The Core Digital Media advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Skills and structure
• Who – on the client side – can write the briefs and manage and implement? One person with those skills is hard to find.
• Can’t find best of breed in ‘these’ solutions, especially integrated skills. And, when things are new how do you know what is best of breed?
• How do you get skill sets for things that aren’t even out yet? Where does the responsibility sit?
• There can be a challenge between marketing and IT on the client side. IT have different rules, regulations, ideas etc on what can be done. How to align the company infrastructure – what’s outward serving, inward serving etc.
• And for multinationals you come up against what’s been built out of HQ – which is a challenge for local market like Australia
• Clients are working with a growing number of agencies / outsourcers and they are keen to see who’s integrated
• One business (agency or outsourcer) can’t serve all requirements. Fragmentation and expansion of digital has made this a challenge, integration is absolutely key
• Inefficiencies exist (when there are too many agencies) as does not getting skills (when there are too few agencies)

Creative
• In digital creative hasn’t had the focus it’s needed or ‘meant’ to have to work. There is a challenge to creative community to raise the bar but also the briefing process is flawed because where digital fits the overall creative process isn’t clear.
• Silos kill ideas and creativity but there is a lot of protectionism, confusion over jargon and a limited talent pool in digital.
• Ideally, you’re all the team, not above / below the line and brilliant ideas should be supported regardless of channels. There should be no delineation between ideas –who cares where it came from, or how it rolls out, a great idea should be supported
• Digital gets scrutinised because the numbers are there but the numbers aren’t compared like for like. And there won’t be like for like comparisons because digital sold itself as the great data source.
• Attribution modelling is the key moving forwards. Understanding about how consumers operate now.

Legal
• There are consistent legal implications in digital. How do they ‘fit’ with real time, dynamic, organic nature of digital? And should this be managed internally / externally?
• This will be a bigger issue as brands are evolving to be publishers
• Companies and brands are handing over more of their own assets to customers – especially through social media. But legally ownership still sits with the brand. Consumer behaviour is ahead of the law.
• Privacy is fast tracking now
• Education piece on privacy is planned for consumers.
• The government haven’t considered the positives of targeting behavioural advertising

Email
• EDM is still effective for existing consumers: repeat business / intelligence. But it’s not good for acquisition.
• You can’t personalise email enough
• How many companies are wasting their money on ineffective email
• How much transparency is there between marketing and other departments about the efficacy of emails?
• Quality of the data, strategy, execution is important; having a lot of data doesn’t mean you have a good email strategy.
• The prospect of social media is a more exciting relationship environment than email

Video
• Pre-roll is it the solution we want – is it effective. Demand issue. Are we measuring it well?
• Hulu is coming soon.
• Tivo is sitting between the two worlds, what services do they offer- do they offer value to consumers?
• Debate on providers and the impact on consumers and brands and marketing.
• Crowd sourcing – applied to TV – using principals to make real time decisions vs. search dissection. What do you base your decision on?

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Creative & Brand advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

What ‘return’ do you want?
• Digital brands are value led.
• What are the most effective digital channels for engaging online branding?
• Should digital brands be measured in the same way as offline? Branding – how do you measure it?
• More brand recall vs. more sales
• How can we make the brand seem innovative?
• If you’re an ROI client you have to have a search strategy first

Digital creative environment
• Complaints about digital brand creative are more vocal / visible than offline. Does that kill creativity?
• Individuals as brand channels
• Do aggregators make brand creative a waste of time?
• New platforms are just ways of talking to people so it’s pointless if you don’t have something to talk about
• What tools do we give consumers so they can do stuff?
• The brand is the people around it
• Execution is about what’s right for the brand. Have to think about what new audience you can bring
• We’re what we do, not how it looks
• Sell a business solution with creative
• Need to think ‘what else can we do with this, on or offline’ here’s out idea and how we approached it as a whole
• Media choices impact this (idea development and resourcing)
• You can’t just build – you need them to come – you need to invest to drive traffic
• A fail in digital is bigger than a fail offline. If you fail digitally on creative you just don’t get the budget again. Clients aren’t as prepared to fail which stifles creativity and innovation. Typical fail budget is $10K

