4:20 PM

Reinventing: The Self—that sounds a little scary. This is a panel of former agency heads who have changed their career direction by shifting to a digital focus. Why did they make the move? To try new things, build new relationships, excel in other areas and get in on the ground level of things with great potential.

It wasn’t easy but definitely worth the challenge.

OK folks—this wraps my official debut as a live blogger. Check in at some other IAB events and you might see me around (or read me?).

I’m looking forward to a nice, relaxing night at the MIXX Awards Gala. Visit www.mixx-awards.com late tonight to see which campaigns are recognized for creativity and effectiveness. It’s another sold out IAB event!

I don’t know about this whole live blogging thing. Next year I want to wear a walky-talky!

3:10 PM

HELLO! I just shook hands with Tim Kring. But, on to things the rest of the world cares about. (Truth be told, I’m noticing more than a few camera flashes going on behind me in the audience.)

Tim is being joined onstage by Mitch Kanner, Principal of Two Degrees Ventures.

Transmedia is the term Tim and Mitch are using to describe reaching across multiple platforms to tell a story. For “Heroes” it’s driven by the hub of deep narrative content with an unlimited amount of tentacles. Then those tentacles start to feed off each other, building content for other vehicles. Characters that are introduced online make the move to the TV screen and those that don’t last on the TV screen may live on—online. Online viewer engagement can drive show content and keep people coming back for more.

The writers understood the need to build credibility in the comic books space and be sensitive to how the show was introduced to the audience through the corporate entity of a major network. They introduced it at a comic book show, which created an unbelievable buzz before the show aired for the first time. It’s own web site (originally unaffiliated with the network) lead to a following that included a social network that still lives on the NBC site.

Brand integration is important to the show. As Tim says, it’s all about baking something into the DNA of an idea. They look at brands carefully to make sure it fits the audience and the story. It’s much more that just product placement.

One more session to go!

2:30 PM

It’s not the same drama as last night’s third season premiere of “Heroes”, but having the show’s executive producer / creator Tim Kring on our stage at MIXX is still pretty exciting. They’ve immersed all media avenues with “Heroes” content—no doubt about it. We’ll find out how it all works in a moment.

12:02 PM

As the morning sessions wrap up the crowd is still thumbing through their Life books as they exit the room. You can see the wheels turning as they think about what they will be able to create.

Andrew Robertson from BBDO Worldwide and Randall just spent some time talking about how BBDO reinvented itself to prosper in the digital world. One of my favorite shows, “Mad Men,” stole a few minutes of the session and they discussed the qualities needed in a good creative person today. Andrew said he doesn’t think there are many brilliant creative people out there now that can do it all. The goal is more about putting the right resources together to get the best end result—creative, digital and whatever else you need. It’s not as simple as one copy editor and one creative director making it all. That’s culture is long gone.

I’m long gone for now. Tune back in later today for Tim Kring, the creator of”Heroes.” You won’t want to miss that any more that you wanted to miss last night’s season premiere.

11:35 AM

The online image space is huge and this last session is going to change it all!

JUST ANNOUNCED AT MIXX: A joint venture between Getty Images and Time Inc. to create Life.com.

Sign me up!

It will put the images that have helped generations experience world events, and many other pictures that have never been seen by the public, online. They will all be accessible at no cost with just the click of the mouse. The site, which users won’t see until 1Q2009, will go live with 6M photos and eventually approach 15M professional images—with 3,000 new pics posted each day.

Based on the short demo shown in the room, the site will be searchable on a variety of levels and includes some pretty cool features. Easily create a picture timeline or a customized hard back picture book. The photos can be supplemented your own personal photos, transported into other applications, all with the Life brand association. Now you can play, share, download and more.

User-generated content will have a place on the site, but the photographs will be segmented to keep the professional photo front and center.

10:50 AM

There’s excitement in the air! The IAB staff is feverishly dropping huge, hard cover Life books on the chairs in the General Session room. What’s that all about?

10:30 AM

Randall Rothenberg and Leslie Moonves, President & CEO of CBS Corporation, are chatting onstage right now about CBS’s purchase of CNET and all the things that come with it. The local aspect vs. the network aspect was first on the table.

According to Leslie, the main reason people go online isn’t too watch full seasons of TV shows. It’s more than that. The most loyal viewers goes online to pick up the shows the missed, but primarily to find things they won’t see on the network.

“It’s a brave new world,” said Leslie Moonves. Anyone who thinks TV is the only place to find quality content will be quickly left behind. People are still, and will continue, to watch TV, but it’s got to work together with the Internet and other locations to increase revenue and attract new viewers. CBS is also using interactive for researching and testing. Viewers can see clips, offer feedback, and help produce better content. It’s easy outreach.

The monetization of news content came up as a result of an audience question. Leslie expects that the CBS structure and promotion will allow them to continue to monetize and build the news site.

