumptions
> the significance of the "brand-direct response" hybrid

John Lawlor interviews Rick Bruner on questioning Internet marketing assumptions and branding vs. direct response
MP3 version
http://chiefmarketingactivist.com/a_files/ad-tech_Lawlor_Bruner.mp3

Link to Rick's presentation slides
http://www.ad-tech.com/impact/final-slide-PDF/campaign_optimization.pdf

ad: tech IMPACT Boston

I wasn't sure what to expect from the IMPACT series. When I got to the Boston Marriott Copley, I simply couldn't find ad:tech. I saw a bunch of people going up the escalators, so I followed them. It turned out there were stories of escalators, so it became a game of "Press Your Luck" for me, where I was watching the signs, and thinking, "No Whammies... be a sign for ad:tech... no Whammies... OH! Stops on a conference for doctors. Okay, next level... no Whammies... let this be ad:tech... no Whammies... NO! It's some gathering of salespeople." Having gone all the way up and all the way back down, I went to see the concierge, who looked everything up for me. He also told me there would be no wireless connection to the Internet on the floors ad:tech would be on...

This sums up the experience I had with the ad:tech IMPACT series. It was filled with great people, with great ideas, great products, and incredibly interesting things to talk about. The problem was that the setup of the event - the location and structure of the breakouts, the timing and the fact that it was a roadshow, kept all of that great stuff from bubbling up to the surface. It became obvious right from the keynote, when Jim Sterne, an incredibly interesting guy whom I'd gladly invite out for beers, looked like he was reciting lines instead of sharing his insights with us. The last five minutes of his presentation should have been the entire presentation because it seemed to be made up of all the great material he didn't have time to cover during his speech.

ad:tech IMPACT Toronto - Trade Tables

What is the deal with trade show setups? They can take even the most creative industries (say, advertising or music, for example) and boil them down to a bunch of guys in suits and branded golf shirts twitching nervously behind tables.

I don't blame the sponsor reps. I'd feel like a zombie too, after standing around in convention centers for a couple of weeks. But isn't it time to rethink these things? Can't we find a format with more flair and interactivity? More... impact?

Is it possible that the same way ad:tech presentations underline the need for online ads and email to build relationships with customers, trade show booths have the potential to project a more powerful and appealing message than "don't even think of talking to me if you're not going to buy what I'm selling"?

Kudos to Monster.com for being notably approachable and having the most attractive little tchotchke Monster on the floor.

ad:tech IMPACT, Toronto- "Online advertising doesn't work, but targeting does"

"Targeting" and "common sense" stood out as buzz words at 1MPACT, Toronto. If I remember correctly, these were the same two principles that got me through my university marketing courses. So what happens to marketers between the classroom and the boardroom?

The 1MPACT cheat sheet broke it all down again for the first time.

Online, targeting comes in three essential flavors:

• Contextual
• Demographic
• Behavioural

All three can be combined for the greatest effect, but whichever method you can implement right now, start doing it.

If creative production costs go up but targeting doesn't improve, ads get more expensive and less effective.

Even eliminating a little waste produces huge lift.

More powerful or immediately useful words were perhaps never spoken.

ad:tech IMPACT Toronto - The Experience

On Thurday, March 23, 2006, ad:tech IMPACT in Toronto showed a lot of potential for the event it might become, with sparse but attentive audiences for most presentations throughout the day.

It felt a little bizarre to be the only attendee in each session taking notes electronically, at an online event bereft of actual Internet connectivity. Casual surveys suggested that IMPACT's audience in Toronto skewed more towards agency reps, their clients and members of corporate marketing teams than online publishers. Indeed, the bulk of online experts were at the podium, not in the audience; a balance which no doubt proved ideal for the inquiring minds that needed it most.

The day flew along at a breezy pace, with knowledgeable, personable and engaging presenters racing to keep the day on schedule, with and without the help of Power Point, which played it's usual role of unpredictable sidekick.

ad tech IMPACT - Denver

You would think since I attended the 6th adtech impact conference in Denver 1 week ago, it would have given me enough time to write about the experience. Truth be known, there was so much information covered at the one day session, it is difficult to put everything into one simple article. I will be breaking down the entries into parts that are more manageable but first I will discuss my overall thoughts on the adtech impact session in Denver and the impressions it left me. Of course, my first impression left me a bit bitter since I was there to live blog the event, but being in the basement of the Marriott Hotel, I was afforded no Internet connection. This spelled disaster for me as a live blogger. Consider these entries as the tape delayed version.

The conference had main presentations and three tracks of breakout sessions which made it easy to concentrate on small groups of people on specialized topics. I attended Track 1 regarding Online Advertising Analytics and Optimization in two of the three breakout sessions, and in the third session I attended the presentation on Integrated SEM Campaigns. I'll recap each session in an elevator pitch approach as well as provide a summary of each general session and the Keynote by Jim Sterne of Target Marketing.