Facebook
• There is a ‘let’s just do Facebook’ mentality
• When you have a great idea how do you deploy on Facebook, what’s the experience? It is often disconnected in terms of experience for the consumer and ‘return’ for the client – be a fan, sell stuff, email database growth
• Facebook is interesting for garnering feedback and sentiment around customer feelings behind decisions
• Facebook adding value: community and connection
• Not just a brand channel

Platforms
• Developing brand around film / games
• There is more YouTube take over this year.
• You have to be sure you want to get in to social media because it becomes a customer service channel and so communication escalates dramatically and you need logistics and planning behind it; if you’re present on social media you have to be sure you can interact well.
• Trend towards gaming
• Foursquare – who are you targeting? Different channel options – games suit them better than foursquare

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Unwired Media advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Trends
• What’s coming, what’s used, what’s under-used, changes in user statistics
• How is the scene shifting?
• Where are the eyeballs?
• What will the impact be? Do consumers, clients, agencies need education?
• What happens with rights, copyrights, negotiation / renegotiation when technology changes

Apps
• Strategy around apps and which technology do you plan to build for
• To app or not to app
• How many versions of one thing do i need to build?

Carriers
• What impact are carriers having on market?
• Carriers affect the market a lot because they take % of revenue stream
• Carriers affect business models
• Monetisation is therefore far from optimum and customer experience is not optimum
• How do the incumbents adapt, change, adopt?

Strategy
• Companies (agencies and clients) need a mobile strategy
• Where does responsibility for mobile sit?
• Brands outsource a lot – they think it is something they ‘don’t do’ themselves but really they need to take responsibility
• Currently mobile strategies don’t take into account the size of audience that mobile delivers
• Mobile is currently the ‘tack-on’ channel and agencies have responsibility in creative stage to plan for mobile
• Mobile is a device for consumer engagement: social, local, personal, global
• How do you approach the different mobile environments: POS, home, mobile (literally moving around)
• Indoor and outdoor unwired; ‘the unwiring of our interfaces’, consumer input and access to devices
• Primary display is going to internet, what are the analytics on this?
• How and where do you spend money on mobile for effective advertising?
• Clients don’t currently have budget and plan for mobile
• Focused mobile strategy: why do it, what is end result?
• Can you improve your customer service through mobile

Consumer experience
• How is technology changing the customer service experience?
• How is technology changing business models?
• How does mobile affect the customer experience of all products and services including unexpected / non technology products and services, e.g. mining, auto, pharmaceutical, health etc
• User experience is different between platforms and devices
• What does this mean for the customer, how do they perceive this?
• What’s in the way of how consumers use / consumer media?
• Consumers don’t care where they are, they don’t want to make decisions, they just want accessibility.
• There are opportunities for business but also a lot of threats
• The removal of technology is as important as the development of it
• Transformations are happening in business because of paradigm shifts in mobile usage and will be further impacted by battery life improvement
• Mobile allows you to be part of the product and there’s more opportunity around crowd
• Experiential changes, consumers are being taken to a product not a store. NFC and other technology will impact online retail.

Gaming
• Immersive mobile game playing experiences should be used by brands
• Story telling engages consumer in experience, mobile allows consumer to participate in story
• How do you measure engagement and results?
• Cost of this experience – you don’t know actual ROI
o WOM
o Branding
o Position as innovative and creative
o Influencers / advocates
o The value of this was higher than actual money

Privacy
• All issues around privacy inc. Facebook
• ACMA guidelines on location and ‘check in’ are like the Spam Act. The Spam Act is now well understood so, how can we educated on privacy in the same way?
• There will be an explosion of concern at some point
• Where will /does all your data go?

