You might be exceptional at digital marketing, you may have the stand out digital media campaign of 2010 or your business might be the most respected in the interactive market. But do you want to know some quick and easy tips to make your presentation jaw-dropping? Want to know how to make your preso ‘twitter-friendly’? Or how to use numbers to really get the audience talking (ok, twittering)?

Thanks to Citrix (via mUmBRELLA), you can get tips from Steve Jobs on how to deliver powerul presentations…FREE. Check out the E-book here. What better person to learn from than someone who gets applause after he speaks. And of course, is a gazillionaire.

Attending ad:tech? What would make you stand up and applaud a speaker? I’m sure our speakers would like to know….

2 or 3 years ago, many digital agencies gave strategy away with a pitch in order to win the production business. Now, the field is varied.  Some companies still consider their web presence a channel and relegate it to a project manager to … well, manage.  At the other end of the spectrum however, we are seeing more and more companies pitching strategy out separately and involving many people in their organisation who previously had no insight into marketing activities or their rational.

The question for this panel is, does a company need an overarching digital strategy or is the strategy digital?  Here are a few things to consider:
• Digital is like a retail location.  Even if customers are not wanting to buy right now, if they’re looking at your web presence, they are an opportunity.
• Customers’ expectations are to be able to transact online but delivering this often requires new products and services to be developed.
• Digital initiatives often interface and depend on large scale CRM systems and data warehouses.  Responsibility for these areas crosses many different departments and might require complex political negotiations to get working together.
• When companies start investing big budgets, they also expect ROI. 

Since this is what I do for a living, I have to say that yes, companies do need a digital strategy, but how far should we go? 

Some initiatives in digital marketing are no more complex that promoting something or gathering email addresses … over thinking a simple campaign microsite makes what used to be a cheap and effective use of the internet, prohibitively expensive.  It is interesting to debate just how necessary a digital strategy is.

Strategy also implies something fixed.  However, the ‘always live’, instantaneous digital experience affects how strategies need to evolve, like a living, breathing thing based on feedback and results. How many companies budget for and organise themselves around this kind of effort and how many are still revamping their website every few years and then leaving it alone?

So what makes a good strategy today?  One that the board can understand and ‘buy in’ to, or one that constantly evolves?  Can these be the same thing?  My view is that it is more dependent on organisational culture and less on the PowerPoint but there are times when I have wondered. 

This panel should be really interesting (Tuesday 16th March, 9.45am, Track 3).  Anthony Goldman, Citrus; Ben Dux, theirspace digital; Yvette Mayer, SMV Group Australia; and Mac Walker, Hyro would love to hear what you guys think and any other burning questions you think are worth debate on this topic.
What is the role of a strategist today?
    * What’s the right skill set for a strategist today?
    * Does digital have a role in strategic planning in 2010?

That is continuing into 2010. People want to know how to plan their product and marketing campaigns even better, particularly how to weave them more succintly into the wider buisness objectives. In order to capture new business and spark passion (even influence!) with your market, innovation is a critical requirement. Innovation in terms of products, campaigns but also business structure and relationship management. And of course measurement - the need to account for each dollar, report bottom line impact and understand return beyond black & white figures - is thoroughly in the limelight.

How important are these areas in your business right now? And what’s changing?

We’ll be addressing these issues in detail at ad:tech and finding out what the leading minds in digital media & marketing are doing and what you can learn from them.

You can register for the FREE ad:tech EXHIBITION and full ad:tech CONFERENCE here.

These relaxed, small scale events will allow you to gain quality education and extend your industry network, all before you get to the office. The first breakfast briefing is taking place in July and we hope you’ll be able to join us for an inspiring and through provoking session.

Google and Millward Brown

Analysis, Achievements & Anecdotes From The #1 Valued Brand In The World

24 July 2009

Hilton Sydney

8-9am

Free of charge **Blue note charity donation on the door

The breakfast briefings are free to attend but only available for club ad:tech members. Click here for further details.

Today was interesting. I only really saw 2 sessions aside the one I was involved in but I did a bit of watching and tried to capture the overall sentiment from the event.

One thing I have taken out is there is still a monster divide between the ‘technologists’ and the wider ‘advertising’ industry. It’s almost a land grab and I think it’s getting worse. There is so little consideration paid by the digerati to the wider world of communications both advertising wise and non advertising wise that it creates a silo mentality and a feeling that ‘digital is number 1′. IRL (in real life for the non awesome) guys this won’t work … integration is required and I, for one, question how many of you will go with this when the words ‘crowdsource’, ‘the conversation’, ‘dialogue’, ’social graph’ etc are often muttered but never defined nor tied back to business objectives (which are, you know, the reason why clients (ie those who pay us) use communications channels)

Another thing is the digital industry aren’t particularly good generally at answering questions thrown up from the audience. It’s all very prepared. I asked 4 questions over 2 days and none were actually answered. Maybe some should consider politics!

Twitter and Social Media was definitely the main theme but I question how much said around both wasn’t hot air. Yes, social media is important but I feel so much of the conversation around it is so ambigous and macro that it’s almost like people are making it up on the spot.

I think in hindsight Liam and I were a little wrong around the structure of the conference and the mix was about right - so congrats to Jenny and Beth around this. I spoke to a lot of people today and they were happy with how the event flowed. The crowd was incredibly diverse so the agenda needed to be diverse too.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed the panel I was on had to start late due to the previous one going overtime by 10 minutes. I love hearing Laurel Papworth’s voice just as much as she clearly does (don’t worry Laurel, I enjoy the sound of my own voice too) … but it was a bit rude considering it was the end of the day. Once we got cracking I felt we covered some interesting terrain around the importance of professional content and media brands.

The last click attribution session was interesting in parts. Jenny Bewes from Vodafone was exceptional on stage and it was good to get candid conversation from a marketer around the wider mix and how digital fits into all the broad touchpoints from POS to CRM to TV, newspapers, call centre … just great. Michael Buckley from Amnesia was going very well until he started talking about media consumption as a % and media spend % and then he lost me - I hate that comparison as the only media that is disproportionate in terms of more spends is newspapers … but I think perhaps I misunderstood him. I wanted to ask him who he thinks should be tasked with making the wider world aware of click attribution or misattribution but the session was over by then. Michael - that said I thought you were good and it was great to have a smart, clever media guy involved on a panel!

Monetising Social Networks … hrm … I’m not a believer in these slides and have seen them so many times. Also, Arrington isn’t still in Hawaii … he’s back at Techcrunch. I think saying Michael Arrington could create a Murdoch style empire is so off the mark it’s amusing … he runs a blog around start ups with around 1m users globally and an audience that isn’t really the most valuable around … do you realise the magnitude of Newscorp? The guy from Minti was interesting but I think most people were like ‘Dude what is Minti?’

Twitter stream - valuable but maybe too many back seat drivers. Struggled to take much out of it personally but I guess the irony is it’s easier to observe than really participate.

My key takeout - get clients to come next year. Adtech is GOLD for clients but I think sadly not enough were there. Lets find a way to get this content in front of them. I know for 2010 I’ll be recommending we bring along some of our clients at MAXUS as they will get a heap out of it. Beth - send me the dates when you can!

And thanks to everyone who came along to our panel - and thanks to Vivek, Duff and Julian

http://talkingdigital.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/adtech-day-2/#comment-386