I’m off to grab a snack and rest my fingers for a few minutes.

10:00 AM

Charlie and Clay just left the stage after a riveting discussion. It was Charlie’s fourth appearance at MIXX over the years and he was quick to say that each time he realizes how much information he still has to learn—and that his attendance, even to just sit and listen, is definitely worthy of his time.

They talked about Clay’s focus on the cultural implications of the web – the idea that there is a new potential out there to organize. People are adapting these technology tools not out of economic need, but a total social need. As a marketer, you must find out where the consumer is, then go to them to meet the needs. Create organic growth around them. In each social environment, they already have a way of doing things, so you need to be careful. Listen and figure out exactly what’s going to work. It won’t be a 30 second commercial right out of the gate.

The impact social sites are having on the presidential election was also touched on briefly—the issue of individuals creating and distributing media about a campaign without the actual campaign having control or the ability to manage anything. Now people can operate at a wide variety of social levels. There’s a lot of room between a personal network of 10 and 10M viewers reached by a TV commercial. Social media users now have access to multiple levels.

That was a great conversation. This short message doesn’t do it justice!

8:45 AM

It’s Tracy again—back for MIXX Day 2. Thanks for joining me! I’m settled in for another exciting day of speakers representing all facets of the advertising ecosystem. The stage is set for writer, consultant and teacher on new media and the Internet Clay Shirky. He’ll be interviewed by journalist Charlie Rose.

But first, an action-packed highlight reel covering Day 1 and a warm welcome from the chairperson of the IAB Board of Directors—Wenda Harris Millard from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Man, everyone’s having a great time.__

5:15 PM

OK folks, I’m signing off for the day and heading down to the cocktail receptions shortly.

Check back in tomorrow for another exciting round of sessions. Enjoy your evening and the other Advertising Week festivities.

4:45 PM

There’s nothing like a chocolate brownie and a Coke from the Networking and Refreshment Break to kick the blogging into high gear again. But, gosh – the man next to me is snacking on a nice, fresh, crispy apple. Where do I find one of those?

I’m sitting in on the Case Studies in Mobility Track Session this time around.

Presentation 1
How Ogilvy helped IBM leverage sporting events to increase awareness and preference (not sell multi-million dollar servers).

What the programs allowed IBM to do was reach new people, break through the clutter, drive leads and increase consumer engagement. Every piece, including the mobile application, worked together to make it successful.

Presentation 2
The Hyperfactory helped Nike launch a new soccer shoe with some highly engaging mobile interaction.

Right now, one of the most important considerations with mobile is to completely understand your audience and how they interact with different types of media. Mobile users may not be who you think they are. And, more people have access to mobile than have computers! That’s something to think about.

3:15 PM

Let the Tracks begin!

I just took a quick break to grab some lunch, but now it’s back to business. The much-anticipated track sessions are getting under way.

First up on my agenda is the Practice Track—Metrics and Monetization.

Magid Abraham stared the debate by talking about how most publishers think they have more users than everyone else thinks they have. Who’s right and how do we really measure it? You’re always going to see an unexplainable gap.

Tolman Geffs thinks there’s no secret, expect that the big players know they’re going to be evaluated based on syndicated data. That’s what decisions are made from, not from the stats provided by the company themselves.

Then why don’t sites just stop with internal systems and everyone just goes with third-party measurement?

The bottom line, according to Magid, is that the industry is still a ways away from real accountability and real measurement. The reality is we just starting to delivery demographic metrics on campaign stability and other metrics.

12:10 PM

Young-Bean Song, Director of Analytics & Atlas Institute, Microsoft Advertising, talks engagement mapping onstage. He’s all about the synergy between search and display. The last ad click shouldn’t get all the credit, when other touchpoints farther up in the cycle play a part too.

Creating engagement, through sponsorships and other things, on the web and using it to drive the consumer to click on an ad is devalued when a search ad gets the same result. That shouldn’t be to case. We’ve got to go beyond that last ad. Engagement mapping looks at basic marketing ideas like frequency, ad size, ad format, daypart, order, targeting and interaction, then shares the credit across all the digital touchpoints in a consumers history.

Gaps in reporting metrics will never be closed until we can start relating the end result to touchpoints farther up in the process.

I’m off to the workshops, the networking lunch and afternoon track sessions. Check back in later for the details.

11:38 AM

What a session by Michael Linton, Senior Vice President & CMO of eBay. He focused on how a CMO balances the need to innovate, the need for results and the need for long term predictability. It’s more situational than ever been before. Consumers have more choices and every company is in their own “space.” Different business models have different ways to make money and tools fit differently based on the particular business.

You have to find your own way. What does your company need right now? Innovation can be something new in your company or something new in the industry.

He also suggests no one turns the other check on trying new things—even if you aren’t sure it will take you 100% of the way you want to go. Don’t spend too much time trying to predict what will happen. Try some testing and find out. Sometimes you just have to go for it! Take a risk.

