November 5th to 8th, 2007
New York Hilton

This week I spoke at ad:tech New York the world’s largest interactive advertising and technology conference dedicated to connecting all sides of today’s marketing landscape. The four day event had keynote speakers, topic driven panels, interactive workshops plus over 300 exhibitors. I must say I found the event to be quite a frenzy and reminded me a little of those dot.com days.

The frenzy was caused by several industry announcements that fueled much debate and discussion throughout the event on where the Interactive advertising industry is headed.

The first big announcement was from Google re the Google Phone project and while the first devices aren’t due to be shipped for at least another six months, there’s already breathless speculation about the look, feel and functionality of the new open development platform mobile device. Google has this year lobbied that an open network is necessary to give US consumers a third choice in mobile broadband, rather than be limited to buying service from either a giant cable or phone company, and to bring wireless innovation in the country in line with other parts of the world, notably Europe. Google pledged to bid at least $4.6bn in the forthcoming spectrum auction if the FCC agreed to add these open-network requirements

The second was from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg where he said, ”Facebook will help you create some of the best ad campaigns you’ve ever built" as he unveiled the Facebook Ads platform, a system by which marketers can marry an ad message to a user-initiated endorsement of a product or service.
While this announcement was digested, Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in his adtech talk said: “The state of the industry is excellent, yet it’s also at risk: while growth remains strong; growth up 26 percent in first half of the year, which we expect to continue. The online ad industry is on track to hit its first $20 billion year – that’s one-third of the TV ad space after about 13 years of internet ads started.” He then warned the industry that “Anti-consumer advocates are out to stifle the industry, including the FTC, which wants complete regulation of cookies themselves and could require opt-in stipulations for all online ads. As last week’s hearings suggest, they feel the time for fact-finding is over, it’s now time to regulate.” Other highlights from the session focused on the rise of platforms and the search for the least disruptive forms of online advertising. Could this be the reason Facebook is valued at $15bn?

I was invited to speak on the ‘Global Perspectives on the Digital Revolution’ panel representing and discussion trends from the Asia Pacific region. I was joined by Marc Lansberg, President, Arc Worldwide speaking US, Ole Obermann VP of International Digital Business Development, Sony BMG representing Europe and Peter Blacker Senior VP, Digital Media, NBC Universal, Telemundo Network Group speaking about Latin America. It was moderated by Paul Maidment, Editor of Forbes.com.

To listen to the Global Perspectives on the Digital Revolution
panel discussion visit http://www.ad-tech.com/podcasts/