With our Mobile Marketplace coming up on July 13, we've compiled a few articles to help bring you up to date on what's going on in mobile marketing today.


In this ADWEEK article, branding and action begin to merge in cyberspace marketing messages

"Marketers see a benefit of using display to support brand building on online as well as on mobile channels, especially through use of the rich media [interactive display],.."

 It's never too early to start learning about Mobile Marketing according to this ClickZ article

"Mobile marketing is more about consumer touchpoints than media math. Before the question of whether to use mobile gets to the plan level, which is fraught with tough decisions and fights for survival, marketing leaders should be planning to use it far earlier in the decision process."

A few good tips from Eric Bader on how to market through mobile:

"Unlike static and one-way communications channels, mobile is about context and behaviors -- great things for marketers. Here are a few ways to market through mobile that can be especially effective in reaching mobile consumers."

Adage reveals How Mobile Makes Bricks-and-Mortars Retail Accountable

"This is vastly important right now. In this economic environment, consumers are spending less, switching brands and going online to hunt for deals. Still, almost everyone makes unplanned purchases, and half of those purchase decisions happen in the aisle. Mobile presents a tremendous opportunity for brands to claim the last few feet and turn browsers into buyers."

View our full agenda and register today!

What:   IAB Marketplace - Mobile
When:  Monday, July 13
Where: The Roosevelt Hotel
            Madison Ave at 45th St.
            New York, NY 10017

Our friends at Smartbrief just did a great interview with Sarah Hofstetter, VP of Emerging Media and Client Strategy at 360i, who is a keynote speaker at our upcoming Social Media Marketplace on May 18.

Now is a fantastic opportunity for brands to not only learn from those mistakes but take a disciplined, smart approach to social marketing, understanding how to motivate and engage audiences in their environments, resulting in advocacy, preference, sharing and loyalty.

Read the full interview on SmartBlog here: If You Can Get to Just 1: IAB Social Media Marketplace

And don't forget to register for the IAB Social Media Marketplace.

With our Social Media Marketplace coming up, we've been combing the web for examples of what's happening here and now with social media.

4 simple rules for generating traffic from forums

Don’t mention your Web site. Yes, you read that right. Do not mention your Web site in posts or refer to your signature, unless it is abundantly, extremely clear that it is acceptable. This isn’t your Twitter account or your Facebook page – this is the community space. The way you generate traffic from forums is generally through your signature. You do great things, you help people, and you make good posts. That makes people look at your signature and your profile, which is how you receive traffic.

via smartblogs.com

4 Lessons for Social Media Marketers

4. Creativity wins A marketer with an understanding of social media and the need for engagement online tends to think outside the box. They don’t see Facebook or blogging, instead they see vessels for a conversation. Because of that mindset they’re poised to be creative with their social strategy.

via mashable.com

plus, here's a video describing Social Marketing in Plain English

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter

What to focus on and when, is always the $64,000 dollar question (or adjusted for inflation, the $495,000 dollar question). In the public policy arena, the question compounds: where should I be focusing my attention? Local and state affairs? Hill happenings? Regulatory proceedings? Percolating academic research? Consumer advocate agendas? These are the kinds of questions that keep Starbucks on the S&P 500. To that end, the IAB would like to introduce our members to a new feature on our IAB Public Policy homepage , www.iab.net/public_policy  .  Here we’ll be providing our members with the latest legislative developments on the state, federal and regulatory levels, as well as highlighting current topics, trends, developments, and events that are inhabiting the interactive advertising ecosystem – and much like a “real” ecosystem, it’s often the small things that end-up blindsiding you.

In this inaugural launch, you’ll find the first of what will be a series of monthly legislative updates, as well as a short piece highlighting the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and its potential impact on online data collection and advertising. With all the noise out there about “regulating” online advertising, it’s worth taking a moment to look at existing legislation, to understand some of the context that has contributed to the current debate.

In the upcoming months you can expect to see monthly legislative updates, as well as short “think” pieces covering a diversity of topics from internet advertising taxation legislation to the technology-focused agenda of a new Administration. We here at the IAB hope that you can use this new resource to provide you with a quick insight into the sometimes messy business of politics, as well as a preview of new issues and concerns coming down the pipeline.

