March 12th to 13th, 2008
Sydney Hilton

I was asked to speak at Adtech Sydney on the subject of Integrating Digital into the Communications Plan. For many, the challenge of integrating digital into your “everything else” plan can prove to be harder than what it should be. The question posed was do you start with digital and wrap everything else around it or look at digital as a silo, one of which is growing at an exponential rate, and plan individually?

I was joined in the discussion with my colleague from Vodafone David Morrow, Head of Online and Russell Easther from P3 Digital who moderated the discussion. David and I spoke about the good, the bad and a number of techniques on how to integrate digital into communications plan.

To listen to the Integrating Digital into the Communication Plan talk and other Ad-Tech Sydney podcasts click here.

A few of the questions and answers from the session are highlighted below;

Adam – examples over the years of poorer digital integration? Classic story/joke

I have a few stories and some scars. I take my shirt off and show you some of my scars if that helps.
Seriously I think every digital guy or girl has had the one where it’s ‘hey what can you do online with this completed TVC that’s running”. The bad integration happens when the idea is cracked and a medium is chosen and online is seen as a matching luggage approach. In other words animate this press ad and by the way we have no budget.

Adam – is it getting better?

Yes for both agencies and client’s are starting to get very knowledgeable and also very passionate about the interactive medium. Because digital is so accountable in terms of getting data there is much more interest in the medium and how it can lay a stronger role in the marketing mix. Of course how you use digital, and when you use digital as always must be surrounded in a core idea. There are obviously some people still worried about the digital extension rather then just getting on and developing great ideas and producing compelling content for consumers. If this is done then digital just finds a home. Some people are still a little nervous to do large scale digital programs but hey those groups will be years behind the people that embrace it. Getting the planning and creative process right in the marketing mix is essential.

Adam – why?

The ability for consumers to control what they consume is a cause for celebration in my mind, not widespread panic. It’s fact there is now too much proof that people are willing to interact with brands and products in deeper and more meaningful ways than ever before. Our job is to find and give a good reason for them to do this.

Adam – what are the traits of traditional agencies that know how to integrate digital?

I think respect for the medium, the digital skill set and then ownership in making it work across the organisation are essential elements in making digital work for clients. I think any agency that has a structure where digital is off to one side or in a silo is a little 1995. Sure in the beginning it was right to have a group that specialised in digital but today digital technology is everywhere. The TVC is in the end a video digital outcome, it is produced as zero and ones. It can run on varies screens, devices and platforms. Any forward thinking agency should have digital at the heart of it’s operation across creative, planning, production and account servicing. If it does not it won’t be a relevant agency to build client solutions.

Adam – can you share any interesting experiences of a media and creative agency ‘integrating’ digital communications?

Like a lot of people I would prefer media and creative agencies living together under one roof and structure. But those days are long gone, and to be fair the media game is now very specialised in terms of the data, science and measurement around paid media planning and buying. That said in the digital world media and creative are very hard to separate. The best ideas and programs are when you have close collaboration. I’m not a big fan of the media spreadsheet being sent around and the creative agency developing creative to spec sizes and formats. This only results in push advertising solutions.

Creative and media people working closely together with a strong ‘respect’ and clear ownership to the clients objective we can start to create better ideas and deliver better results. I think media and creative agencies working together can start to create a new currency for brands. Develop things that people will seek out, use, play with, and hopefully share. A lot of the time we are trying to develop killer applications or at the very least some communication community products that people will talk about.

Adam – Through your years of experience, what is the best brand that integrates digital communication the best?

On a category level I think travel, IT and telecommunications have done some of the best innovates programs over the years. Basically any brand that has been testing and learning with digital for 10 years plus is a long way ahead of those that have only been doing it for the last couple of years. Outside of these categories I have always like what Volkswagen do in the UK. There current online programs and web site for their range of cars is excellent. It works if you are ‘in market’ or ‘near market’ a car purchase. Of course Nike has set the bench mark last year for true digital innovation re a product such as Nike Plus. But to be truly honest the online brands are still the best at understanding customer experience and delivering compelling content that gets people back time after time. A good R&D team is needed here to deliver this for an organisation and at the moment only true digital online brands like a Google, Amazon or a FaceBook get that thinking.

Adam – Is the push from agency side, or client side, for digital integration?

I think it’s now the clients that push for integration. And to be honest I think they are over agencies giving them lip service on how they are structured when they use digital. A client really does not care how an agency is structure they just want to work with the smartest, most creative people they can muster. Marketing budgets are not getting any larger and as such clients are always looking for big ideas. I think client’s like to work with agencies that can deliver sustainable and collaborative ways of working, when sharing ideas.

Adam – From agency side and your experience, exactly how, what steps, what techniques do you use to integrate digital internally when integrating digital in a communications plan?

My current role is to integrate digital thinking across a variety of Clemenger Group agencies that have a specialised focused in either advertising, direct, PR, retail, events etc. As mentioned I’m trying to put digital at the heart of all marketing service companies because it’s a good way to foster and develop integrated thinking and the process of integrated implementation rather then matching luggage. We are not ring fencing digital into an agency or department. Dialogue between brands and consumers can start and finish anywhere… jumping between media spaces, from print to event to mobile to street stunt to TV…the Internet is not the purpose in itself, only the big link between everything. We have digital training programs running regularly in all our agencies and across account, creative, planning teams. They are always getting hit with something new to digest and learn.