11:06 AM

Randall Rothenberg just left the stage again. There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening at the IAB.

• Invention & Reinvention at the IAB – A new IAB corporate identity and logo
• The IAB Newsstand – A virtual and physical table of contents for the IABs most frequently requested documents and a physical booth that will travel to industry shows (Booth 123 here at MIXX)
• IABConnect – A new online social networking site only for IAB members, http://iabconnect.intronetworks.com/

Stay-tuned for Michael Linton, Senior Vice President & CMO of eBay

10:42 AM

For Chrysler it’s all about dismantle old perceptions and building something new by focusing on the opt-in strategy.

It’s a Viewer Democracy—creating compelling content to engage consumers when and where they want it. According to Deborah, brand awareness in now overrated in her industry because today’s car search starts with a search engine—a third party site where all the brands are represented. The new strategy is more about improving opinions through web-based engagement. The consumer’s energy vortex opens and Chrysler then has the opportunity to pour in the information that satisfies that request. You’re not trying to sell them a deal when they want to be entertained and not entertaining them when they want the education.

Most recent effort is the launch of all new Dodge Ram. The diverse group of customers means lots of needs for lots of customers, plus the new features Dodge wants to communicate to the complex group of customers. It’s complicated messaging.

The solution? Webisodes featuring local heroes – real truck users—not movie stars. Dodge owners can relate. It’s exposure to products that only subtly influences awareness and gives consumers a place to go if they want more information. Straight up education and a call to action.

Don’t forget to quantify everything in the culture of accountability. Chrysler is constantly evaluating effectiveness online and offline to make sure it’s drive people all the way down to retail.

She also touched on an interesting Customer Advisory Board that is actively engaging in communication with the brand and sharing messages with their own social networks.

She closed by pointing out that now really is the best of times for marketers. With so many new tools to work with and a need for marketers that has never been strong, life is good for marketers!

Next on stage were Tim Armstrong, President, Advertising and Commerce, North America,
& Vice President, Google Inc. and David Kenny, Managing Partner, VivaKi, giving an inside scoop on the Google / Publicis partnership.

What are the five things they couldn’t do without each other?

1. Collaborate – The Goggle platforms allows Publicis to collaborate with all kinds of targeted audiences. It’s opening opportunities for everyone in the media world to participate.
2. Managing Complexity – How long does it take for a client in the media world to be successful? How long does it take for a consumer to spend $1 online and what can be done to speed that up? We must learn to translate the issue of scale down to dollar-by-dollar transactions. Then, automate the processes so people can focus on more value-added things on behalf of clients.
3. Bridge the Talent Gap – Fundamentally the market shifted to digital much faster than the talent shifted to digital. That means education and training are in high demand. Google and Publicis have instituted some job sharing opportunities so everyone can get a perspective on living in each other’s shoes.
4. Cracking the Code on Mobile—It’s a matter of taking something new and risky and do some in-depth testing on it because of the partnership. Mobile is taking the Internet with you everywhere you go. And, their working together to make it a major part of the media mix.
5. Get Invited to the Consumer Conversation – Social. It’s the thing that will move brands to the web. It can impact the trust and love for the brand in a more positive way than any other advertising method. The challenge is that there are no ad units. It has to happen organically.

9:23 AM

Wow, what an opener for the official interactive event of Advertising Week! The General Session crowd is pumped. I could feel the beat of the music in my chest.

Randall Rothenberg welcomed the crowd, thanked our sponsors, teased the new IAB identity being launched today and covered some of the cool onsite event features – like the “text-to-screen” question and answer system and the programming feedback opportunities on http://www.mixx-expo.com/2.8/agenda.aspx.

And now on to what we’re all here for—information and education presented by our industry’s pioneers. After all, MIXX is the place where the interactive advertising industry gathers to reinvent the present and invent the future.

First up Deborah Meyer, Vice President & CMO of Chrysler. More later.

8:40 AM

Good morning! Welcome to the IAB’s sold-out MIXX Conference & Expo. The next two days will focus on Invention & Reinvention of media. Brands, agencies, relationships and others will have their time in the spotlight. I’m Tracy, the IAB’s events marketing manager—and the MIXX live blogger. I’ll be covering it all.

Speaking of the spotlight, the lights are dimming and the opening video is ramping up. I’ll be back later with the latest from Randall Rothenberg, the IAB’s fearless leader and our first keynote speaker Deborah Meyer, the first ever CMO of Chrysler LLC.

Tim Kring, Executive Producer/Creator of Heroes has been just been announced as a keynote presenter at the MIXX Conference & Expo on September 22 and 23 in New York. He joins an impressive lineup of industry experts who will explore the most pressing and innovative topics in interactive today. MIXX delivers an unparalleled conference experience and is the one event that must be on your schedule to attend. If you have not already done so, register today.