Thanks to Advertising Age, I've had a chance recently to reflect on my favorite advertising and marketing books of all time. Alas, the book I believe is the best did not make the Top 10 list. It is Strategy in Advertising: Matching Media and Messages to Markets and Motivations by Leo Bogart.

First published in 1967, "Strategy in Advertising":http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=105066 remains the best single-volume work on the science of media mix modeling and allocation. That's not surprising, because its author was a brilliant and widely respected social scientist, who for years served as the executive vice president of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau and the de facto dean of media researchers in the United States. Bogart (who died in 2005) was of that generation of sociologists who saw both the bad and the good that managed communications can do. Born in Poland, his observations as an American soldier in Europe at the end of World War II -- his confrontation with the horrifying results of Nazi propaganda -- prompted him to become a sociologist. Among his post-war projects was the research that underlay the desegregation of the U.S. armed forces.

I mention Bogart's background and his grounding in science because the second page of his classic book on advertising strategy contains one of the most contrarian lines ever written by a scientist. "Advertisements," he writes, "may be evaluated scientifically; they cannot be created scientifically."

Leo Bogart no doubt would be amused that, some four decades after he penned his great book, we're still fighting the old art vs. science war in advertising. But we are -- and it's a war worth ending, because it misses the point entirely.

Two weeks ago, I published a clog titled, "A Bigger Idea: A Manifesto on Interactive Advertising Creativity." The observations and hypotheses -- that our direct response heritage has hindered this medium's hospitality to brand advertisers, that we must incentivize creative excellence, that we need to integrate technologists as full partners into creative teams -- apparently have resonated.

Ah, hell -- they became the talk of the clogosphere, and for that we're extremely grateful. The French Revolution began in salons and coffee shops, so no reason the interactive creative revolution can't begin here!

We furthered the cause subsequently at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in Orlando, FL -- the Ecosystem 2.0 conference, as we call it -- earlier this week. There, I disclosed that, for the first time, IAB will invite creative agencies into the interactive advertising format standardization process. We also announced the formation of IAB's first Agency Advisory Board, with senior executive representatives from a dozen top creative, digital and media agencies, including:

• Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO of McKinney, and Chair of the Agency Advisory Board
• Tom Bedecarré, CEO, AKQA
• Jeff Benjamin, Interactive Creative Director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky Advertising
• Alan Cohen, CEO of OMD USA, OMD Los Angeles.
• Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Digital Officer, TBWA Worldwide
• Brian DiLorenzo, Director of Integrated Production and Executive Director of Content, BBDO
• David Droga, Founder and Chairman, Droga5
• Sarah Fay, CEO, Carat North America
• Maria Luisa Francoli, Global CEO, MPG
• Jean-Philippe Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
• Benjamin Palmer, Co-Founder, CEO, Barbarian Group
• Steve Wax, Partner and Chief Narratologist and Co-Founder, Campfire

But this is not a revolution against science, as some have characterized it. It's a war against the mismanagement of marketing communications by people who don't have the background or experience to help marketers use all the tools and services available to them to grow profitably. In that war, as IAB Chair Wenda Harris Millard put it so eloquently at our conference, both art and science have a place.

It's important for all of us who would offer our services to marketers and consumers to know how to arrange the seats at this table.

12:10 PM

One last session for the morning and the event! Joanne Bradford, SVP, U.S. Revenue and Market Development, and Michael Walrath, SVP, Advertising Marketplace Group, both from Yahoo! are sharing 10 things they think really matter to the industry and Yahoo!.

Brands Matter
Size Matters
Service Matters
Price Matters
Flexibility Matters
Data Matters
Partnerships Matter (that's one reason they are co-presenting)
Innovation Matters
Longevity Matters
ROI Matters

What doesn't matter? The majority of the ad networks, according to Joanne.

Joanne Bradford talks about Yahoo!’s belief in the spirit of partnerships.

 

11:40 AM

The annual Great Debate is underway. The statements around the center of it all: Brand marketers don't need agencies. Interactive publishers can provide everything they need.

