Last Thursday was the Digital Ad Summit. An amazing event put on by the good folks at Sympatico/MSN. Great venue, well organized and super content. Following is a brief summary of the day and the random sparks that fired for me.
I was very much looking forward to Bob Garfield's talk; Garfield is an author & AdAge columnist. I don't know if it was the timing of his slot (he spoke during lunch) or that he thinks that Canadians are really behind the times, but I was extremely disappointed. I've been a fan of his chaos theory of media and his thoughts behind "listenomics" - that open source marketing will impact brands and marketers better figure out how to deal with it. He didn't talk about this; instead he described a simplistic picture of the current model and the future (George Jetson) model, and then described in some vague, hand-waving generalizations that we'll need to change to get there. To me, the gap is filled by social media and brand democratization. Citizen marketers will define the new model and traditional marketers will (as Garfield did say) move from adversaries to intimates. But he didn't talk about any of that. Unfortunate.
One spark I jotted down during his talk - why don't the major networks (like CNN or CBC) start a blogger certification program? There is endless debate about the validity of "citizen journalism"; why don't better known journalistic brands work with bloggers to create a program or network?
Jeff Cole from Annenberg's Center for the Digital Future was outstanding! He identified a number of trends across the Center's five years of studying the Internet and its impact. In the last two years, the data includes an international roster of countries including Canada. You can download the exec summary of the most recent Digital Future report or purchase the full version. One of the trends that Cole discusses is the likely disappearance of the offline daily newspaper. Mark Evans discusses this in more detail, but I did want to comment on one of Cole's observations - that offline newspapers and magazines offer an opportunity for serendipity; when you're scanning the full paper or magazine, you will often come across an unexpected article that will change your life. Cole is concerned that the online equivalent doesn't allow this. I actually think that blogs, blogrolls and trackbacks facilitate this serendipity, particularly with newspapers adapting a blog-esque style and/or layout; I often discover something unexpected when scanning the online news.
A few other gems from Cole:
- teens are looking for their 15 megabytes of fame, not just their 15 minutes.
- the rise of a viable third political party in the US will come from the Internet
- the Internet has reversed a 450 year old media trend; consumers create content. This is transforming media - mass media will disappear; the telegram was the first in a line of many
- convergence is real: is a TV channel a URL on the Internet, or is the Internet a channel on TV?
- the migration to mobile content will be easier than we think; for most content, the picture is a luxury and the limitations of the small screen will not overshadow the benefits of ubiquitous access.
Marc Montaldier, Head of Mobile Marketing for Orange France was a last minute and welcome addition. Apparently Canada is about 2.5 years behind France in our adoption of mobile technology, but the history and evolution of both countries is so similar that we can learn from France's lessons. Montaldier shared lots of market stats and numbers. His key points:
- mobile is unique - 1 subscriber is 1 audience member (no "pass-along" in mobile) Results in better targeting
- the mobile device goes *everywhere* with the customer; and it is multi-media enabled
- perceived value to customers who get a context-sensitive discount is huge (can take advantage of 2D barcodes)
- Get on Mobile Marketing now!
Bryan Segal from ComScore Media Metrix gave a "Top 10 Things you Need to Know about the Canadian Online Market" talk. I've seen Segal before, so I didn't take a lot of notes, but am always pleased to note that Canada is one of the world leaders in online time and broadband penetration. 86% of online time is broadband in Canada. And we spend about 2000 minutes a month online.
One of the presentations I was looking forward to the most was Steve Rubel's. I read his MicroPersuasion regularly, but had never seen him speak before. I was not the target for Rubel's talk (it was geared towards marketers just entering the realm of social media) so a lot of the content wasn't new, but it was clear, concise, well organized and memorable - even for a newbie. Outstanding. My big takeaways:
- Lack of trust in corporations and institutions is one of the major factors driving the surge in online community and social media
- If your brand engenders passion, you need to be in the blogosphere
- The best thing you can dofor your brand in the blogosphere is to empower consumers to achieve something they can't achieve on their own
The final presentation I saw was Chris Dobson, MSN's International VP of Sales and Marketing. I expected a Microsoft-y sales pitch. But it wasn't. Dobson was an engaging and authoritative speaker (one who commented on the unique Canadian marketplace which I appreciated) who inserted Microsoft and MSN's vision, but it wasn't all about using their products. Key points:
- The shift in ad dollars: it doesn't necessary follow that money cut from TV will go to online; in the UK, Unilever cut 20% of their TV spending and redirected it to instore/POP
- MSN Spaces is really going like gangbusters. In Canada, 7.3 million on MSN Spaces vs 3.5 million on Blogger
- Broadband is key - but not because of speed, but because it's always on.
- MSN is testing a feature next to their advertising "Tell me why I got this ad"; next step towards transparency in advertising
- The consumer has three overarching demands that Microsoft Live will address: answer my question, give me my social network, let me do it on the device I want.
I wasn't able to stay for Joseph Jaffe's presentation. I've read and love his book, Life After the 30-second Spot. I've reviewed it as well. Mitch says the talk was well worth the wait.
One of the best things about events like this is that it's like "old home week" ... saw a number of current and former colleagues, including: Ken Schafer, Stuart McDonald [summit notes], Kevin Krossing, and Dawna Henderson.
One final note on how well organized this thing was .. when I pulled up to the Liberty Grand very unsure where to park and how that would all work (I find the CNE grounds confusing), there was a fellow standing by the entrance directing people to the correct event and handing out parking passes. This was some exceptional customer service. Thanks Sympatico/MSN for a great day!
Tags: sympatico msn, digital ad summit, citizen marketer, toronto