What is the definition of “your data”? The answer may determine the future of the Internet – and, more broadly, of communications media, the users that derive value from them, and the marketers that depend on them.

The combination of the word “data” or “information” with a personal possessive pronoun lies at the heart of the current debate over interactive advertising and privacy. In the Monday New York Times story “Web Privacy on the Radar in Congress,” reporter Stephanie Clifford wrote that a subject of her piece knows that companies “are collecting his data.” The Center for Democracy and Technology, the prominent Washington-based proponent of a Federally mandated “do not track list” against interactive advertising, told the Los Angeles Times recently that Americans are “uncomfortable” with “the collection of their data.” The Federal Trade Commission, in proposing principles to control “behavioral advertising,” recommends that “consumers can choose whether or not to have their information collected for such purpose.” Democratic Congressman Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts said yesterday that he expects to introduce legislation during the coming year that “includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information."

All well and good, you might say: My identity must be protected from thieves and exploiters. But guess what? The plans that these activists and their enablers are promoting have nothing to do with identity protection. To the contrary, they are agitating – some, perhaps, unwittingly -- for a new property right, unique in U.S. law, that would provide consumers personal ownership of all information that derives from their activities, no matter how anonymous, non-identifying, aggregated, or otherwise impersonal it may be. They are further proposing that the Government, as the codifier and protector of such rights, use this definition of “behavioral data” to assert Federal control over most Internet operations. The effect could be to cripple the architecture of the World Wide Web.

Check out the MIXX 2.8: Invention & Reinvention Agenda. The rapidly changing digital landscape requires that businesses, partnerships, and even people constantly invent and reinvent themselves in order to stay on the cutting edge. The 2008 MIXX Conference & Expo will focus on that edge and the industry thought leaders who drive it forward every day.

Don't forget to register for the MIXX 2.8 Conference & Expo today.

Just in case you can't keep up with all that has been going on at the IAB, here is a quick overview:

Last week the IAB hosted a Leadership Forum on Mobile Advertising that brought together marketers, agencies, publishers and technology vendors from across the interactive advertising ecosystem to explore the opportunities and innovations in this dynamic medium. Released at the event was "A Mobile Advertising Overview" a document that demystifies the mobile platform and showcases mobile as a vital and growing medium for interactive advertising. Read the liveblog to get highlights from the event including marketing success stories, case studies, fireside chats, and much more. 

Randall Rothernberg, President and CEO of the IAB announced that now is the time to better comprehend the form and structure of this emerged new reality. Mobile has matured to the point where it cannot be ignored any longer.

The IAB also announced that the MIXX Awards submissions hit record levels, surpassing 2007's entries by 40%.

“The sheer quantity of submissions and the caliber of the marketers and agencies represented is a testament to the increasingly critical role that interactive advertising plays in marketers’ media plans,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB

Lastly, on July 24th the IAB issued the Ad Campaign Measurement Process Guidelines for public comment. A document that addresses the process of a publisher’s or advertising agency’s use of a third-party ad server and its application service provider.

What's up next?
MIXX Conference and Expo 2.8 September 22-23, 2008

Fireside Chat, Research and the Future, Truth or Dare - 6:33 p.m.

The last panel of the day was in many ways a wrap up of all of the very conversations held at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum. Led by Linda Barrabee, Program Manager, Consumer Research, Mobile Entertainment, Yankee Group, the panel called a Fireside Chat, Research and the Future, Truth or Dare began with the most persistent question of the day: “Where are we in respect to engagement beyond voice on the cellphone; what are consumers doing on their phone?” Barrabee asked.

Eric Neufeld, Vice President and Senior Analyst at comScore, said that we’re running out of people to sell phones to, but the vast majority don’t do anything beyond voice. The percentage of people who browse and get email on cell phones shows good growth relative to where this number started, “but when you look at the total of user population, it’s still not enough,” said Neufeld.

John Burbank, Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen Company, echoed this belief but took it one provocative step further. “Mobile advertising is not a material player for advertisers,” he said. “Maybe for MySpace and Facebook and maybe for ringtones. But not much else.”

So what will take for the mobile advertising marketing, which has been described throughout the day as finally evolving and ready to burst forth, actually live up to its significant promise? For one thing, said Neufeld more phones in the marketplace with smart capabilities and leading edge features that provide advertisers with real opportunities to present their commercials in an engaging, interactive, personalized and customized way.

Indeed, the price of cell phones or phone plans is not a deterrent, it is just the ability to provide valuable advertising content that will determine how quickly mobile advertising takes off, Burbank said. And the ability to provide more valuable advertising content will come about as better content drives people to their cell phones for more than just voice services. “More valuable material will have more people willing to pay the price for data services,” Burbank said.

