Clemenger Group Digital Summit

MEDIA RELEASE

DIGITAL INNOVATION KEY TO DEVELOPING ENGAGING CONSUMER EXPERIENCES

Leading digital experts speak at Summit in Auckland

1 May, 2009

Digital creative innovation offers brands their biggest marketing opportunities as a result of the internet dramatically changing the way consumers receive and consume content, the audience at a Clemenger Group Digital Summit was told this week.

The Summit – Embracing Digital Innovation in New Zealand – was hosted by the Clemenger Group which owns advertising agencies Colenso BBDO, .99 and BrandWorld, direct marketing firm Aim Proximity, PR agency Porter Novelli and media buying agency OMD – among others.

Key note speaker, digital expert Adam Good, told the full house of 400 people that since the year 2000, digital media consumption had grown by over 40% year on year with weekly media consumption worldwide expected to reach 90 hours per week by 2020.

Mr Good is the Executive Director of Digital Innovation for the Clemenger Group Australasia and a pioneering executive in the digital media, content, advertising industry with over 20 years experience.

He said as a result of the extraordinary growth in digital media consumption, marketers need to completely change their thinking about media and advertising.

“Digital innovation is the new – or everlasting- Holy Grail for nations, economies, businesses and brands across the globe. It allows businesses to create an immersive brand experience to pull a consumer in, lean forward and participate.

“We are in the business of connecting with consumers. Big ideas are essential to connect to people. It is critical we put digital innovation at the centre of our thinking and use it as the glue to craft a 360 extraordinary consumer brand experience.

“Advertising is no longer just about the display ad or the TV commercial or the banner; it’s about creating meaningful tools and architecting user experiences

Mr Good told the audience that the web was only going to get smarter, more personalised and more ubiquitous and that marketers needed to “believe the impossible”.

“As advertising evolves it will need to provide real answers to real questions, not canned information. It must create communities that actually speak to one another, that are not just content with aspirations.”

He said technology had enabled consumers to become involved in the content and participate alongside it.

“We are all connected to each other via multitude of channels. Therefore creative agencies, technology groups, media and publishers all need to collaborate with each other and within themselves to develop outstanding communications products,” said Mr Good.

He said media like social networks and personal web properties were a highly important and measurable component of the communications ecosystem demanding the same kind of message management and optimisation as other channels.

“Today we have to find a home for messaging in channels which consumers use in anything but a passive fashion and work out how to drive engagement that moves them through the purchase funnel.

“Equally we have to consider that the empowered consumer can be either the most powerful advocate or enemy of a brand and to find roles for commercial engagement in those channels of advocacy recognizing the high risks and rewards that this entails,” he said.

Speakers at the summit were;