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 urg
e 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 theNew York bill to pass, a mainstay of busin
ess
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.
Connecticut
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.
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.
e 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.
Undermining Advertising Research
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
ess
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 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.
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 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.
Continue reading SMALL PUBLISHERS UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAVE BUT YOUR BUSINESS.
You're invited to listen and share insights on how publishers are utilizing their brand equity to capitalize on the significant growth expected in online advertising at the upcoming ContextWeb event. This event features industry leaders, including Wenda Harris Millard, Co-CEO and President of Media, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and IAB Chair, as well as our very own Randall Rothenberg and more.
Don't miss "The Next Big Thing: How Publishers Are Taking Back Control of Their Brands with Scalable and Profitable Online Advertising Strategies" on Wednesday, July 9, 8-10am at the Yale Club, NYC. RSVP today!
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.
Pete Blackshaw asks the panel to discuss the good and bad of interruption.
Cristian Cussen says the if brands
are not comfortable hearing objectionable content from their user base,
they may not be read to step into the social marketing space.
Brian Cusack believes the goal is to
keep users on the site, watching as much video as possible in order to
create additional marketing opportunities.
Brandon Evans expresses how conversational marketing can not be fed from the top down.
Jory Des Jardins lets the audience know that bloggers hate being told what to say.Blogging can be used to generate word of mouth, but it is not word of mouth in itself.
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.
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.
Rich LeFurgy asks if click-through rates are something that should be focused on moving forward.
Seth Goldstein speaks about how there is already a very robust system for monetization available to developers.
Tim Kendall points out that social
media is not in the business of demand fulfillment, it's in the
business of demand generation.
Brett Keitnz believes the power of
the social graph for a marketer is that it allows word of mouth
marketing to happen at a much greater scale.
Ro Choy says that you need to have
contextual content around display ads in applications or else you are
going to suffer from low click-through rates.
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:
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.
Cam Balzer talks about the microtargeting capabilities of profile targeting and its tremendous potential.
Terri Walter believes the highest success rate happens when you find something that connects strongly to a particular audience.
Rob Crumpler points out that much of
the information is now out in the open. It's discussion that gives the
opportunity for conversational targeting.
Alistair Sutcliffe believes that for
every single vertical, there is a story to tell and it's all about
defining small goals along the way.
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!
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.
Pete Blackshaw asks the panel to discuss the good and bad of interruption.Cristian Cussen says the if brands
are not comfortable hearing objectionable content from their user base,
they may not be read to step into the social marketing space.Brian Cusack believes the goal is to
keep users on the site, watching as much video as possible in order to
create additional marketing opportunities.Brandon Evans expresses how conversational marketing can not be fed from the top down.Jory Des Jardins lets the audience know that bloggers hate being told what to say.Blogging can be used to generate word of mouth, but it is not word of mouth in itself.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.
Rohit
Bhargava asks how do you get consumers to care?
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.
Ian Schafer points out that advertisers will need to be more focused on creating utility.
Geoff Reiss believe that advertising across the board will soon be all about content and utility.
Aaron Lilly says that as
marketers we need to ask the why and figure out how things apply to our
business and campaign.
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.
Rich LeFurgy asks if click-through rates are something that should be focused on moving forward.Seth Goldstein speaks about how there is already a very robust system for monetization available to developers.Tim Kendall points out that social
media is not in the business of demand fulfillment, it's in the
business of demand generation.Brett Keitnz believes the power of
the social graph for a marketer is that it allows word of mouth
marketing to happen at a much greater scale.Ro Choy says that you need to have
contextual content around display ads in applications or else you are
going to suffer from low click-through rates.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.
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.
Aaron Dignan jokes about the days when you could throw up a display ad, register a million impressions and call it a day.
Cam Balzer talks about the microtargeting capabilities of profile targeting and its tremendous potential.Terri Walter believes the highest success rate happens when you find something that connects strongly to a particular audience.Rob Crumpler points out that much of
the information is now out in the open. It's discussion that gives the
opportunity for conversational targeting. Alistair Sutcliffe believes that for
every single vertical, there is a story to tell and it's all about
defining small goals along the way.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."
Seth Goldstein explains that in order to get involved, brands need a seat at the table and they have to get involved with questions.
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!
David Doty, SVP, Marketing & Thought Leadership, IAB, greets the all-star line-up of marketers, agencies and media companies in attendance.