Neufeld added that in the advertising world complexity is bad and without standards complexity is rife – and that makes it hard to get companies to run mobile ads.

As for the metrics that mobile advertisers want, metrics that still are not yet available, there is really only one, said Burbank: “Can you can you show me where it works. If you show them that, they’ll be there.”

Carriers and the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Accelerating Access - 5:52 p.m.

Randy Zadra, visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, led the panel on Carriers and the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Accelerating Access at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum. He posited initially that bound by their size and tradition, telephone carriers were long staid, nearly immovable organizations. Thanks to mobile marketing, though, they currently stand at the headwaters of cultural and commercial change, both within their own organizations and society at large.

Jordan Berman, Executive Director of Media Innovation at AT&T Mobility, describes carriers as organizations suddenly serving two masters: consistency, that old standby, and innovation, the new imperative.

“What do consumers want when they buy a phone?” he asked, as excited crowds were still lined up to buy record numbers of iPhones. “First and foremost, connect my phone. Don’t drop it. Do no harm is the first rule.”

But as sure as they want consistency, those crowds eager to sign up for AT&T services simultaneously want to be surprised and inspired by the features at their fingertips.

“We have to provide them with moments of wow,” echoed Scott Kelliher, Director of Mobile Advertising, Virgin Mobile USA.

Toward this end, carriers are working with their customers, as they always had, to figure out their preferences, but under a new mindset are also dealing with advertisers and all manner of other new partners.

“For the first time we are dealing with Chief Technology Officers and Chief Information Officers,” Berman said.

As a matter of course, carriers now seek to leverage popular culture in mobile marketing campaigns. AT&T did so many promotions with American Idol that Berman was not far off in declaring Clay Aiken “the father of text messaging.” Virgin, for its part, does promotions at rock concerts text messaging VIP ticket upgrades to those who carpooled.

The latest word in promotion using mobile coupons, sweepstakes, videos and games has become a prime goal for the carriers and options abound, even as issues of privacy might, to Berman’s eye, slow progress down to an appropriately safe speed.

“We don’t want to mess up and poison the ecosystem before it totally grows,” he said. “We are at the very first inning of a very long baseball game.

Location based services, the pair agreed, might be the so-called “killer app” for the carriers, perhaps sending customers coupons for one store as they walk past a competitor’s.

It is, Berman said, an example of the carrier’s new currency: “special sauce.”

“And sauce is good,” Kelliher agreed.

“Sauce is darn good.”

3:50 p.m.

David Doty, the senior vice president of Thought Leadership and Marketing for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, invited attendees at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum to hear succinct five-minute presentations from a rotating series of mobile solutions providers. The day encompassed many long-form panels, but here several dozen firms from Microsoft Mobile Advertising to Nokia were to present the essence of their offerings in what amounted to a business version of speed dating. Said Doty: “No fluff, all meat, all meaning.”

Meet The Publishers - 3:48 p.m.

Mickey Alam Kham, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer, led a panel called Meet the Publishers at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum, which explored what role mobile advertising is playing in content publishing. All of the panelists – each participant from a major content publisher – agreed that some of the most exciting advertising activities are coming through the mobile channel. But there are serious challenges that must be overcome.

For one thing, said Sophia Stuart, Mobile Director, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, mobile needs to become cheaper for people to use. Without that, there won’t be a sufficient number of consumers to reach for major advertisers.

Jeffrey Litvack, Global Director, New Media Markets, AP Digital, added that the consumer wants to get content and advertising targeted at their preferences. Advertisers, like content providers, must deliver personalization. In other words, Litvack said, “more than a banner ad.”

Also essential, said Larry Shapiro, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Operations, General Manager, North American Mobile, Walt Disney Internet Group, are better global standards. With so many different types of handsets and different browsers, the fact that certain phones don’t allow video, “it is almost impossible to have a consistent user experience to offer people. It takes a focused juggling act to enable you to represent your property and your assets to consumers.”

Nonetheless, even with the obstacles, Shapiro added, mobile advertising is a market just ready to burst. “I call it mobilewillbebig 3.0,” he added.

Sophia Stuart, Mobile Director, Hearst Magazines, Digital Media, said that by being creative advertisers can seize individuals when they are most interested. For example, Good Housekeeping Magazine found that at 4:00 in the afternoon, most women don’t know what they are cooking for dinner. What better time, she asked, then that to send women via cell phone recipes linked to advertising?

At this session, the AP announced that 728 AP newspapers have joined its Mobile News Network -- a 580 percent jump in media participation – since its launch in May. Leveraging this network, said Litvack, marketers can build integrated campaigns at the neighborhood level both in mobile and print, and mobile users can access their local sources of information wherever and whenever they want.

Added Bruce Stewart, Vice President and General Manager for Connected Life Americas
Yahoo! Inc., the best global opportunities are in Asian and Indian markets, where mobile activity has flourished first.

