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.

5:15
Our last panel of the day was Don't Interrupt Me - Conversational Marketing Done Right and featured:

Moderator: Pete Blackshaw, Executive VP, Digital Strategic Services, Nielsen Online
Brian Cusack, Sales Manager, YouTube
Cristian Cussen, Director of Content and Marketing, MySpaceTV
Brandon Evans, Managing Partner, Mr. Youth
Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder and President of Strategic Alliances, BlogHer

This was a fitting end for the day as conversational marketing had been touched on repeatedly throughout the event.  In summary, it's important to differentiate between word of mouth and conversational marketing.  The first flows down from the top. The second is built from the ground up.  In addition, marketers need a thick skin to play in the social media space because the conversations are going to be real.  And eventually, marketers will not have a choice as to whether consumers interact with their brands or not.



That's all for today.  Now it's time to enjoy some cocktails at the Facebook networking reception.  Tune into IAB.net over the coming days for photos, video, downloadable presentations and more from today's show.


4:30
Our next panel was all about the future.  What's next for social media?  The panel featured:

Moderator: Rohit Bhargava, SVP, Digital Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence
Aaron Lilly, Senior Marketing Manager, Microsoft
Geoff Reiss, CEO, Associated Content
Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus
Chad Stoller, Executive Director, Emerging Platforms, Organic

Two underlying themes came out of this session.  First, the future of advertising will be more and more about utility.  Second, technology will always move faster than the user and we have to remember who our audience and what our purpose is.  Below are some photos and highlights.  I'll be back in an hour with a wrap-up from our final panel of the day.

Chad Stoller say social media works really well when you’re looking to engage with a consumer, not when you try to assign metrics to it.

3:00
We're back.  Our last panel, App-vertising, featured:

Moderator: Rich LeFurgy, Principal, Archer Advisors
Ro Choy, Vice President of Business Development, RockYou
Seth Goldstein, Co-Founder and CEO, SocialMedia.com
Brett Keintz, Co-Founder and CEO, 750 Industries
Tim Kendall, Director of Monetization, Facebook

The focus was on the future of advertising through applications, and in particular, how will they be monetized. 



It's now time for some more workshops.  I'll be back this afternoon with more updates.

12:15
We just finished up the cross-demographic consumer panel.  This was the highlight of the day so far.  Ideas To Go put together a panel of five social media consumers ranging from a 62 year old lawyer to a 17 year old high school student to find out what they think about social media and advertising.  The discussion focussed on what they do online, what they'd like to see online and what they like and don't like about advertising in the social media space.  It was real time feedback on real time issues facing the marketers, agencies and media companies in the room.  The discussion also opened up online through a tool called Idea Stretch. Throughout the 45 minute presentation over 272 ideas were submitted with over 1000 votes on those ideas.  Anyone can participate at http://iab.ideastretch.com.

Many of the ideas were random, as expected from a consumer panel.  However, there seemed to be one underlying theme - the consumers want to be targeted.  They want advertising to be useful to them.  In response to this, one audience member asked if there is concern about privacy issues to which the panel seemed rather unphased.  They simply said users should not put anything online that they don't want others to see.

Here's just a small sample of what came out of the panel:

• Jeremy, 26, likes honesty in advertisers and wants them to hear what he has to say. He would love to be able to create advertising channels relevant to what he needs at the time - a Pandora of advertising was his analogy.
  
• Kelly, 38, likes how the advertising on Facebook is not intrusive to what she's doing online. She started using Facebook to spy on her son online.
  
• Corey, 27, wants ads specifically tailored to his needs, right now to the local level in his neighborhood. He's love to see a "friend vacation getaway" where he and his friends are all targeted at once for a vacation deal.
  
• James, 17, wants ads that show off the community that he's participating in, not just the product and would like to see more interconnectivity with other social media.
• Lynn, 62, like the recommendations she gets from Google and Amazon and wants to see more of that.

I highly recommend signing up for Idea Stretch to check out more of what was discovered during this session.  Below are a few photos of the panel.  Now, it's time for some workshops and lunch.  I'll be back later with more updates from the afternoon sessions.







10:45
Our next panel was all about performance and metrics in social media.  It featured:

Moderator: Aaron Dignan, Founding Partner, Undercurrent
Cam Balzer, VP of Emerging Media, DoubleClick Perfomics
Rob Crumpler, President and Chief Executive Officer, BuzzLogic
Alistair Sutcliffe, Vice President, comScore, Inc.
Terri Walter, VP, Emerging Media, Avenue A | Razorfish

This was a lively discussion that focussed on how we drive and measure performance in the social space. The medium is still relatively new and because of that, there are challenges in getting the most out of advertising in social media and most of all - measuring success.  One common theme throughout the panel is that you really need to get involved in the conversation.  You have to dive in deep and understand the discussions about your brand in order to grow your business.




9:45
Seth Goldstein just finished a top-line overview of the social media space, explaining it's history, present and future while telling marketers what they need to do in order to take advantage of it.  One key point is that with the sheer volume of the internet growing, the effectiveness of simple display ads is reduced.  There are so many different interactions online now that as marketers you have to figure out how to engage with them.  You can't just sit on the sidelines and say, "Click Me."


9:00am
Good Morning and welcome to the 2008 IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media. We have an exciting day ahead of us on one of the most exciting topics in interactive.  Seth Goldstein is up  first  to give us a taxonomy of the social media space with his presentation, Wikis & Widgets, Blogs & Tweets: Defining User-Generated Content & Social Media. 

For those in the room, we encourage you to leave your comments about the event  in the comment section below, or contribute to the IAB Facebook page at www.facebook.com/iab.  David Doty, our host for the day, just took the stage.  I'll be back in about an hour with our first update. Enjoy the show!

The IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media is coming up this Monday! Agenda highlights include:

• The Consumer Is Always Right- Cross Demographic Panel
• The Future Is Now- What's here, what's next and what's in the way?
• Wikis & Widgets, Blogs & Tweets: Defining User-Generated Content & Social Media

On May 15 the IAB and PWC announced that the 2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report shows internet advertising revenues in the U.S. continued to soar.

"This achievement is testament to the continued vitality of interactive" said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB.

On May 22 Campaign Setup Best Practices was released as part of a long term initiative designed to improve operational efficiency in interactive advertising.

“This document is instrumental in helping online agencies and publishers increase the efficiency of the online ad buying process which is a real win for our clients,” said Will Restrepo, campaign management supervisor of Horizon Interactive, and one of a number of agency representatives who participated in the creation of the document.

Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines are still out for public comment until June 6. Members of the industry (advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors) are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments on the IAB site.

Don't forget MIXX Awards Submissions are up! Enter your campaign today.

 

Last week was a busy week at the IAB. Here's a quick recap:

On Monday the IAB held the annual Digital Video Leadership Forum educating marketers, agencies and publishers on one of the hottest topics in the marketplace. Visit our event recap to see what you missed. The IAB released the highly anticipated Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Digital Video Ad Format Compliance Seal at the event.

Then on Thursday, the IAB announced the Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines for Public Comment. Please take a moment to review the proposed guidelines and leave your comments.

On the horizon are the highly anticipated IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media, IAB Professional Development training on interactive advertising sales and more!  Please visit the events section of the IAB website for more information.

 

Read More:

IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video Live Blog

Digital Video Event Recap

Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Digital Video Ad Format Compliance Seal

Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines for Public Comment 

IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media

IAB Professional Development Sales Training