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 In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Digital Video Ad Format Compliance Seal
Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines for Public Comment
5:30pm
The last presentation of the day left a feeling of awe and amazement in the room. It was about Video on Demand, Addressable Television and the possibilities that can come out of it. Our presenters were:
Jen Soch, VP, Activation Director Advanced TV, Starcom MediaVest Group
Mitch Oscar, EVP, Carat Digital
Jen Soch led off with an overview on the penetration of VOD, which surprisingly has the same usage rate as broadband at this time and seems to be moving in sync. She then took us through some of the knowledge gained through a two-year trial of addressable TV in an 8000 person community in Huntsville, AL. The end result is, simply, it works. But moving forward, we must further define the metrics and reporting and then make the push beyond cable and into broadcast television.
Mitch Oscar then showed us some of the amazing things we can do in targeting with addressable TV. With commercials broken up into modules, you can even deliver different versions of the same commercial to different people - and all of this on the fly!
This definitely gave a feeling of wow to the attendees in the room. It will be interesting to see where and how this technology takes off in the coming years.
Mitch Oscar wows the crowds as he shows just how sophisticated and targeted advertising can be under addressable TV.
And with that, the 2008 IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video comes to a close. It's now time to hit the closing reception and enjoy a tasty cocktail and discuss what we learned today with industry colleagues.
4:45pm
We just finished up the highly anticipated case study, Sprint, Suave and "In the Motherhood." For those unfamiliar, "In the Motherhood" is a series of short videos featuring a professional cast and professional writing, but based on stories submitted by and voted on by actual moms. The tagline is "For Moms. By Moms. About Moms." The end result is something that is not only funny and entertaining, but also highly engaging. It was about following up on insights to reach consumers in the right way.
Mindshare, who produced the campaign, knew they could create great entertainment. But they also knew this entertainment would not have value without the right community. Therefore, just as much effort was placed into building the community behind the campaign as building the creative in the campaign itself. In incorporating the brands, they made hard choices about where the brands would be a primary feature and where they would be a secondary feature. This helped achieve a loyal viewership that that translated into a high ROI for the brands.
One more session to go. Be back in an hour with one last update for the day.
3:15pm
We're back! This morning we heard all about standards, money, and other nuts and bolts behind the advancement of digital video. Now, it's time to look at the creative. Our next panel featured leaders in the industry who have successfully embraced and built for three screens. The panel included:
Moderator: Alan Schulman, Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director, Executive Director of User Experience, imc2
Nick Johnson, VP National Sales, Internet & Broadband, NBC Universal
Rishi Malhotra, Vice President, Multiplatform Program Marketing, HBO
Jon Vlassopulos, Senior Vice President, Digital Media & Branded Entertainment, Endemol USA
To open, each panelist showed off some creative that has extended a traditional broadcast brand into the worlds of online and mobile. Nick Johnson gave us a glimpse into the online world of Heroes. Rishi Malhortra treated the audience to an online short of Big Love. And, Jon Vlassopulos showed off his hit Get Close To series.
What we learned most out of this session is that the explosion of three screens has led to many new and creative ways to incorporate advertising. The addition of the mobile and PC screen makes room to incorporate more messaging in ways that are engaging to the viewer. The content producers want to work with the brands and vice versa.
Back with more after our next panel!
12:20pm
The next panel was all about the money. Where is it going? Who is spending? What needs to happen to see more move towards digital video. How do you address issues of scale? What skills does the media planner of today need to have?
Featuring:
Moderator: Patrick Keane, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, CBS Interactive
Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus
Steve Robinson, President & Founder, Panache
That's it from the morning sessions. It's now time for some workshops and then lunch. I'll be back later this afternoon with updates as they happen from the second half of our agenda.
11:15am
Our first panel of the day was about about the growth of digital video and the challenges and obstacles that are both ahead of us and behind us as this medium continues to expand. The timeliness of the panel happened at a great time with the IAB's Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines released today as these guidelines are a giant leap forward in driving efficiency in the industry. The panel featured:
Dina Kaplan, COO, blip.tv
Deva Bronson, Digital Media Manager, KFC
Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager, Google
Adam Shlachter, Senior Partner, Group Director, Mediaedge:cia
Cheryl Kellond, Vice President, Advertising Marketplaces, Yahoo! Inc.