What does the audience think at the beginning of the session? Audience text message polling shows 64% disagreeing and 36% agreeing at just this minute.

Abbey Klaassen, Digital Editor, at AdAge, is moderating the panel of four - two who agree and two who oppose.

(A) John Partilla, President, Time Warner Global Media Group - It's complicated out there. You can't claim to do too much. We can't do everything for every advertiser, but we can and will do much more.

(A) Sarah Chubb, President, Conde Nast Digital - Times are slim and the truth is that relationships are about doing the things that are missed. We've got to work together, not fight each other right now. She's glad they aren't in the ad network business because of the data ownership and Ts&Cs issues that are emerging now. They are never going to be the lowest price, due to the value of what they have to offer. You have to figure out where you fit in the ecosystem. 

(O) Quentin George, Chief Digital Officer, Mediabrands - As an industry we've done a bad job differentiating the value of what there is to offer. If we can understand the data, high value inventory will thrive.   

(O) Jean-Philippe Maheu, Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy North America - We need to take today's economic situation into account. In ideal conditions a brand is always going to go to a creative agency. It's the long term trend, but right now we must all fight for the same dollars. We all want to create something fantastic and the creatives who can do it are at creative agencies. 

The audience poll results at the end of the session? Let's see how convincing the sides where. 46% agree and 54% don't. Looks like a slight change.

10:19 AM

Omar Hamoui, founder and CEO of AdMob, started by admitting he isn't a "conference guy" but gave kuddos to this event. He's got a few "news you can use" items to take home and start working. But, on to the good stuff--mobile. He's displaying a live mobile campaign on an ad management interface and going over the details of how easy it is to manage and collect reporting. We'll see what's happening with the campaign between now and the end of the session. 

The platform is growing at tremendous speed and with diverse audiences. Any audience you want, they are there--and very targetable. What about the experience? Some users now prefer to use particular apps on mobile devices rather than online. Videos, maps, pull vs. push, rich mobile sites and more continue to make the mobile experience even more robust and they will expand farther in the next generation of mobile.

Eric Bader from Brand In Hand (an actual client of AdMob) is talking through their case-study and comparing the mobile work with other channel results. He agrees with the session title "Mobile: My Platform Can Beat Up Your Platform."

Omar Hamoui explores the possibilities of mobile advertising with the audience.

 

9:50 PM

"Rumors on the Death and Display Have Been Greatly Exaggerated" according to David Rosenblatt, President, Display Advertising, Google.

The Google product development model has three core principles. 1) openness 2) results 3) efficiency. David is running through how Google is addressing them each specifically through products. The strategy is to use their large presence, technological advantage and more to make it happen.

How does Google feel about agencies? They love them because agencies understand brands.

Lots of questions from the audience:

Is Google a technology company or media company? Great question from an audience member who asked he try to avoid answering "both". However, it is "both" says David. That's the reality they are working toward. 

Do you believe all impressions are created equal? No - the point is that each unit of inventory has a different value to different people. The marketplace model takes care of that. Pricing isn't the core issue--it's yield.

9:14 AM

Noticed any consistent themes throughout Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back? Randall has and he shared them to start the final day.

1. Interactive is an AND media not an OR media

2. Services (even consensus around what kind of services)

3. The value of the user experience

4. Use the tools

9:06 AM

The final day of Ecosystem 2.0: Brands Battle Back is just beginning. Last night's dinner was the perfect end to a day of intense presentations, debate and discussion. The conversation may have been intense--but attendees still enjoyed some down time to reflect and relax.  Stay tuned for the final sessions...... 

 

 

6:05 PM

Our last panel of the day took a political spin with a frank discussion on the lessons learned from the Obama campaign in social media.  Moderated by John Battelle, the panel featured:

Tom Arrix, Vice President Sales, Facebook
Andrew Mitchell, Vice President Interactive Marketing, CNN.com
Rob Shepardson, Founding Partner, SS+K

The discussion ranged from the coolest thing they did during the election (CNN/Facebook inauguration mashup for Andrew Mitchell) to Battelle asking Tom Arrix if Facebook made money off the campaign (answer = page views went up).  Rob Shepardson also made some great points about how what Barack Obama stood for meshed perfectly with the Social Media platform in distribution and organization.