NBN
• People don’t realise how important it is or will be.
• CSIRO have worked on a level of progression on wireless that’s four times faster than what currently exists. So NBN may not mean anything by the time it comes around.
• What does NBN mean for all businesses and industries
• NBN has / will unleash creativity and freedom for products, businesses, marketing, communication
• Although we’ll get NBN, moving data around the house is still a challenge. So, what’s coming for in home for the consumer?

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Brand & Creative
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Digital Strategy advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Demonstrating digital efficacy
- The digital industry is founded on the understanding that it can show figures, results etc
- We know the audience is moving online, but the dollars are not
- There isn’t a link between effectiveness and results – digital is still based on ‘gut’
- We need to say whether things work: the digital effectiveness of multiple channels, really ‘last click’ doesn’t work. There is a willingness to try ‘new’ channels – mobile, social media etc. but how does it all work together. User attribution modelling will make all the difference here.
- There is no consistency in return, data, analytics
- Have we ever been able to measure offline? Can we now? What about participation metrics?

External structure
- How do we work together – collaboration, processes, relationships
- Content vs. connection: current models don’t work, there should be a network not a linear approach to agencies, budgets, structure
- Should the agency lead the client or the other way around? This currently operates as a supplier relationship not a partnership. Strategy is difficult when agencies are only brought on for one project, on website etc. how can you partner, add value, strategise, look at long term technology implications etc on a project basis. Do you need a budget for strategy? Does that work in retainers?

Internal structure
- Content vs. connection: current models don’t work, there should be a network not a linear approach to agencies, budgets, structure
- The industry isn’t using tools, new ways of working, collaboration, to strategise in the way that consumers are actually behaving. We still operate in a linear way
- Why is the strategy still ‘digital’ when you need offline to drive there as well
- There is a digital component to all parts of the organisation – sales, marketing, technology, product etc it’s not just marketing
- You should cast the net wider in the organisation to get the best strategy e.g. include IT
- Finance, legal, accounting vs. social, communication, brands
- Digital communications, business, relationship, individual strategy – this is how we should be looking at it
- Digital strategy is moving to a combined communication strategy but marketing and web teams are structured the same which doesn’t work
- If you look at utility first (not content) it can be the wrong first step. Content over utility.
- Implementing transformational marketing internally, people want templates but we need networked ideas, intuition, innovation.
- Who’s responsible for marketing? Where do marketing report in to?

The role of technology
- The growth of the technology role – ‘technology’ isn’t IT anymore. How do you manage that internally?
- Marketing management have no excuse not to be ‘up ‘on technology any more, it isn’t an option
- Understanding that if you don’t test, don’t learn, you’re not in the industry
- What about willingness to fail.
- The plan to ‘use it when it’s ready to use’ means that organisations miss out on the strategy piece because they wait and then they’re too late and have to react. They need to stay on top of technology. Staying on top of technology is the strategy.
- There is not enough research around consumer changes, consumer behaviour and technology

Unifying the digital market place
- We have a very fragmented market place. What is digital, it is split into many things
- And how do you manage the diverse digital channels? Where do you spend your time?
- Challenge of getting agencies to work together

The new pace of consumption/ business
- Everyone needs to know that time frame is different
- Who can keep up with the pace of change
- An organisation’s strategy can’t keep up with consumers
- Old model’ is too slow, you can’t respond. Need to change to ‘always on’.
- ‘No plan survives contact with the enemy’. After contact with the enemy how do you change your plan without looking like you’ve given up on your original intent?
- Planned spontaneity – you need contingency, reactive resource and ability
- Continuous marketing is a new mind set too
- How much testing do you do before something goes out?
- The plan to ‘use it when it’s ready to use’ means that organisations miss out on the strategy piece because they wait and then they’re too late and have to react. They need to stay on top of technology. Staying on top of technology is the strategy.

