Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group gave the opening Keynote Presentation at ad:tech San Francisco this morning.
She is an entertaining and interesting speaker; she’s also charming and very beautiful. A great combination for the morning after the biggest party night in digital media of the year! Her session was titled: ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised…It Will Be Tweeted and Facebooked’ and she spoke about her vision for where consumers can and should focus their energies and attention in the future.

You can see the Presentation here: www.ad-tech.com/youtube

The key themes of Arianna’s speech were: enchantment – stay focused on what it is that motivates and inspires your audience, local – talk to people at a local level, it’s the environment they’re most engaged with, disconnect – eventually we’ll need to let go of some of the modes, methods and machines that we’re attached to.

Arianna wrapped up saying that newspapers won’t die, they will have a vibrant online life and in the same morning that the IAB reported 15% growth in online ad revenue (2009-2010) I thought this was a really promising point of view.

Check out the Twitter stream #adtech for some of the key quotations – there were some awesome one liners and summary points.

A last minute announcement from ad:tech San Francisco this week that the Keynote Presentations and some additional conference sessions would be live streamed on YouTube.
You can see the videos here.

Keynote speakers at ad:tech San Francisco have included:

Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group
Antonio Lucio, CMO, Visa
Jeffrey Cole, Director, USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future
Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder & Founding Partner, Alltop & Garage Technology Ventures
Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo
Manny Anekal, Director, Brand Advertising, Zynga
John Bax, CFO, LivingSocial

Due to significant internal changes at PepsiCo, Bonin Bough informed us on Saturday morning (26 March) that he is now unable to join us in person on Wednesday 30 March for the free Keynote Presentation at ad:tech Melbourne. Bonin’s presentation is one of four free Keynote Presentations at ad:tech Melbourne. The other Keynote speakers are: the Founders of Spreets, the Digital Communications Manager from Tate, UK and the CMO of Microsoft APAC.

As a regular speaker at global ad:tech and iMedia conferences Bonin is still very keen to present to the Melbourne audience. Therefore he will be presenting live via video from the PepsiCo auditorium in NYC. After his presentation, Bonin will take live questions from the audience. In addition to the video conference, Australian PepsiCo representatives will be onsite to support the Presentation.

In addition to the free Keynote sessions, over 80 digital marketing experts are speaking on the ad:tech Melbourne conference program. More details about the whole event can be found here.

I’ve just had a sneak preview of the Tate presentation for ad:tech Melbourne next week.

As an English girl I’m biased because I grew up with Tate and have always enjoyed the brand and their work. Tate modern is one of my favourite spaces in London, it’s a beautiful building and a great Thames-side location. However, groupie-bias aside, this is an excellent presentation. It’s going to be really interesting hearing Jesse’s experiences of bringing these campaigns and strategies alive.

He’s talking specifically about how to use social media effectively when you have so many other active channels and platforms. Some of the numbers in the presentation are really impressive. Especially when you consider the not-for-profit structure and the market Tate are pitching to in terms of demographic and transience.

Jesse is focusing a lot on how to make systems and platforms work for you when you’re managing marketing across different media, he’ll also speak about the resourcing, content and input aspects of being successful in this space.

Jesse is speaking on the second day of ad:tech Melbourne.

Conference program

There are other sessions on the conference that relate closely to what Jesse is discussing, including:

NFP Showcase: What Can Digital Marketers Learn From NFP Organisations? with insightful contributions from Movember, YMCA Victoria and Victoria Police – a really different collection of very successful NFP organisations.
How Do You Ensure Innovation Is Integral To Your Marketing Operation? featuring perspectives from some real forward thinkers, see list here.
How To Really Harness The Power Of Social Media a joint case study between the Head of Digital Marketing and Community Manager for Lonely Planet – a thorough review of their plans and tactics.

Here are some other sessions I’m looking forward to as well.

If you want more details about ad:tech Melbourne you can email me: lucy@ad-tech.com.
Thanks and see you there.

The great thing about the ad:tech Melbourne program is that we’ll be revisiting some of the content from Sydney. This is good because it means the best content is being aired twice, and in the interim the speakers can re-evaluate their material in light of any feedback and taking in to account the local market. Here’s a few examples of those:

From Advertising To Advocacy by Craig Davis, Co-Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Mojo
Sound And Movement: Insights In Online Video with PwC Australia, ninemsn and Yahoo!7
How To Use Digital Media Successfully For Specific Events with Jill Colvin, Sydney Festival and John Curtin, Totem Onelove
Beyond .com – The Next Internet Revolution with M&C Saatchi and AusRegistry International

And, of course there are new sessions as well, and I’m really excited about some of these Melbourne specific sessions. This content really came together following guidance from our excellent advisory board and some of these topics are really timely and specific to what’s happening in the digital media community in Melbourne. Here’s a few examples of those:

Syndicating Your Brand And Marketing Message Through Different Mediums with memery, DTDigital, Honda Australia, Firefly Millward Brown
Which Distribution Networks Are Best For Your Digital Media & Marketing Plan with speakers from The Comedy Channel & 111 HITS, FOXTEL , The Dubs, Reprise and Viocorp
What Should A Digital Strategy Look Like? with Clear Light Digital, Target, Starcom Melbourne

Of course I’m also looking forward to the Keynote Presentations. The two brand speakers that we have will be excellent. We’ve been working with Bonin Bough in the States and his team have been delivering some really innovative material. I’ve also had a sneak preview of the Tate presentation and it’s superb – more about that later I think.

