The latest update from IAB Engage 2007 featuring Randy Falco Josh Spears Owen Van Natta and Roisin Donnelly.

Monday, 12 November 2007

Randy Falco, chairman of AOL; Facebook’s Owen Van Natta, MySpace’s Jay Stevens and Matthew Brittin, director of Google are set to take to the stage to lead an all-star line-up at our third annual conference, Engage 2007.

If you don't wish to view the live stream of the event and are just after regular updates of all the action throughout the day, this is the place for you.

Josh Spear, founder of Undercurrent

Following an introduction from IAB CEO Guy Phillipson, the first speaker, Josh Spear took to the stage. The title of Josh's presentation was 'They’re not listening; speaking to a generation born digital'. The new social media world marketers are striving to operate within is of vital importance to this generation and Josh argued that advertisers have to engage with this new world respectfully.

He outlined a series of sites - such as Twitter, Loopt, I'm In Like With You and Threadless that were attracting terrific audiences and that offered examples to advertisers as to how they should be approaching their marketing.

Josh said that there was a "new paradigm" of what advertising should be and that marketers needed to turn their traditional approach "180 degrees". For the born digital generation, "things that seek out are bad, things that we seek are good".

To successfully reach the born digital generation Josh argued that, "you have to operate within the rules of the universe and play by the same rules as the audience."

He argued that agencies need to push their clients to "add value" and turn an interruptive experience, like a banner, for example, into a service. He said advertisers need to ask themselves, "How can your brand make each site you advertise on a better place?"

With the born digital generation so immersed within their media, Josh argued that "2008 is the year that brands who don’t engage will get left behind." He signed off with "Embrace and Engage."

Anthony Mayfield, Head of Content & Media at Spannerworks

The second presenter in the social media section was Anthony Mayfield. He argued that there was "a need for furious innovation," and believed marketers needed to ask, "how do we capture attention in live attention markets?"

Anthony said that marketers should not just ask 'how can we apply social networking to our marketing'? Because the power of social media means we need to rethink marketing all together. He said simply a presence on social media sites was not enough and it required thought,"on a strategic level."

Marketers should not be preoccupied with keeping 'on top' of the latest social networking trend and that they needed to relax. He said "everyone is behind the curve, there is no definitive set of rules... we have to write them together."

The good news is there is no imminent end to the internet's impact on our lives, Anthony believes that, "The media web revolution is a profound one on a par with the print revolution... We will carry on living through this revolution."

Like Josh Spear before him, Anthony enforced the importance of marketers offering value, saying; "you have to make your banner or brand experience website useful and engaging."

Matthew Brittin, Director of Google UK

Matthew Brittin, Director of Google UK presented on the subject of keeping up with the consumer and the revolution in search. He said that today’s game was about understanding how all of us engage with media and that, "we are only at the beginning of understanding the potential of the online world."

The time it is taking people to get to 100 million users is getting shorter and the pace of change is accelerating rapidly. He equated the changing world of advertising with a rollercoaster ride. Matt identified devices, storage, production and access as four further drivers of change, with "cloud computing" the new way the four will come together. Information has converged onto the internet and we all want to access it on different devices.

The online market place provides great areas to be found where you might not be expected to be found, because of which Matt advocated a "back to basis approach to marketing," with marketers needing to place more emphasis on, what their brand stands for.

Like Anthony Mayfield, Matt argued the importance of competing in a live attention market, saying that marketers needed to follow the consumer, and ask what are they doing TODAY? He identified the importance of listening, engaging and responding to the consumer accordingly; using the Cadbury WISPA reinstatement as an example - this might not make Cadbury a lot of money but it most likely will have a halo effect.

Matt concluded by stressing the importance of "always being in Beta.. of just trying stuff and learning from it."

Randy Falco, Chairman & CEO of AOL

Before lunch Randy Falco, chairman & chief Executive Officer, AOL discussed the rapid pace of change in the internet and the "exciting time in our space".

He said we are at the early stages of what can be achieved with advertising online and stressed how important mobile, video, behavioural and contextual targeting will be once we "crack the code."

Stressing the potential of video online Randy said, "finding the next 30 second spot on the web will provoke a rush of money into the internet space." When questioned further on what he thought the tipping point for video advertising online might be, Randy said that "the pre-roll is dead". The way forward for video online was, something that didn’t intrude on the customer experience, but that still got the message across.

As the web becomes disaggregated Randy said he was more interested in great products that are monetisable wherever they appear, he said, "If I had a great product I wouldn’t care if it was on iGoogle if I could make money from it."

Falco also endorsed the IAB's move to develop internet video best practice in order to further simplify and standardise online display advertising. Falco said that to resolve current agency frustration video formats need to respect the online customer experience with non-intrusive advertising messages.