Skills and training
- How can strategy really include everything you need it to? There isn’t the talent available
- What do marketers who ‘take on’ digital really go through? Internally, structure, systems, resource? What did the marketers go through personally?
- Learn as you go vs. training
- How does the agency skill up? It’s not magic, they just do it
- Strategists: lots of training, working with agencies to know where they need to be, have an ecosystem that allows the strategy to evolve
- Need an ideation / innovation role / department

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Data & Analytics
Unwired Media
Social Media Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Brand & Creative
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Social Media Strategy advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Resource
• When social media goes well how do you scale up? Not necessarily with more people but with better skills, so upskill who you have. And need to change internal culture because social media has to be taken out of marketing and applied throughout the whole company
• External talent is a minefield, there is not a lot of availability
• The limiting factor in social media is resource so you have to focus on platforms / channels that are most effective: figure out where your audience is and use that platform
• At board level there is a reluctance for marketing spend to increase because social media is now an option; ‘we can do it for free now’. But in fact it should be used to enhance existing spend.
• The speed and growth of change in social media is an overall challenge
• Products change according to consumer adoption

Content
• You need a strategy around what the content of a group is going to be – how does it add value?
• Engagement, content, creative – what’s the plan to keep the community ‘with us’
• Think of yourself / brand as a publisher / broadcaster and then you have content
• Consistency and tailoring of content is important – you can make use of the flexibility that social media allows
• All content also has to be adapted for the medium or channel
• How to use social as a research tool
• Responding is the main thing in social media, if someone asks a question, respond etc
• When you promote social channels / platforms through core digital media you have to change the content so that it is accessible and share-able
• ‘Conversation marketing’
• For success you should decided what your brand voice is

Control
• How do you to take responsibility for what people are saying? And this includes the issue of providing a consistent message
• What is being said publicly and privately, there will always be a lot you don’t know and how do you stay on top of the changes
• Sometimes companies / brands try to control too much
• There should be guidelines for strategy but not execution – you need to give people some freedom

Strategy
• How much time do you spend strategising before implementing? Or, do you go beta?
• It is better to invest time initially in the project – so get your strategy right
• Know why you’re doing something is the start
• It’s important to strategise around contingency plans

Amplification
• Developing an amplification strategy (growing your following / friends / connections etc)
• If you’re driving membership strategy then you need analytics, data and measurement in place first
• Don’t forget you can still use off line to drive membership
• If your plan is to grow then part of your strategy has to be around how you will resource in the future it because you are going to grow…
• Incentives, rewards work well to drive growth – they need to be action driven; tangible-ness is key

Data / measurement / analytics
• Knowing what to measure is important first
• What’s in the strategy has changed, it’s now analytics and contingency, not content
• What’s the reach of your social media message?
• You must know the tools – what there is and the best way to use them
• At present everyone is using lots of separate analytics – there’s nothing holistic
• Numbers are one thing but tone is another. Looking at the volume of when your brand etc is spoken about is one thing but really you need to understand it plus or minus sentiment. At the moment people are working this out manually
• Do research before, during and after campaigns

Integration
• What are the strategies / steps towards social media integration?
• How do you have a successful social media strategy?
o Senior buy in
o Stakeholder involvement ‘globally’
o Training
o Technology

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Data & Analytics
Unwired Media
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Brand & Creative
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Data & Analytics advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Resource / Resourcing
• What is best practice on resourcing data and analytics management?
• Strategy and execution of data techniques / management should be separated so that there’s a better focus
• How to define data and where it sits with clients / agencies
• Data is a form of intellectual property so should it therefore leveraged / managed in house or is outsourcing ok? But the lack of skills, resource, innovation in house means that the data won’t get managed as well as possible.
• There aren’t agencies that can deliver a data service; there’s a lack of specialist agencies
• There is a huge knowledge gap in what people think they know about data (and everything to do with it) and what they actually know.
• Clients need to define what they want and they need to drive the program and the results

Investment
• Ideally clients would look at spending on data at the start of a campaign in order to target, then the middle of the campaign in order to change / adjust the direction of the campaign, then at the end of the campaign to understand the results.
• Agencies (or someone) need to tell clients what to spend on what and how much

