Ecosystem 2.0 Live Blog - Monday Afternoon

Monday 5:30pm
Last but not least, it was time for Kimberly Kadlec, Chief Media Officer, Johnson & Johnson and Tina Sharkey, Chairman, BabyCenter to take the stage.  This was another highly anticipated panel and it did not disappoint.  Kadlec led off and it was clear this session would be all about insights. Per Ms. Kadlec, “Media companies are the most underleveraged resources for insights that exist.” She expressed her desire to not have media companies also serve as agencies.  “We need media companies to do what they do best and create great content and drive insight through that,” said Kadlec.  She added, “BabyCenter has taught us that media companies don’t just sell pork bellies, they sell much more.”  And with that barb aimed firmly towards the commoditization of media, she introduced Tina Sharkey.

Ms. Sharkey took us through a deep dive into the world of BabyCenter.  Throughout her presentation, we observed a new type of media company - the insights engine.  And within this insights engine is an ecosystem of engagement or as Ms. Sharkey preferred to call it, an egosystem.  It’s made up of the ways moms interact - from the Web to blogs, email, IM, Facebook and more.  The bottom line of this presentation is that there is more to advertising and marketing on the Web than impressions and ad serving.

With that, it is time for me to say goodbye for today.  I’m off to enjoy some cocktails and dinner (and maybe a post dinner In-N-Out Burger).  Come back tomorrow for more live coverage of the IAB Annual Meeting!

Monday 4:30pm
It was now time to give branded media a place at the podium and first up was Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu.  For those who are unaware, Hulu is a new digital video distribution service focusing on premium content.  It’s actually in private beta at this time, soon to take the Internet by storm. Jason explained that Hulu’s mission is to help the world find the world’s premium content when, where and how they want to. Before you confuse Hulu with YouTube, keep in mind that “premium content” is key to Hulu’s strategy and this is an area of the market that is not yet well served. In the demonstration, we saw countless seasons of television shows ranging from current hits like 30 Rock, Simpsons and Heroes to classics like A-Team, Mary Tyler Moore and Hill Street Blues. It’s an endless supply of premium media on your terms. It’s important to note that everything is monetized, but it is done so in the most elegant way possible in order to keep the focus on the user experience.  Also included in Hulu are self-service social networking tools for blogging, sharing and more!

A photo of Jason is below.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to search for some episodes of Knight Rider.  After all, you can never get too much of “The Hoff.”






Monday 3:15pm

Our next panel was all about behavioral targeting. The member of the panel were:

Moderator: Matthew Wise, President and CEO, Q Interactive
Heidi Browning, Senior Vice President, Client Solutions, FOX Interactive Media
Bill Gossman, President and CEO, Revenue Science
Jay Krihak, Mediaedge:cia Sr Partner, Group Media Director, MEC Interaction
Joe Kyriakoza, Vice President, Product Strategy, Jumpstart Automotive Media

Each person brought his or her own expert perspective on the possibilities on behavioral targeting and where the industry needs to go to embrace and maximize value. Behavioral targeting is here and it is only going to become stronger and more embraced.

Joe Kyriakoza told us how the automotive space is one of the key drivers of behavioral
targeting because of the highly coveted audience.

Jay Krihak states, “you cannot look at behavior targeting as the end all be all for direct response and branding. You must identify the individual elements.”

Heidi Browning is proud that, “you can do a focus group every day for every demographic across the country and
not get a fraction of the insights that we get each day from our users.”

Up next - Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu.  Stay tuned!

Monday 2:30pm
Next up was Brian McAndrews, Microsoft’s new digital advertising chief. Given the current situation between Microsoft and Yahoo!, it was quite interesting to hear what McAndrews had to say in contrast to Jerry Yang and Susan Decker this morning.  He went into great detail on the work Microsoft is doing on their ad network and where they see the future heading.  One item that he placed a great deal of focus on is the data warehouse.  In order to do the kind of targeting that there is the potential to do, a massive data warehouse will be required in order to analyze, aggregate, predict and target.  He also expressed that you invent in the platform to innovate.  The digital ecosystem is all about change, innovation and opportunity.  He also stated that a comprehensive digital platform requires tremendous investment and scale, and by using that platform, publishers can invest in content and audience building.  Finally, we were treated to an overview of Microsoft’s Engagement ROI, a new system for analyzing the action driven by ads.

Monday 1:45pm
Randall Rothenberg took the stage to give all in the house a brief update on IAB activities, letting us know what the IAB is doing as part of its three strategic pillars - engagement, accountability and operational effectiveness.  For more information, visit “Updates on 2008 IAB Initiatives” off the homepage of Iab.net.  He also announced that interactive advertising revenues for 2007 are expected to surpass $21 billion, per PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Congrats to all the interactive publishers in attendance and those reading from home!

Monday 1:30pm
Ok, we’re back.  During lunch, Jack Myers presented the first annual IAB Sales Awards to a packed house.  We’ll have a full gallery of winners on IAB.net in the next couple days so stay tuned.  Now, it’s time to get ready for a jam-packed afternoon agenda kicked off by Microsoft’s new digital advertising chief, Brian McAndrews.  Stay tuned for more updates!

ps - No In-N-Out Burgers for lunch as I predicted.  Maybe next year if I have anything to say about it (which I won’t but one can always dream ;>)