My overall impression of the conference was very educational. There was a large amount of information being presented and it could have easily taken more time. They presented the topics in such a way that it was long enough for them to present the message and short enough not to lose the audience. It is easy to see the speakers were very passionate about the metrics of online marketing, and with new and exciting applications increasing in number and use, there was almost a sense of panic in the room as marketers knew they had better pay attention to the presentations and embrace the online marketing world or they would soon be out of the race and left behind.

1MPACT LA - SEM Is Not Sexy

I think the most lively session I attended was Barbara Coll and Fionn Downhill's session on Search Engines. As experts in the field, they presented and then answered many questions on SEM, SEO, and PPC search. The title of this post refers to a comment Barbara made in reference to the fact that the search engines are pretty much text driven. They show natural and paid text results, with not fancy creatives to have fun with.

One hot topic is always the issue of results for your trademark and brand. Both agreed that you should not allow anyone else to own your brand or category. Fionn had lots of examples of companies doing it wrong, where they had great campaigns set up, but they forgot to include the organic search and/or PPC visibility into the mix. Ways to own the top ten natural results include organic SEO, press releases, affiliates, and articles.

1MPACT LA - Sponsor Presentations

There were five sponsor presentations mid-day. Brent Hieggelke of WebTrends spoke of many things, but the one area that hit home for me was segmentation. A 5% conversion rate means 95% non-conversion, so who are those 95%? Maybe 40% were just completely uninterested, but that means that 55% of your traffic is still in the buy cycle and you can reach them with the right message. Some will have price concerns, some need more detailed information, others will have some specific concerns. If you have ways to determine what message to send to these people, you can greatly improve your results. After all, sending a 20% off coupon to someone who is ready to buy but just wanted to know if they could get it in blue will only reduce your margin if you could have send them an email telling them the product is available in sixteen colors, including three blue hues.

Scott Nelson of TrueEffect wanted us to take home just four things to control hidden media costs:

• Measure Yourself (processes, time, reports)
• Educate the Client (might be internal CFO, admin, IT)
• Retain Expertise (prevent sniping talent)
• Technology Your Way (don't let it control you)

1MPACT LA - Analytics and Optimization Track

With one person and three tracks, as well as keynotes and vendors with some interesting services, I could only cover so much of the show. I was able to make a few sessions in this track. Each session in this track was standing room only with over 50 chairs set up in the room.

I was quite impressed with Young-Bean Song and his in depth understanding and analysis. He had some great data on frequency with some insights that many might overlook. When looking at the average frequency of impressions for a campaign, the results can be skewed by the super active people who see the ad 20, 30, or even 50 times. Frequency capping only works per ad serving solution, and most large campaigns are spread around with more than one server, so you will likely get readers seeing your ad more than your cap amount. Even so, capping does help as it limits the overexposure, as conversion rate goes down as impressions increase.

ad:tech IMPACT Series Kick-Off Reviewed

Online Advertising Discussion List's Cliff Kurtzman wrote a very detailed overview of the ad:tech IMPACT conference series kick off held February 28 in Seattle.The events were designed to bring the benefits of the larger national shows held three times a year in New York, San Francisco and Chicago to a local level. Shows will be held in Seattle, LA, Phoenix, Denver, Dallis, Toronto, Boston, Cincinnati, Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale.

Kurtman had mostly positive things to say about the show while acknowledging it was the first of a series and there were bugs to be worked out. He ranked the low cost and educational content highly but wasn't pleased he couldn't immediate get copies of presenters' presentations.You can read his in-depth review of the event here.

1MPACT LA Introduction

What do you get when you take the educational sessions from ad:tech and compress them into a one day traveling road show? 1MPACT.

This was a great one day conglomeration of the best sessions with a little networking thrown in. You get a jam packed schedule that broke out into three tracks: Online Advertisng Analytics and Optimization; Web Site Design and Optimization; and Analyzing Your Marketing ROI. Since this is ad:tech, you also get to witness the Hot Seat in the Connect Live! session at the end of the show. No hats or costumes this time, just a "throne" for the lucky ones being grilled.

ad:tech Launches Ten City, One Day Online Marketing Conferences

ad:tech, which hosts three major national online marketing conferences, is launching a new conference series called IMPACT, a ten city, one day show kicking off February, 28 in Seattle then moving on to Phoenix, LA, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Toronto, Cincinnati and ending with Fort Lauderdale April, 6. The shows, as does the three big shows, will focus on all thing online marketing from planning to buying to analytics to search engine marketing to campaign optimization to ad formats to blogging to consumer generated media to behavioral marketing.

The day's events will consist of keynotes, separate tracks with sessions of differing topics, presentations from service providers/vendors, mini expo session where attendees can explore exhibitor offerings and an ad:tech Connect LIVE! Session, an interactive Q & A jam session. We'll be attending the Seattle and Boston events.