Theft / Fraud
• Data theft is prevalent. Trade or theft of email addresses is prevalent; lots of value is attributed to these things
• There isn’t a lot of ‘policing’ of data theft / fraud / management
• Regulators are concerned with breaches and infringements of data management and this in turn leads to over zealousness in use of legal teams and how to service consumers
• Advertisers / brands / marketers need to know how to work with regulatory authorities and still be able to do their job

Data Visualisation
• Visualisation piece is interesting – how to make the data mean something
• How do marketing actually use data?
• What are the interesting ways of using data?
• What are the real new ways of using data?
• How is data processed by people?
• What different tools are used for visualisation?
• It’s really important to look past just the part about making data pretty and also consider what is the data based on, what was the field research? Visualisation tools are good but where does data come from?

Trust / Mistrust of Data
• Data isn’t trusted. Where did the mistrust come from?
• What data can you trust?
• Who do you trust to come up with the numbers? Can you trust what comes off / out of your own site?
• We’re collecting heaps of data – how do we clean the rubbish?

Use of Data
• What does the future look like? If marketers use data really well then people will be prepared to pay for it

Comparisons / Benchmarking
• IAB standard and certification will lead to comparison from one business to another as opposed to just doing the best you can, and this is possibly not the best approach for business. Measuring against each other can be irrelevant.
• Benchmarking is better than standards
• Marketers need to ‘watch out’ for data that is used in particular ways – comparisons, headline statistics that are not representative, drawing one set of conclusions compared to another
• Insights are lost because companies don’t standardise their metrics internally (they compare differently year on year for example)
• Benchmarking and knowledge transfer are gaps / poorly managed and so a lot of potential intel is lost in organisations
• There needs to be clarity on the different aspects of the campaign, what’s important about those aspects (ROI, revenue, other return or value)

‘Return’
• Time spent on site is misunderstood as a form of measurement
• Different forms of measurement mean different things to different businesses

Tools & Their Capabilities
• Reality check chart of data management platforms
• Understanding the technology, innovations and explanations (of them) in the market. What are the opportunities for marketers and how they affect consumers?
• Platforms, technologies, systems are seen as ‘rubbish’ but is that because nothing else exists?

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Unwired Media
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Brand & Creative
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Monetising Digital advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Valuing Digital
• What does monetising digital really mean?
• Does digital go beyond the concepts of paid, owned, earned?
• Should we be placing a value on digital rather than a value on monetising digital?
• Brands need to have relevance, have value and to listen. And content is still king.

Internal Challenges
• How do you take the concept of valuing digital upwards in the organisation?
• What are the pain points for advertisers: resourcing, education, margins and agency models
• The only way to achieve what you’re being tasked to do is through better efficiency

Data
• The value of data is only as strong as the insights but how do you resource that? What’s the best way to make that happen?
• There are bits of data but they’re not integrated or attributed or being used to generate valuable insights
• There is a need to understand different analytics to know what you’re making happen. We’re at a transition point. How can we break data / analytics down easier?
• How do you find, track, measure, engage consumers?
• It’s ok to talk about ‘how to make a buck from an ad’, but how do you get better value? What gets measured gets managed, so what do you manage? For a start we can now track consumers throughout purchase cycles
• There needs to be more focus on business analysis as part of the marketing role

Targets & ROI
• How do you decide which KPIs will show value?
• How do you realise digital value now and in the future. What are the digital KPIs?

Channels
• It’s important to treat mediums in the ‘best’ way; use them for the ‘best’ means and outcome. How do you educate brands / marketers on how to do this?
• How do you monetise social media?
• Does everyone know how to monetise different mediums, channels, platforms, opportunities?
• Owning / charging for content is getting tricky. This is where the interest in tablets and apps is coming from.