10:00am
Quincy Smith just delivered an exciting speech - providing a massive amount of information in just under an hour. Throughout the keynote, the underlying message was about the web being a new medium to attract a new audience and it should not be viewed as cannibalistic to existing broadcast audience. The web can be expansive to broadcast. Think about the conversation that happens before broadcast and think about the conversation after broadcast. Broadcasters needs to think about how to monetize more of a show moving forward. How do you turn a single night event into the 365 day per year conversation?
He also spoke about the user being the editor and how publishers and broadcasters must become comfortable with that. The user has seen what can be done. We can't now tell them not to do it anymore. Instead, we need to educate and incorporate.
Another underlying theme was about the ad as content. Position the ad in the right space and make it something that excites and engages the consumer - let the ad be an application. People can name their favorite television commercials, but how many can name their favorite online ads. Its a very significant point.
Our first panel of the day is up next. Be back with more in an hour!
9:00am
Good morning from the IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video! We have an exciting day ahead of us as we explore the world of digital video. Three screens to mainstream is the theme of the event as we examine how building for the television, PC and mobile screen are becoming the necessity and norm. Creativity and innovation are everywhere and we'll see some of the best of it today. The room is filling up and the show is about to begin. Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive opens the show. Check back in an hour or so for a recap of his keynote.
The last presentation of the day left a feeling of awe and amazement in the room. It was about Video on Demand, Addressable Television and the possibilities that can come out of it. Our presenters were:
Jen Soch, VP, Activation Director Advanced TV, Starcom MediaVest Group
Mitch Oscar, EVP, Carat Digital
Jen Soch led off with an overview on the penetration of VOD, which surprisingly has the same usage rate as broadband at this time and seems to be moving in sync. She then took us through some of the knowledge gained through a two-year trial of addressable TV in an 8000 person community in Huntsville, AL. The end result is, simply, it works. But moving forward, we must further define the metrics and reporting and then make the push beyond cable and into broadcast television.
Mitch Oscar then showed us some of the amazing things we can do in targeting with addressable TV. With commercials broken up into modules, you can even deliver different versions of the same commercial to different people - and all of this on the fly!
This definitely gave a feeling of wow to the attendees in the room. It will be interesting to see where and how this technology takes off in the coming years.
Jen Soch believes for VOD and addressable TV to reach full potential, the technology and business model must follow a parallel path.
Mitch Oscar wows the crowds as he shows just how sophisticated and targeted advertising can be under addressable TV.And with that, the 2008 IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video comes to a close. It's now time to hit the closing reception and enjoy a tasty cocktail and discuss what we learned today with industry colleagues.
4:45pm
We just finished up the highly anticipated case study, Sprint, Suave and "In the Motherhood." For those unfamiliar, "In the Motherhood" is a series of short videos featuring a professional cast and professional writing, but based on stories submitted by and voted on by actual moms. The tagline is "For Moms. By Moms. About Moms." The end result is something that is not only funny and entertaining, but also highly engaging. It was about following up on insights to reach consumers in the right way.
Mindshare, who produced the campaign, knew they could create great entertainment. But they also knew this entertainment would not have value without the right community. Therefore, just as much effort was placed into building the community behind the campaign as building the creative in the campaign itself. In incorporating the brands, they made hard choices about where the brands would be a primary feature and where they would be a secondary feature. This helped achieve a loyal viewership that that translated into a high ROI for the brands.
David Lang asked the hard question - how do you harness consumer-generated content when most of it is not very good?
Ted Moon wanted to do something that focused on families to build deeper relationships with moms - the multi-line decision makers in households.
Through insights, Margaret Clerkin knew Moms needed a place to share. They also needed a place where they did not have to be the perfect mom.
One more session to go. Be back in an hour with one last update for the day.
3:15pm
We're back! This morning we heard all about standards, money, and other nuts and bolts behind the advancement of digital video. Now, it's time to look at the creative. Our next panel featured leaders in the industry who have successfully embraced and built for three screens. The panel included:
Moderator: Alan Schulman, Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director, Executive Director of User Experience, imc2
Nick Johnson, VP National Sales, Internet & Broadband, NBC Universal
Rishi Malhotra, Vice President, Multiplatform Program Marketing, HBO
Jon Vlassopulos, Senior Vice President, Digital Media & Branded Entertainment, Endemol USA
To open, each panelist showed off some creative that has extended a traditional broadcast brand into the worlds of online and mobile. Nick Johnson gave us a glimpse into the online world of Heroes. Rishi Malhortra treated the audience to an online short of Big Love. And, Jon Vlassopulos showed off his hit Get Close To series.
