AD:TECH: A Collision of Marketing and Technology

Ad:tech is not the place to sell or pitch, but to inform and share the happenings of the fifteen billion dollar Interactive Marketing and Advertising Industry. The three-day conference and two-day expo in New York City was dedicated to the procurement of tools in cutting-edge ideas, concepts and guiding principles of interactive media. Participants included CEOs, CMOs, execs, managers, directors, buyers, publishers, and agencies. All came to be exposed to the digital world of advertising, marketing, and commerce. Keynote speakers, expert panelists, and interactive workshops were composed of, and run by, the industry’s elite: Google, eBay, YouTube, ICMediaDirect.com, Avant Marketer, Atari, Inc., Razorfish and many more.

Ad:tech, also gave 250+ exhibitors the chance to create a platform for learning and networking at its best. The three-day event had an array of informative presentations and the following are the stand-outs that I knew should not be missed.

1) Keynote Presentation:
The Online Video Revolution: A Marketer’s Dream or Consumer-Generated Mess?

Moderator:
Drew Ianni, Chairman, Programming, Ad:tech expositions

Keynote Panelists:
Sarah Fay, President, Isobar Communications
Suzie Reider, CMO, YouTube.com
Paul Sagan, President and CEO, Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Jonathan Klein, President, CNN/U.S.

As everybody in the industry knows, last year was very much into Blogs, however, this year is Video and even Vlogs. A whole new segment of digital marketing now features online video and consumer-generated content that gives massive potential to interactive marketing and advertising. The panelists all agree on the endless possibilities, but caution on issues such as filtering relevancy and video copyrights.

2) A Session by the Advertising Research Foundation:
Online Advertising Industry’s Definitive Advertising Playbook

Moderator:
Ridgway H. Hall, Chief Strategy Officer, The Advertising Research Foundation

Panelists:
Tom Lynch, VP, Head Marketing Integration, ING
Timothy Armstrong, VP, Advertising Sales Presentation, Google
Giovanni Fabris, VP, International Media Director, McDonald’s International
Clark Kokich, Worldwide President, Avenue A | Razorfish

Traditional marketing and advertising has been a guide post for the digital media industry since the beginning. Yet, this era of online advertising needed its own “go-to-guide” and who better to provide such a handbook than the Advertising Research Foundation? The Online Advertising Playbook, that made its first public release at this Ad-Tech session, presents core principals to leverage the Internet advertising opportunity. It provides effectiveness metrics, creative principles for online advertising, budgeting practices, and much more. This session’s focus is catered to a comprehensive guide of the world’s most important new advertising medium.

3) Workshop:
Behavioral Targeting for D.I.M.W.I.T.S. (Dynamic Industry Marketers With Intelligent Targeting Skills)

Introduction by:
Brad Santeler, Director of Media and Relationship Management, Kimberly Clark Corporation

Workshop Facilitator:
Rob Graham, Director of Training, LearningCraft

To be honest, I only attended this because of the witty acronym, no pun intended, but the workshop turned out to be quite educational. As any marketer would know, you have to be well aware of the psychological side of the consumers you’re targeting. Rob Graham takes on a fun, fast-paced look at how Behavioral Targeting technologies can help reach campaign and ROI goals. What it came down to was learning how to get the right message to the right consumer at the right time. If you missed this workshop, you certainly can learn more from Rob’s book, titled “Fishing from a Barrel.”

Aside from walking away from Ad:tech with a surplus of pens, notepads, and thing-a-ma-gigs, I certainly am much wiser in the know-how of a fairly young industry. With the many conversations and the presentations I’ve had, and sat through, each gave a foundation of valuable tools and techniques to better compete in an ever changing industry.