Understanding / Valuing Consumers
• There’s a shift from advertising-to-consumers to engaging-with-consumers. So we’re in transition at the moment. How do we do it? Associated with this how does the concept of content need to change?
• Software and hardware is liberating the customer & consumer; you could previously ‘make’ a consumer fit in with your brand, now consumer is calling the shots
• Consumer expectations are incredibly high and you cannot afford not to be in this space? And not to be in it successfully.
• What about enforced change e.g. pay to air customers? How have SBS been forced in to change?
• The customer journey has changed – people have shifted what they will / won’t pay for
• There are generational implications and change – what are they?

Valuing Agencies
• Agencies aren’t incentivised to monetise; some clients don’t share their end results
• It’s about vested interest – whose interest is where and what do they get (from the relationship) and therefore what does it mean for performance
• Briefs aren’t around monetising digital, they’re around brand etc. which means frequently the work / campaign answers a different problem

Innovation
• What about the innovation and opportunities to monetise digital? What if you threw open how the brief works and threw it open to customers – Pepsi China did this and got 5000 ideas
• There is a lot of money attached to an app economy; innovation is the answer to how to monetise digital
• Can we go back to start-up phases, incubating the new, how do I do more with less – tomorrow?

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Unwired Media
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Data & Analytics
Brand & Creative
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Core Digital Media advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Skills and structure
• Who – on the client side – can write the briefs and manage and implement? One person with those skills is hard to find.
• Can’t find best of breed in ‘these’ solutions, especially integrated skills. And, when things are new how do you know what is best of breed?
• How do you get skill sets for things that aren’t even out yet? Where does the responsibility sit?
• The CTO role is growing and technology is more and more sitting in digital, and technology is being positioned at the front of business rather than the back.
• There can be a challenge between marketing and IT on the client side. IT have different rules, regulations, ideas etc on what can be done. How to align the company infrastructure – what’s outward serving, inward serving etc.
• And for multinationals you come up against what’s been built out of HQ – which is a challenge for local market like Australia
• Clients are working with a growing number of agencies / outsourcers and they are keen to see who’s integrated.
• One business (agency or outsourcer) can’t serve all requirements. Fragmentation and expansion of digital has made this a challenge, integration is absolutely key
• Everyone wants best in class digital agencies
• Inefficiencies exist (when there are too many agencies) as does not getting skills (when there are too few agencies)

Creative
• In digital creative hasn’t had the focus it’s needed or ‘meant’ to have to work. There is a challenge to creative community to raise the bar but also the briefing process is flawed because where digital fits the overall creative process isn’t clear.
• Silos kill ideas and creativity but there is a lot of protectionism, confusion over jargon and a limited talent pool in digital.
• Ideally, you’re all the team, not above / below the line and brilliant ideas should be supported regardless of channels. There should be no delineation between ideas –who cares where it came from, or how it rolls out, a great idea should be supported
• All structure and skill issues are less of a challenge for companies who have ROI that can be measured on line, for those who currently can’t measure effectively (e.g. FMCG) user attribution modelling will help with this.
• There needs to be better collaboration across the board: agencies – agencies, agencies – providers, PR – social media, all platforms need lots of disciplines
• Data visualisation can be useful to educate internally because we have tonnes of metrics and information and it’s easier to show people
• This is an opportunity to demystify the landscape, educate, remove complexity, make the organisation digitally literate
• Digital gets scrutinised because the numbers are there but the numbers aren’t compared like for like. And there won’t be like for like comparisons because digital sold itself as the great data source.
• Attribution modelling is the key moving forwards. Understanding about how consumers operate now.

Legal
• There are consistent legal implications in digital. How do they ‘fit’ with real time, dynamic, organic nature of digital? And should this be managed internally / externally?
• This will be a bigger issue as brands are evolving to be publishers
• Companies and brands are handing over more of their own assets to customers – especially through social media. But legally ownership still sits with the brand. Consumer behaviour is ahead of the law.