I’ll be very interested to see how the Melbourne event experience compares to Sydney; how involved the audience are, what they make of the content, what the main differences are. I expect I’ll be learning a lot….

Any questions let me know but look forward to seeing you there.

ad:tech Melbourne
30-31 March 2011
Hilton on the Park, Melbourne
www.ad-tech.com/melbourne

Book tickets here.

Consumers have not fallen out of love with television – but are no longer willing to put up with bad shows, digital conference Ad:tech was told in a keynote presentation from the marketer responsible for launching gaming blockbuster Call Of Duty’s most recent instalments.

Brad Jakeman, chief creative officer of Activision Blizzard told the audience: “The death of the 30 second spot has occupied way too many column inches.

“The shows that have always had amazing content – and I’d include the Super Bowl in that – are seeing ratings increasing.

“But if you look at programs that never had good content that’s where the precipitous decline is taking place.

“Consumers are not inherently opposed to television.”

Jakeman suggested that he was looking to go even further. Arguing that new content promoting Call of Duty is eagerly anticipated by fans, he said he was going to ask networks to pay him for the privilege of airing it.

Courtesy of mUmbrella

Read full article here.

Hot off their recent acquisition by Yahoo! we are delighted to announce that the Spreets Co-Founders, Dean McEvoy and Justus Hammer, will be speaking at ad:tech Melbourne. See more details here.

In just nine months the Spreets business went from launch to $40 million acquisiton – surely you want to hear how they achieved that…?

Dean and Justus will share their story particularly talking about the influences they took from international businesses :) and how their business truly captures the opportunities of the changing consumer and technology environments.

Got a question for Justus or Dean?

Post it here and we’ll have them address your questions as part of their presentation.

Registration

All Keynote presentations are free to attend when you book an EXHIBITION pass for ad:tech Melbourne. Spreets joins a Keynote line-up that includes Global Director of Digital and Social Media for PepsiCo and Digital Communications Manager for Tate. See full event details here.

ad:tech Melbourne
30-31 March 2011
Hilton on the Park
Register for ad:tech Melbourne here.

ad:tech Australia is delighted to announce the confirmed Keynote sessions for ad:tech Sydney 2011. The Keynote Presentations showcase global perspectives from international industry leaders and the Keynote Roundtable will bring together opinions on the hottest debate for 2011. All Keynote sessions are FREE to attend when you register for any of the ad:tech CONFERENCE, EXHIBITION or WORKSHOP passes.

Day 1, Opening Keynote Presentation – Activision

Prepare to be inspired by Brad Jakeman, EVP, Chief Creative Officer, Activision Blizzard, the marketer who managed the groundbreaking campaign that led to the biggest entertainment launch in history and the record sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Day 1, Afternoon Keynote Presentation – Google

Daniel Alegre, VP Asia Pacific and Japan, Google Inc will share the latest news on the innovations and developments that we can expect from Google in the coming year.

Day 2, Opening Keynote Roundtable – Future of TV

Iain McDonald, founder of Amnesia Razorfish and chair of ad:tech Sydney will lead the Keynote panel discussion on: The Future of TV. As TV becomes almost unrecognisable what does it mean for programmers, consumers and advertisers? And which businesses and products will be seriously threatened by these changes? Iain will lead a debate with key ANZ players from hardware, OS and service provision.

Day 2, Afternoon Keynote Presentation – Ericsson

Nick Wiggin, Head of Advertising Strategy & Partnerships, Ericsson will bring you the latest global perspectives on the trends and opportunities in mobile advertising and marketing.

Registration OPEN

ad:tech Australia is also pleased to officially open registration for both ad:tech Sydney and the newly launched ad:tech Melbourne. Passes can now be purchased for both event CONFERENCES and free passes can be booked for both event EXHIBITIONS.

ad:tech Sydney, 9-10 March, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
ad:tech Melbourne, 30-31 March 2011, Hilton on the Park, Melbourne

the ad:tech advisory boards

To ensure both ad:tech events have been designed ‘by the industry, for the industry,’ delivering the most pertinent content back to their home cities ad:tech Australia consulted key industry players on the ad:tech Sydney advisory councils and the ad:tech Melbourne advisory board.

The ad:tech Sydney CONFERENCE program is now live and can be viewed online, the ad:tech Melbourne program will be available in the coming weeks.

Following the ground breaking work that he has been doing in the States we’re delighted that Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo will be presenting the opening Keynote at ad:tech Melbourne in 2011.

Bonin is recognised as driving the digital changes and award winning initiatives at PepsiCo and recently he has also been working with our iMedia colleagues on some new digital research. His hands on experience and specific focus on the digital arena will be of high value to the industry here in Australia. Bonin will be speaking about the need to put digital at the centre of the organisation and the difference that the approach can make to your whole marketing and product management. What will you be able to apply to your business? How can you emmulate some of PepsiCo’s remarkable success?

All Keynote presentations are free to attend when you book an EXHIBITION pass for ad:tech Melbourne. See full event details here.

ad:tech Melbourne
30-31 March 2011
Hilton on the Park
Register for ad:tech Melbourne here.