Adam – Did you have to move any mountains internally to get those steps across the line?

Well sure. Some people don’t like change, some worry about the revenue impact and the structure impact if staff are not trained in digital. Really as mentioned I really do worry less about the right model and worry much more about the ideas we present to clients.

  

28 – 30 November 2007
Hotel Intercontinental
Sydney, Australia

This week I spoke at the Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress. This years event was even bigger and better then previous years. The two day event kicked off with talks from Australia’s leading online publishers Richard Fredenstein, CEO News Digital Media, Jack Matthews, CEO Fairfax Digital and Tony Faure, CEO Ninemsn.

After each talk there was a joint panel discussion, and while there is considerable respect for each other there was much debate around the theme of measurement. It was clear each publisher had different interpretations on what measurement was key in determining who was the best online publisher in the country. The discussions around ‘reach’ was heated with varies confusion on metrics around Unique ]Users vs. Unique Browsers. While the panel was not setup to resolve this issue it was agreed that clients and media agencies need to work much harder on determining the best metrics for measuring online campaigns before booking campaigns with online publishers.

During the two days there were talks and panels from APN News and Media, Leo Burnett, Seven Network, Network Ten, Foxtel, PBL Media, MySpace, Fremantle Media, Bigpond, BBC Worldwide, etv UK, ITV Uk, google, DDB, Commercial Radio Australia. The common themes of the event were as follows;

• The revenue generating opportunities created by digital media
• The changing nature of media consumption
• The future of digital film and television
• The impact of emerging technology in the online publishing world
• Media metrics
• Digital media communities
• Government plans and policies
• Industry business models

My talk was titled adapting to stay in touch with digital consumers, where I looked at and evaluated the trends driving the future behavior of tomorrow’s audience. I also discussed where consumers heading based on this behavior. I then moved the talk into the new agency service models and how to offer digital innovation to stay ahead of the game. If you would like to get a copy of this talk please feel free to email me.

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/

 

Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd, October 2007
Main Conference Room
Hilton Hotel, Sydney NSW Australia

IPTV, WebTV, P2PTV, vodcasting, streaming and downloaded video media. The list of multiplatform
delivery models goes on. The question that needs answering is what does video content delivered over Internet Protocol mean for broadcasters, content producers, operators, advertisers and service providers.

Investing in on-demand and IPTV services is an expensive and a demanding undertaking. No only do you need to get the technology implemented quickly and effectively but offering value-added services needs to be a compelling and rewarding experience for your customers. Enter the market under prepared and you risk giving market share to your competitors. The more you understand about the challenges and opportunities of offering IPTV services, the better placed and clearer the task of choosing partners and new on-demand services becomes.

These were the themes covered in a two day conference in Sydney this month at the IPTV Australasia the region’s only two-day executive level conference that analyses the profitable business models, evolving access technologies, emerging delivery devices and content windowing strategies in the on-demand, and broadcast environments.

I was asked to be on the ADVERTISING AND INTERACTION panel to discuss the how the IPTV environment will change advertising, branding and storytelling over TV platforms.

Below is a summary of my talk.

In its raw form IPTV advertising offers brands an immersive television experience with the added bonus of being able to enhance it with interactivity. It will also offer marketers the addressability and accountability of advertising that exists in the Internet world, enabling the targeting of individual homes, personalized messages, and more accurate measurement of an advertisement’s impact. But what the real impact of IPTV offers brands and marketers is to move from producing an interruption message to developing compelling content . The successful future brands will be the ones people actively seek out because they can hold an engaging conversation. The advertising industry will need to move and be structured much closer to the world of the content industry. The new advertising mangers and leaders will be the groups that know how to deliver and program audience involvement. They will build brands with much more layers and craft and deliver their personalities across multiply digital devices and access channels. The management of brands and communications and the future marketing department will be more like team similarly structured to managing a weekly television series. Brands will always be about big ideas, but in the new IPTV world the daily audience ratings will dictate its success or failure. At Clemenger Communications, we believe digital creative innovation offer brands their biggest opportunity. It allows businesses to create an immersive brand experience to pull a consumer in, lean forward and participate. We call this ‘digital engagement’. Digital engagement measures the extent to which a consumer has a meaningful brand experience when exposed to a combination of commercial advertising ,and content programs developed across multiply media and digital platforms. Big ideas are essential to connect to people. People are not just strategized and developed databases and profiles. They are people and as such, we focus on crafting a brand experience by maximizing three key areas of story telling. 1. Mechanics, in digital planning terms this describes creating the idea and nourishing this with particular components and/or story of the digital experience. 2. Dynamics, in technology and build terms this describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on consumer inputs and each others outputs over time. 3. Aesthetics, in digital creative terms this describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the consumer, when they interact with the program experience across multiple devices and channels. Oh, if you didn’t know multiple devices and channels is another word for media. Compelling content rather then interruption messages pull connected people and communities together, and move these targeted people from an acquaintance of the brand to a friend. At Clemenger Communications we arm our agencies and develop compelling content by employing some of world’s most awarded and effective advertising creative people and housing them in our Clemenger BBDO agencies offices in Auckland and Wellington. Creativity delivered in the digital interactive form deliver marketing programs that gain audience involvement . The result is business success, just ask any of our long servicing clients. Exciting times ahead welcome to Digital Innovation.

.