This was a great end to a fantastic day.  I'm off to the networking reception followed by dinner.  Tune in tomorrow morning for updates from Day 3 of Ecosystem 2.0 - Brands Battle Back.

5:15 PM

Back from break with two more sessions until cocktails and dinner.  First up is Scott Howe, Corporate Vice President, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group from Microsoft. Going into the tail end of a day packed with learning and debate, this high-energy performance was just what the crowd needed.

Howe's presentation was based on three statements:

1) What we can learn from the Great Depression

2) Why the Green Bay Packers are smarter than us

3) Why Geology and Physics should be friends

To try to explain through this blog how each of these statements leads to a lesson learned would not do the presentation justice - so here are the lessons minus the entertainment:

1) Adversity must fuel innovation.

2) We must as an industry defend our value.

3) There are challenges in our industry that can only be solved through collaboration.

I'll be back in an hour with the final update of the day.

4:05 PM

Creative is king as The New York Times team shares how they've used creative and "beauty" to drive a 38 percent increase in unique users.

Steve Duenes, Graphics Director, explains that the goal is to always deliver something novel to users--something they won't find anywhere else. It's about taking simple data, like exit poll results, and working through a way to deliver the journalism in a new visual experience. As a viewer, watching the samples he's displaying, you almost don't even notice you are absorbing the information because it seems so natural and interesting.  

Next up is Aron Pilhofer, Editor, Interactive News Technology. His group consists of ten journalists/developers that form a true project desk. They are working on visual ways to guide readers through important sections of documents, accessing information that traditionally could be very difficutl to sort through. Building community around the sections people wait for each week can and will change the future of newspapers. Is there another option?

New platforms, Times People, Times Extra and apps are slated to create loyalty and drive people back to The New York Times homepage says Paul Smurl, Vice President, Advertising. Multi-platform advertising isn't new, but continues to be a focus for advertising sales. 

The last break of the day--I need a sugar rush! Wish me luck.

Steve Duenes walks the audience through recent visual data displays.

Aron Pilhofer explains the role of the new interactive news technology team.

 

3:20 PM

Back from lunch and a little warm sunshine, the afternoon sessions are underway. And, a little surprise.....

The IAB, with the help of small publishers across the country, created "I Am The Long Tail," a collection of homemade videos from small publishers themselves, telling the story of how online advertising allows them to thrive in business and in life. The video will be available at iab.net/longtail soon.

Recession 2.0: A Deep Dive Into the 2009 Interactive Economy features two presenters. Mark Mahaney, Director, Internet Sector, Citigroup Investment Research, is taking on "Where Are Advertiser Dollars Going?" His big picture answer: advertising outlooks will continue to decline, but there is opportunity. There is a $125B opportunity, five times the total dollars spent on online advertising in 2008. The advertising spend can and will shift online. The biggest areas of ad innovation are mobile, video and local advertising. CMOs do like Internet advertising especially search, he says.

Terence Kawaja, Managing Director, GCA Savvian, is dealing with "Where Are Investor Dollars Going?" Private investor activity was ramping up. M&As were producing activity. The buyer universe was expanding. But, now the world has changed and so have the stats and the dollars. Content, agencies, performance marketing and social/blog deals are still happening because the investment spectrum is all about balancing risk and reward. And, social is going corporate while corporate is going social.

The good news: interactive is the only bright spot in advertising. Digital is the only channel that can deliver value to brands. It's only going to happen with the support and help of the leaders in this room. 

1:20 PM

Last year at the 2008 IAB Annual Meeting Wenda Harris Millard famously declared "we must not trade our diamonds like pork bellies" when speaking about ad inventory. David Payne, CEO, ShortTail Media, continued the pork analogy with a presentation about how to turn pork bellies into premium inventory.  He gave six steps to accomplish this:

1) Radically improve ad units - after all the two-minute commercial break is interpretive but it can also tell a story.
2) Radically cure metrics - we must move beyond the click and provide marketers with meaningful data.
3) Radically improve the creative - amazingly, interactive creative is not evolving as fast as television.
4) Create conventions - drive simplification to gain scalability
5) Develop smarter pricing strategies
6) Focus on simplification - simplification and standardization does not mean commoditization.