Privacy
• Privacy is fast tracking now
• Education piece is planned for consumers. Behavioural advertising in US now has a lot of explanation – making clear what they’ve signed up for – what’s involved.
• The government haven’t considered the positives of targeting behavioural advertising

Email
• EDM is still effective for existing consumers: repeat business / intelligence. But it’s not good for acquisition.
• You can’t personalise email enough
• How many companies are wasting their money on ineffective email
• How much transparency is there between marketing and other departments about the efficacy of emails?
• Quality of the data, strategy, execution is important; having a lot of data doesn’t mean you have a good email strategy.
• The prospect of social media is a more exciting relationship environment than email

Video
• Pre-roll is it the solution we want – is it effective. Demand issue. Are we measuring it well?
• Hulu is coming soon.
• Tivo is sitting between the two worlds, what services do they offer- do they offer value to consumers?
• Debate on providers and the impact on consumers and brands and marketing.
• Crowd sourcing – applied to TV – using principals to make real time decisions vs. search dissection. What do you base your decision on?

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

The role of international retailers
• US players want to know how to get into Australia because consumers will now purchase overseas, UK retailers are also getting in to the market
• Consumers are realising there’s little risk in buying from overseas, they are more comfortable now, they are actively seeking international retailers and suppliers to buy from
• There are other changes that are fuelling consumers’ choice to buy from overseas:
o changes to shipping policies
o the range of products is better overseas than in Australia
o there may be regulatory changes, drops in GST limit
o there is more cross border transparency, comparison shopping and better information for consumers
• This is increasing threat to online suppliers in Australia but also bricks & mortar retailers in Australia

Customer service
• Customer service standards are ‘set’ in US and UK – standards around returns (being able to return offline is important) are an especially big deal.
• Customer service standards (by bricks and mortar retailers) have always been set in US and now the online service standards are being set there too.
• What are Australian consumer expectations around service? And what is the impact on retailers coming in to the market?
• Now that there are more international retailers in the market it ‘ups’ the competition
• Online customer experience – how do we service a multi channel consumer?

Retailer value proposition
• If prices are the same by aggregators as direct supply then why do or should consumers choose to go direct? What’s the differentiator?
• Retailers need to work on their value proposition – they can’t compete on price
• The advisory, information piece is still missing.
• Where do consumers look for information: retailers / manufacturers?
• Retailers should play the information role, helping people to choose, being experts
• How do you bring other people in for advice, through social media for example.
• Price is still a key driver for people but customer service can be a differentiator
• Security can be a value add / differentiator. Peace of mind is a value Australian retailers can push more. What should or could the ‘peace of mind’ experience be? In terms of service and information?

Mobile
• Mobile is an opportunity, what do retailers do about it?
• The question is whether to do an app or have mobile web presence?
• Product vertical influences the mobile strategy
• Businesses that have repeatable, frequent purchases are ideal for apps
• eBay, have the biggest app for retail in Australia
• What are the technical / technological developments and what do they mean? HTML 5 will change what’s available

Pricing
• The amount that consumers are prepared to spend on mobile is shifting quickly
• For eBay the average price spent on mobile is now higher than on the site, and they can compare consumer behaviour mobile to site
• Eventually payments on mobile will be easier
• What about the virtual wallet and swipe pay?

Screens
• When consumers are using PC / laptop etc they tend to skip between sites – have many screens open
• When they’re on mobile / tablet they tend to stay on one site inc. aggregator sites
• Does tablet vs. mobile matter? eBay have stats on this that show that behaviour is the same but volumes are different. The interface of the technology is important and has impact on online retail behaviour
• It is not the device that’s important or that makes a difference to behaviour but where you are accessing (on the move, at home, in bedroom / living room etc)

Location marketing
• What should your response be when you know your consumers’ location? In US, there’s a retailer who give free coffee to people who’s location they know
• How do you respond to ‘check in’ and proximity?
• It is loyalty points (or versions of that) that drive people to share their location

Behavioural targeting
• When will behavioural targeting hit the market? eBay do behavioural targeting, and are looking at tailoring the whole site.
• Recognising individuals and targeting one to one

