30 Great Ideas in 60 Minutes
A session entitled, “Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That: 30 Great Ideas in 60 Minutes,” was one of ad:tech New York’s closing sessions, and it rewarded those who hung around with some fresh insights and a couple of good laughs.
Jeff Einstein recommended embracing your ignorance. Ignorance, he said. “is the greatest motivational force in the universe, and the most plentiful resource on the planet.”
He said he’d been selling his own ignorance for years, and that every night he goes to sleep a little more ignorant than when he woke up. Nobody is driving up the price of ignorance, and it is tragically undervalued.
Ignorance plus intent equals motivation and uncertainty plus faith equals inspiration. The key to success is to embrace your ignorance.
Maria Mandel of Ogilvy Interactive noted three themes from ad:tech New York:
1. we’re moving to all on demand. Consumers want it when they want it.
2. Entertainment. We need more creative advertising to connect to consumers.
3. Community: help consumers build community and then connect your brands to them
Mike Moran of IBM said we need to get projects going quickly and recognize that it probably won’t be perfect; so do it now, with plan B, C, and D ready. Measure, test, fix.
Mark Josephson, CMO of Canoodle: Be relevant.
Russ Novy, Webshots, said he feels really bad when he orders from a site, is asked for a special promotional code, and doesn’t have one. Why? His company gives a surprise 10 percent off to shoppers and finds that they tend to go back during a session and spend more money when they get the surprise.
The consensus: do more of what’s working; less of what’s not.
The advice I would add is: respect your customers. They’re very smart.