With all this talk of pork, I think I'm going to head out for lunch.  Be back with more this afternoon.


12:40 PM

Things picked up quickly after break with Bob Carrigan, CEO, IDG Communications Worldwide. He discussed the challenges that traditional media companies face as marketers continue to shift money into interactive away from legacy media.

The main concepts of Carrigan's presentation were: Looking Below the Line, Audience Centricity, Everything is Custom, Beyond Our Borders and Evolution or Extinction.  Within each concept, the overriding theme was traditional media must embrace technology in order to create value for their customers.  It's about turning media into a service.  There's still plenty of marketing dollars to be spent.  The question is whether you can create the value marketers need in the digital age.

11:55 AM

Some quick breaking news before the next session - Revenue Science is now known as Audience Science. Visit www.audiencescience.com for more info.

11:26 AM

Randall Rothenberg just wrapped up a discussion with IPG leaders, including individual agency leaders. Nick Brien, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mediabrand; Howard Draft, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Draftfcb; Michael Roth, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Interpublic Group and Robert Bagot, Chief Creative Officer, McCannSF shared the details of how the IPG holding company came together and manages the business. Keeping their head down and focusing on the client and audience is working wonders for them.

A current Hyundia campaign was discussed as an example of how brands are listening to the challenges consumers are currently facing. The offer, in this case the option to return your new car if you lose your source of income, is an important part of the campaign. Media + offer + creative = direct marketing and much more these days.

Consumer engagement is more important than ever. That means blurring the lines between brand marketing and direct response marketing.

Breaking down silos between agencies and expertise has been key to IPG success.  One person is accountable for reaching across the different organizations and to the client. It is the agency’s responsibility to be accountable. Clients are demanding an open architecture so IPG is responding—and holding their senior executives responsible through compensation.

Audience members are talking too. Search twitter for #iabnet for details.

Off to a break. Need a snack to maintain my blog energy!

 

10:10 AM

Michael Mendenhall began by addressing how social media is impacting marketer reach. Social networking sites are now a source of advice and are being used to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges—for people who may have never experienced the power of the Internet. The paradigm is no longer centered on interrupting a consumer message with your product, it's about creating a conversation around your product.

HP is tapping the collective intelligence of customers by hosting forums where they can help each other. These forums are expected to be critical to HPs success as the brand strives to engage customers through digital media. But, they don’t expect traditional outlets to disappear, just adapt.

One example is MagCloud.com –  a  beta version of an HP site/product which allows anyone to customize and instantly create and print magazines. Sounds interesting.

Michael also drew comparisons between the successes of TV, through the help of independently and locally operated affiliates, and brand building online. Brands can become “the big tv three” by contracting with a vast number of local web sites. The problem is it takes time and research, which can be prohibitive. The winners will be the agencies who can rationalize it and pull it all together. And, they are begining to do it.

For many companies brand specific digital networks will just be a small part. Brands aren’t defined by campaigns anymore, but by the complete environment they create.

For HP success is about “return on information” not “return on investment” in today’s marketplace.

9:45 AM

Randall Rothenberg was back on stage to set expectations for the day and comment on last nights activities.

For the first time in any industry—anywhere—everyone has an opportunity to communicate with anyone. We all have unlimited access to information and the technology needed to share it. For us--marketers--this ability to create and distribute content creates a challenge. We no longer control the limit of information consumers can absorb. How do we prosper in a world without limits? That’s the reason the event is themed Brands Battle Back.

Our industry’s leaders are here to explain and tell us what they need from the rest of us to make it happen. First up Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO, HP.

8:49 AM

Welcome Back!

Good morning and welcome back to the sold-out IAB Annual Leadership Meeting. Looks like the crowd has recovered from last night’s hopping Poolside Welcome Reception (and the Oscars). Don’t worry, no one wound up in the pool—at least not before I called it a night.

We’ve got a full agenda today, starting with comments from Randall followed by the keynote presentation—Marketing 2.0: The New Affiliates—by Michael Mendenhall SVP and CMO of HP. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, here are some photos from last night's poolside reception.