Social Media
• Shopping comparison and social media – how do they work together. Facebook connect helps recommendations. And how can recommendations be higher up on the site. It’s important to accept that consumers want to ask their friends for input. Social media can drive up conversion rates
• In this space tactics are confused as strategies
• How do you insert yourself (marketing / brand) in a conversation as opposed to ‘we have to be on a platform’. Advertisers need change to join conversations without selling.
• Public search on Twitter means you can interrupt conversation and insert your sales piece. But it can’t be scaled and it’s spam like
• Can you sell through social media or is it just there to service and advise? Don’t sell stuff; just be helpful; listen, don’t push.
• Sending content and information through social media is successful; sales is not. But it also depends on what you’re trying to achieve, and the market and demographic.
• Social shopping is a new trend. Apparel comparison that links to retailers and suppliers

The ‘group’ model
• At the moment there’s a lot of players in the ‘coupon’ space, the best one will win eventually
• ‘coupons’ links to the Foursquare model – check in and mobilising crowds
• The model means there is a loss on the first transaction in order to get repeat business; loss leading for the life time value benefit of the customers. This used to be an offline practice and now it is online

Franchises
• The franchise model can hinder online performance / capability; it is hard to push online sales when up against franchise marketing as well
• Brand loyalty and story loyalty is a particular challenge for the franchise model

Security
• The check out / paying experience of some retailers is terrible
• PayPal are cutting down the process and making experience better
• There is still a lot of concern about fraud. There are still a lot of stories on security.

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
Creative & Brand advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The Entertainment & Experience advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Apps
• Apps are the ‘next’ thing we ‘need to do’. Is it a good use of resource?
• You can’t stay away in case you get left behind. Companies / brands are thinking that they need an app
• Everyone wants apps but there needs to be a marketing strategy to get people to the app
• Which apps are people actually using? The technology – going too complex? Are simpler ones better?
• Part of the strategy is using apps to help consumers make more informed decisions
• Games apps and information apps are the ones that are working well. What sits inbetween is ‘entertainment’.
• Is there a benchmark on apps? What is data on app attrition and usage?
• Useability of apps is important as well as content.
• You need to capitalise on the front of mind nature of apps

Facebook / Like
• The power of the ‘like’ button. This is such a strong recommender – it’s becoming search
• What’s the point of the like button if there’s nothing around it?
• Leveraging laziness – the like button. Replicating existing behaviour and amplifying that

Proximity
• Trend to physical gaming and location is also important.
• ‘places’ starting to happen – can check number of people at a destination. How do we synchronise content calendars – apps to see what your friends are watching. Response rates to ads on Facebook go up 68% when they are ‘liked’

Gaming
• Social gaming is one of the key areas going forwards
• Entertainment narrative around games is important and mobile / unwired media can deliver this experience
• There is a perception that infrastructure is holding things up
• Advertisers don’t know how social gaming fits with a strategy. Where does it fit with the brand.. Brands still want some message, touch points, even though consumers and technology have moved on

Video / IPTV
• What are the actual devices, TVs doing?
• What does IPTV mean?
• Growth in 3 minute videos is good. More on line video, not video destination.
• People consume video because it’s compelling, not because of the format specifically
• Online programming / content needs to be different to what’s on TV because people watch and TV and play on laptop

Return
• Product placement is replacing advertising
• Film, TV, music – how can we make money out of products not entertainment?
• The traditional music model is in flux but the appetite for music has never been stronger
• Production and media buying – these are the budgets that exist. You can’t operate with this and you can’t quantify / show ROI well. Clients need to know what to do with the data, response, information from their digital communication

The market
• The audience is changing faster than the technology
• Technology is catching up with copyright holders
• There is no credible research on the number of screens consumers are viewing
• Integration is a theme. Need to know how everything fits together. For consumers the experience is separated. All the links need to be connected.
• Consumers want seamless experience, not something different

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Data & Analytics
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Core Digital Media
Creative & Brand
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named