Toward the end of the session, Disney’s Shapiro, spoke about how powerful the mobile phone is to the “tweens” audience that his company reaches so well. This group spends so much time text messaging that linking the mobile phone to campaigns for Hannah Montana and High School Musical as well as to advertising related to this shows is almost like picking low hanging fruit.

All of the publishers said that media buyers interested in advertising in mobile channels can find at their companies experts focused solely on developing these promotional efforts. They can call publishers and brainstorm ideas as well as collaborate in the creation of new campaigns.

Mobile as Unique Marketing Platform for Traditional Media - 1:30 p.m.

Gary Schwartz, President and CEO of Impact Mobile, kicked off the Mobile as Unique Marketing Platform for Traditional Media panel at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum by asserting that the cell phone can be viewed as a mouse, a clickable device that connects consumers directly to a more traditional Internet-based or offline advertising campaign.

The multi-platform campaigns discussed by the panel:

Mike Anderson, Lead Consultant, Live Nation’s ConcertVision program, said that Live Nation kept in constant touch with hundreds of thousands of concertgoers by giving them a number to call on their mobile phone allowing them to send personalized notes to the screen at a concert event (inviting a friend out to dinner after the show, for instance) or to anytime get additional information about artists, sponsors, venues and future shows. Using the connection with a music lover gained from this “pull” campaign (and the cellphone number that came with it), Live Nation then does “push” campaigns via mobile phone to these individuals, telling them about how to get tickets to future shows by performers that these individuals have previously expressed interest in.

John Haegele, CEO, Van Wagner Sports Group, gave an example of a sports venue campaign to compel fans to turn their attention more often to stadium Jumbotrons (and of course the advertisements on the big boards). In this campaign, pictures of hundreds of fans were taken as they entered the stadium. Van Wagner staff whittled this treasure trove down to three or fan pictures and put them on the Jumbotron, asking people in the crowd to vote via mobile phones for which fan is their favorite.

Rich Begert, President and CEO of SinglePoint, offered a TV-related concept in which networks from NBC to BET ask a question of the audience during a television show related to the program. When viewers respond via cell phone text messages they receive in return video clips along with brief commercials.

Eric Harber, President and COO of HipCricket, recounted a mobile campaign for a local home cleaning company based in Salt Lake City, Utah in which people who dialed in via cell phones could win tickets to a Brad Paisley concert. Eighty percent of those who responded also asked for housecleaning services.

Skip Brand, Chief Revenue Officer of Pudding Media, spoke about a new campaign for an old product: calling cards. A hefty call discount of 50 percent is offered in exchange for the caller listening to a targeted seven second advertisement. For example, someone from New York calling Manila, speaking in a Phillipine accent, may get a commercial for an airline ticket.

While all of these innovative campaigns have produced excellent results, panel members pointed out that there still is much more supply than demand – that is, more cell phone bandwidth and not enough advertisers yet – principally because for individual campaigns there are few metrics to monitor how well these promotional efforts are doing. But for brands that have multiple platforms from which to view consumers, these campaigns offer advertisers a vast amount of insight into consumer choices and it offers consumers a valuable and simple way to connect more closely to the products and brands that they prefer. The main thing, though, says Anderson at LiveNation, is product providers must present valuable content to consumers.

Mobile Marketing Success Stories - 11:47 a.m.

With the mobile ecosystem evolving quickly and mobile advertising budgets on the rise, many ad campaigns have met with remarkable success. Several common threads can be pulled from these case studies with the overriding one: success has come in areas that might surprise those with rigid, pre-set assumptions.

Speaking at a panel at the IAB Mobile Leadership forum in Manhattan moderated by Julie Ask, Research Director at Jupiter Research, four speakers who are running successful mobile advertising campaigns debunked the notion that mobile advertising is only to target the youngest demographics. By linking to point of sale campaigns, producing ads that make a public event jazzier and more memorable or imparting the sort of essential information that makes customers reliant and engaged, mobile campaigns can have a wide appeal and considerable impact. Vladimir Edelman, Chief Executive Officer of Ansible Mobile, told a success story from what many might assume an unlikely topic: pregnancy. Johnson & Johnson produces Babycenter, a long established site that handles issues related to pregnancy. Capitalizing on the intimate nature of mobile advertising and its ability to deliver information, Ansible’s campaign provided mobile access to the questions most relevant to pregnant women—whether something happening to them physically was normal or dangerous and if a particular type of food was safe.

Edelman also showcased a mobile promotion done in partnership with Verizon at the Tribeca Family Festival. Created in a special studio, children were spliced into their favorite cartoon adventures, with the results sent to mom and dad’s phone (soon friends and grandparents too) all within 3 minutes. The same thing was repeated at ballgames, with fans inserted into highlight reels in a campaign that had far greater impact than any “brought to you by” announcement.