What we learned most out of this session is that the explosion of three screens has led to many new and creative ways to incorporate advertising. The addition of the mobile and PC screen makes room to incorporate more messaging in ways that are engaging to the viewer. The content producers want to work with the brands and vice versa.
Alan Schulman asks about the challenges both pre and post writers strike.
Nick Johnson believes we must ask ourselves how we get more comfortable with wider distribution through mobile and online.
Rishi Malhotra feels you must evaluate both the quality and depth of an impression when comparing CPM rates.
Jon Vlassopulos tells us that last year was the year of experimentation. This is the year of actual budget and line items.
Back with more after our next panel!
12:20pm
The next panel was all about the money. Where is it going? Who is spending? What needs to happen to see more move towards digital video. How do you address issues of scale? What skills does the media planner of today need to have?
Featuring:
Moderator: Patrick Keane, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, CBS Interactive
Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus
Steve Robinson, President & Founder, Panache
Patrick Keane asks if this is the year that we’ll see meaningful budgets move from television to online.
Ian Schafer believes we need video ad creative to be engaging enough to lead to a deeper experience in order to reach full potential.
Steve Robinson says it’s going to take time to figure out the best measurements and standards. Then the real challenge is to socialize not only ad formats but ad delivery as well.
That's it from the morning sessions. It's now time for some workshops and then lunch. I'll be back later this afternoon with updates as they happen from the second half of our agenda.
11:15am
Our first panel of the day was about about the growth of digital video and the challenges and obstacles that are both ahead of us and behind us as this medium continues to expand. The timeliness of the panel happened at a great time with the IAB's Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines released today as these guidelines are a giant leap forward in driving efficiency in the industry. The panel featured:
Dina Kaplan, COO, blip.tv
Deva Bronson, Digital Media Manager, KFC
Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager, Google
Adam Shlachter, Senior Partner, Group Director, Mediaedge:cia
Cheryl Kellond, Vice President, Advertising Marketplaces, Yahoo! Inc.
The panel addresses some of the hard questions in advancing advertising in digital video.
Dina Kaplan asks about the challenge of trying to move advertising dollars from TV to interactive.
Adam Shlachter speaks about getting over the hump in reaching a very fragmented audience compared to television.
Ari Paparo believe one of the contraints we are overcoming is audience volume and inventory.
Deva Bronson expresses that education is key is driving more ad dollars towards digital video.
Cheryl Kellond believes there is no perfect format for digital video advertising but enjoys the overlay format right now.
10:00am
Quincy Smith just delivered an exciting speech - providing a massive amount of information in just under an hour. Throughout the keynote, the underlying message was about the web being a new medium to attract a new audience and it should not be viewed as cannibalistic to existing broadcast audience. The web can be expansive to broadcast. Think about the conversation that happens before broadcast and think about the conversation after broadcast. Broadcasters needs to think about how to monetize more of a show moving forward. How do you turn a single night event into the 365 day per year conversation?
He also spoke about the user being the editor and how publishers and broadcasters must become comfortable with that. The user has seen what can be done. We can't now tell them not to do it anymore. Instead, we need to educate and incorporate.
Another underlying theme was about the ad as content. Position the ad in the right space and make it something that excites and engages the consumer - let the ad be an application. People can name their favorite television commercials, but how many can name their favorite online ads. Its a very significant point.
Quincy Smith talks about how different online audiences react differently to online content.
David Doty, our chair for the day, introduces Quincy Smith.
Our first panel of the day is up next. Be back with more in an hour!
9:00am
Good morning from the IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video! We have an exciting day ahead of us as we explore the world of digital video. Three screens to mainstream is the theme of the event as we examine how building for the television, PC and mobile screen are becoming the necessity and norm. Creativity and innovation are everywhere and we'll see some of the best of it today. The room is filling up and the show is about to begin. Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive opens the show. Check back in an hour or so for a recap of his keynote.
Randall Rothenberg greets the assembling crowd.
The blogosphere is talking about IAB President & CEO, Randall Rothenberg's Op-Ed in the Huffington Post: War Against the Web
Perhaps the scariest term in business today is "behavioral targeting." It also turns out to be one of the best practices around to assure the combination of consumer choice and marketing effectiveness on the Internet. And in that gap lies a dilemma for the marketing and media industries - and, indeed, for all citizens. For if fear overtakes reality, it could dramatically limit the accessibility and diversity of the Web.
Here are just a few of the blogs talking about it:
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