There is something strangely familiar but uniquely different about this Ad:Tech. Others have had thousands of attendees, long lines for registration,Casale’s trademark red bags, booth babes, free beer, all fueled by an almost tangible energy where quiet conversation and standing room are in short supply. Thinking now just to Ad:Tech SF, this year in some ways felt quite familiar. Once again, it took place in the Moscone Center North, with its, not as inconvenient as they might seem, quarter-mile long escalators, and Vegas worthy barrage of signage and spotlight that combines the feel of the strip with that of arriving at McCarren airport. Yet, despite what we think we know and what we came prepared to expect, this Ad:Tech, not only felt different, but has in may ways eclipsed the pinnacle of the series, New York City. In this Ad:Tech SF Edition of Digital Thoughts, we try to put words behind a feeling that many seem to share.
In the grand scheme, not much has changed in the scant five months since Ad:Tech NYC. Last year’s momentum has continued into this year’s optimism. So what is it that feels different? From our perspective, the answer comes from what looks different. The booths. There’s something about the booths this year that stand out, or in this case, up, that makes this year different from last year and this show different from other Ad:Tech’s. If you visit other, well attended, established tradeshows, you notice that many of the booths could pass as housing. Instead of a show floor that could pass for a cornfield or perhaps a subdivision in Orange County, you started to see some real diversity and grandiosity.
Other Ad:Techs have always felt big, but they haven’t felt cohesive or comfortable. They felt like the startup, running full steam trying to put down tracks as they went along. As shows go, it seemed like the lanky teenager who grew fast and now struggled to regain mastery of his coordination. This year doesn’t feel like another in a series of shows. It feels like the first show, the beginning, the first real show and the one to which all others must now compare. In a word, it feels professional. You can feel the maturity, the size of the industry, and more than ever before the effect of consolidation and capitalization.
Many of the cash flow companies now have other people’s cash at play. The kids of the industry have grown-ups helping them, pushing them, and you see it in their booths. The kid that might not have worn a tie, or if he did had the not askew, now looks dapper . He doesn’t fidget as much as before, and like the kid who has come back from college, when you look at him you see an adult. That’s SF exhibitors. Ad:Tech doesn’t look professional because the show did anything different (although I’m sure they did). It looks more professional because of the professionals. At shows prior you had email marketers,cpa networks, and companies that made gobs of money doing who knows what. You have them this year, but they no longer look like they simply bought their admission ticket. They scored well on their tests and from a polish perspective can now go neck and neck with a Microsoft or IAC.
Usually, you looked at New York as the show you couldn’t miss. I suspect that the same will hold true when November rolls around. But, much like it’s role in the interactive space, we can expect to see in SanFrancisco the trends and approaches that will be perfected by the time they make it out East. Expect in New York to see companies with multiple brands have large integrated booths such as IAC, Selling Source, and Media Whiz or as Connexus does, to have multiple booths, one for each different division. Expect in New York to see the continued influence of direct response, especially in the sub-prime verticals. Thanks in many ways to the influence of investors, companies that offer products to a group of people that don’t attend these shows can stand proud. They’ve seen the numbers validate their line of business in a way that many exhibiting and sponsoring could not have guessed.
The maturation and professionalization is in some ways bitter sweet. The office has replaced the loft, and while the industry expands, consolidates, and expands again for the best, we have lost some of the carefree innocence that defined so much of what we have today. Responsibility has replaced supervised recklessness. High hopes and higher expectations have made docile the once unruly mustang. We are still young, but this show proves we cannot go back to being kids.
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