Eric Bader, Managing Partner of Brand in Hand, walked the audience through a Vicks DayQuil campaign that came harnessed to mobile weather reports, a Gillette sponsored voting program for a NASCAR event, mobile shopping lists organized by Pringle and dog bark ring tones that came in conjunction with—you guessed it—a dog food producer. He urged the audience to not neglect Hispanic audiences, who are using mobile for Internet access in more and more substantial numbers.

Raising more widely based brand awareness is not necessarily part of the goal, but a Mobile Crest IQ Quiz performed incredibly well. Jeff Arbour, vice president of Mobile Integration at The Hyperfactory, which recently worked on a mobile campaign with Food Network that averages more than 50,000 a week, added that mobile can be marketed to narrow market segments even as it hits a demographic as wide as the Internet itself. Said Edelman: “The watershed event came when my mother started text messaging. That’s both good news and extremely bad news.”

Maria Mandel, Senior Partner, executive director of digital innovation, Ogilvy - 11:19 a.m.

Maria Mandel’s theme throughout the keynote address at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum was that mobile has the greatest possibilities as an advertising channel because mobile devices – particularly, the cell phone but also Blackberrys and interactive PDAs – are the most important devices that people have in their lives. Next to their keys, people always carry their cell phones and other mobile devices and this equipment is virtually always on.

Ms. Mandel supported this notion with compelling statistics: More than 60 percent of people use text messages; the number one way that people access the Internet globally is through mobile devices. More convincing data: according to researchers, advertisers will spend $1.7 billion in the mobile channel this year and this will increase to $12 billion over the next five years. In addition, Ms. Mandel said, there are 1 billion more cell phones than PCs. Before long, more people will be viewing content on cell phone devices than TVs. And about 60 pct of people who purchase the IPhone buy it because of its Wi-Fi applications.

There are five ways for advertisers to leverage this rapidly growing marketplace, Ms. Mandel said:

1. The simplest is sending text messages to consumers engaging them with quizzes, sweepstakes and polls.
2. When people are surfing the mobile Internet, interact with consumers through banner ads or by driving them to another Internet website.
3. Video is still in the nascent stage but some companies are beginning to tap this channel. Important that video content produced for mobile devices performs better when it is different from the content presented on television or the computer-based Internet. In other words, if it is video, be unique and engaging – give people information that they are looking for or entertainment that attracts them.
4. People take a picture of a “code” on a printed page with their mobile device and automatically data, video, information, coupons, among many other things is automatically sent to them via the handset.
5. Create a positive experience for consumers with an application loaded on their mobile devices. Ms. Mandel provided a fascinating example of a digital personal assistant that can help young users find the hottest bars and clubs to go to and even view these locations on their mobile devices via Webcams; or book a limo or buy a gift. This application, offered by Johnnie Walker, gives users a continuous relationship with the products made by the company. Of course, the gifts the digital assistant will offer will be Johnnie Walker liquor.

Ms. Mandel said that you can view the mobile advertising marketplace as a push and pull channel.

Typical push applications are banner ads and text links. The average click thru rate, she noted, is a remarkable 2 percent, compared to only. 2 percent for online push advertising.

Pull applications such as ask a question on a billboard and ask consumers to use their mobile devices to call an 800 number with the answer. Another involved having people take pictures of themselves with their mobile devices at a Hong Kong airport, send them to Motorola, who then posted these pictures – good bye photos for friends and families – on a large video screen. During one recent ad campaign, Ms. Mandel said, the mobile channel had 7 times the response rate of an 800 number.

Ms. Mandel closed the keynote address by offering six best practices for mobile advertising:

1. Integration – leverage all channels to support the campaign, everything from the basic Internet and TV to mobile.
2. Make sure the ad is a clear call to action. Don’t let the marketing message get lost in the cool factor of mobile.
3. Test the ad carefully to make sure that it does not go over the target’s head.
4. Measure response with analytics.
5. Built the list. Mobile lists are precious and often wasted.
6. Consider the viral aspects of mobile. Incorporate the ability for users to pass along the campaign to others.

Welcome Remarks - 9:35 a.m.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, opened the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum with a provocative notion: the mobile advertising marketplace has finally come of age. He pointed out that the cliché that has predominated for the last ten years is that we have heard that mobile is the next big thing. When will it happen? Well, it has happened, Rothenberg said. And that is what will be revealed at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum. Indeed, Rothenberg said, we are moving to a three screen universe. And that means that marketers and agencies are able to reach increasingly mobile consumers, giving them information when they want and where they want– this is no longer the future but the here and now. The third screen is mainstream. Now is the time to better comprehend the form and structure of this emerged new reality. “To understand,” said Rothberg, “the 3 in 3G, the Wi in Wi-Fi.”

