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

Now that we’re not just talking about banner spaces in which to create original online creative this area is a lot more interesting. Every week brings new examples and case studies of great campaigns that originated in digital or didn’t origniate in digital but exploded in the digital arena.

The ad:tech 2011 CONFERENCE program will feature presentations on Creative & Brand and we’re delighted to be working with this group of local industry executives to shape and guide the content:

David Brown, Associate Creative Director, The Music Channels, XYZnetworks
Bob Mackintosh, Digital Creative Director, Host
Ashley Ringrose, Owner, Soap
Louise Crompton, Marketing Manager A/NZ, Expedia

Have your say on the ad:tech program. Use the comments box to suggest topics and speakers that you think would add value to the program. We look forward to hearing from you.

Read about the other advisory councils:

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

Marketing is ultimately about connecting with a group of people and communicating a message to them. Simple in essence; enormously challenging in execution. The myriad of information, options and opportunities at hand mean that you can approach the connection/communication task from a variety of angles.
When we think about marketing, even digital marketing specifically, all marketers have the same tools available to them, websites, social media, email, mobile etc. In addition, the average consumer is subjected to hundreds of advertising messages a day in one form or another. So in this environment, how can a marketer make sure that their message rises above the clutter?
In the old days, advertising was driven by a traditional art director/copywriter team coming up with a “big idea”…the creative. Now, with a more complex list of potential channels, the focus has shifted to less emotive and more analytical considerations such as behavioural insights, channel insights, technology insights and experience insights that enable a brand to connect and engage with the audience… the strategy. But even this is not enough and can lead to widespread wastage if it is directed to the wrong people. The real key comes in how these factors work in combination with targeting the right message at the right person at the right time … in other words, the data.
The debate remains however, what is the most important component of the mix: Creative, strategy or data?
Drayton Bird from Ogilvy once said that the success of marketing activity is 60% targeting (data), 25% offer (strategy) and 15% execution (creative). Is this still true? Is this true in the context of every campaign? Who should be driving the solution given that these three elements are typically managed by three different people within an agency?
This year we have assembled a panel of people from different perspectives to hash out the real question of who or what should be driving the bus in our future marketing landscape. In this session, you can hear from:
Session Leader:
Tom Hutton, Managing Partner, Ideagarden

Panellists:
David Whittle, Managing Director, Mark
Jason Davey, Managing Director, Bullseye
Brent Annells, Head of Radar DDB, DDB