Photos by DougGoodman.com

If you are a Web publisher earning less than $1 million annually in advertising revenue and with five or fewer employees, you can help save the ad-supported Internet. I urge you to join the Interactive Advertising Bureau and become part of the small business army we are mobilizing to stop politicians from unfairly and inappropriately regulating digital advertising.

The threat is very real. As I have outlined in previous postings, forces arrayed in Washington and multiple state capitals are specifically targeting the business infrastructure that enables small Web sites to support themselves through advertising sales. Although these advocacy groups have provided no evidence of public harm, their efforts have resulted in a flurry of regulatory proposals which, if enacted, would severely hinder the ability of small publishers to support themselves with advertising sales, and impair the ability of small businesses to use interactive advertising to market themselves.

I believe these proposals have received little attention from marketers, media and publishers because they have been hidden on legislative calendars in Albany, Hartford, and Springfield, or been negotiated behind closed doors in Washington, away from our ecosystem's business leaders. Moreover, because the proposals state that they seek to control "behavioral marketing" or "third party networks" or "online preference marketing," publishers that do not engage in such practices or with such practitioners believe they are safe.

But in fact, these proposals are so broad, they will put virtually all interactive advertising practices -- and even many mainstream marketing practices -- under a strict regulatory regime. Business leaders need to start paying attention now, or the underpinnings of the "free" -- which is to say ad-supported -- Internet will come undone.


Consider a bill that has been before the New York State Assembly, which aims to curtail “online preference marketing.” It defines “online preference marketing” as “a process used by entities whereby data is typically collected over time and across web pages to determine or predict consumer characteristics or preference for use in ad delivery, including the use of non-personally identifiable information.” But employing non-identifiable data to predict consumer preferences for use in ad delivery is, in fact, the very definition of advertising research. Were the New York bill to pass, a mainstay of business development for 120 years would, for the first time, fall under a strict regulatory regime – forcing small Web publishers and their advertisers to incur legal and lobbying expenses they cannot afford, and just for New York State.

Or look carefully at Connecticut General Assembly Bill 5765. It offers the same, sweeping definition of “online preference marketing,” and goes on to say that any publisher offering it through a “third-party advertising network” must additionally give consumers the opportunity to “opt out” from receiving it. This means consumers, for the first time, would be able to force advertisers to stop providing them ads – but only if those ads are relevant to their interests! Presumably, mass-distributed “spam” advertising would still be protected.

The Connecticut bill also would allow consumers to pull non-identifying data they generate out of the aggregated databases that are commonly used in market research to improve products, services, and marketing. To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent of allowing you, me, or anyone to demand that a grocer not use our anonymous checkout-counter scanner data to determine when to restock a product.

These state bills have been tabled -- for now. But consider the Federal Trade Commission’s recommendations for self-regulatory principles for “online behavioral advertising.” The FTC has been a good partner with the interactive media and marketing industries, and has encouraged us, for the most part beneficially, to develop an effective self-regulatory mechanism to guard consumers’ legitimate interests in identity protection and data security. Yet even the FTC has succumbed to the fear-mongering of anti-business advocacy groups, and HAS offered breathtakingly broad definitions that could severely hamper the activities of small publishers and marketers.

The FTC defines “behavioral advertising” as “the tracking of a consumer’s activities online,” and would give consumers the right “to choose whether or not to have their information collected for such a purpose,” apparently even if it is anonymous and non-identifying. Yet one such “tracking activity” is the measurement of Web site audience traffic – the central measure by which advertising prices are established. Another such “tracking activity” is the measurement of advertising delivery – the core determinant of whether the publisher gets paid by the marketer for running its ads! Thus, in its recommendations for the self-regulation of what it calls “behavioral advertising,” the commission has made suggestions that would break longstanding processes essential for the management of media companies in the U.S.

The most unfortunate aspect of these proposals is that they are utterly unnecessary. The IAB and its members vigorously support the principle of consumer control over their media consumption. Indeed, consumer control is one of the fundamental reasons interactive media have grown so quickly in popularity. And consumers have all the tools they need to control all forms of data collection in online media and advertising, built into their browsers and into security packages, many of them available free online.

In response to the high volume of MIXX Awards submissions, we've extended the deadline until Thursday, July 3. Now you have two more weeks to finalize your submissions for a chance to earn the recognition your campaigns deserve. So what are you waiting for? Submit your work today!

Yesterday's enlivening UGC & Social Media Event was a huge success. Read the IABlog for a recap of the day.

What's next? Building on the expertise and credibility that the IAB has achieved in creating a common ground for advancing growth in the interactive marketplace, we developed with The Laredo Group a Professional Development training course in interactive sales taking place on June 11. Register today and capture the best there is in technical sales training for you and your sales team.

Reminder: The MIXX Awards are open for entry!

"To our knowledge, this is the first time agencies, publishers and marketers have come together to referee a major advertising awards program," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB.

So don't forget to submit your best interactive campaign today.