Randy said: "There’s not enough standards in video display advertising." He later added: "We need to have common display ad sizes and that’s something the IAB can help with. Online is getting increasingly complex and we need to make it easier to do business with each other."

Speaking on the future of the industry, Falco said: "Brand advertisers are looking for better performance. Everyone knows that the internet is great for performance. It’s not a remnant sale anymore, it’s more of a upmarket acquisition."

On the rise of ad networks Randy Falco cited how by the year 2011, 23% of all page
views will be booked via ad networks. "The trend is towards networks is huge,"he said. "Agencies and marketers will reach the web via networks. It’s a one-stop shopping kind of experience."

Owen Van Natta, COO of Facebook

Following on from IAB Chairman Richard Eyre, Owen Van Natta, COO of Facebook told the freshly fed and watered delegates that; "this new world demands a new advertising model." Discussing the recently announced Facebook ads, Van Natta said that the next generation requires marketers become part of the dialogue.

Facebook ads is a brand new way to advertise online and Van Natta described it as, "the next generation of online marketing we’ve been talking about." Many of the powerful insights that Facebook ads promises have not previously been available to marketers.

Facebook ads enables advertisers to tap into the "trusted referral" nature of the social networking site that has propelled it to a global audience of 50 million.

Van Natta outlined the 3 main pieces that make up Facebook ads; pages, insights and social ads. Marketers are able to build pages, spread their messages virally through a brand new ad system and get accurate insights to the people marketers will be advertising to going forward.

The IAB's Guy Phillipson asked Owen Van Natta what he thought the Facebook community would make of the new ad system to which he responded, "Maintaining users trust is at the core of what we do." He added "We are allowing marketers to accelerate into the users world."

• For more information on the launch of Facebook ads, please visit the Brand Republic website.

Roisin Donnelly, Corporate Marketing Director of Proctor & Gamble

Roisin Donnelly, corporate marketing director, Proctor & Gamble was on stage straight after Van Natta to stress the importance of marketers understanding their consumers "better and more deeply."

Donnelly pushed the idea of integration by making the point that even the born digital consumer is spending time in the old media world, therefore advertisers should be seamlessly integrating old with new. She said; "the digital consumer is not a new or different species," before making the point that the online and offline consumer are one and the same, so the obvious thing for the marketer to do is to integrate.

The biggest challenge for marketers in the current climate, Donnelly believes, is "developing the right message" for the consumer. She outlined three important rules for marketers looking for success; 1) Keep it simple - multiple messages are confusing; 2) Keep it relevant and keep the creative relevant to the media; 3) Keep it involving.

She concluded by saying there are ways for marketers to help their consumer chose their product, but to do this you need to be in touch with your boss - your consumer.

Matthew Kirk, Director of Portals at Orange

In the first IAB Engage session devoted to mobile, Matthew Kirk, director of portals at Orange discussed the development of mobile advertising. Matthew said that if 2008 wasn’t the year of mobile marketing, it would at the very least be a significant year for advertisers and their use of mobile internet to reach their consumers. Kirk described it as the "new, new media."

The use of mobiles is changing. Ringtones have reached a plateau and Kirk believes that all of the money is now in mobile TV and access to community sites.

Matthew outlined the different usage patterns between how consumers access the internet on their mobile and their PC. When a user is online on their mobile they want instant access, instant messaging, boredom relief, social and competition for devices. He summed it up by calling this collective behaviour, "snacking" or "grazing"; "little bites but often".

In a forecast slide Kirk demonstrated that most of the money in mobile marketing will be in forms of display, followed by search and then broadcast TV.

The power of mobile advertising is in its ability to target consumers at the right time, it is intimate, it has reach and it is always on.

Kirk summed up by saying the mobile market is a mass audience and the operators are "up for it." He said it was important to work out what customers are doing on their mobile internet, so we can best meet their needs. Matthew said it was the mobile operators job to get this information to the consumer.

Michael Hawley, Futurologist and former Director of MIT

Michael Hawley, Futurologist and former Director, MIT wrapped up the day’s speeches with a glimpse of the future, with particular focus on the mass migration into cities the world is currently witnessing.

Using an ice hockey analogy, Hawley said that part of the art of getting to grips with where the future is headed is working out where the puck is going to go.

Focusing less on technology, Michael used the geographic changes that are currently occurring all over the planet to paint a picture of the future. Hawley outlined how we’ve just reached the tipping point of mass urbanization with 50% of people living in country and 50% in cities, he said; "it’s the signal that says something is changing."

The world is moving into a dramatically different place, Hawley said "our world is morphing into a vast network of super cities," before adding; "at any point in time the world is defined by its power centres and it’s shifting." The epicenters of growth are no longer in the west, they are in the developing world and all these countries have mobile phones. Hawley also added that increasingly these phones will be more like iPhones than yesterday’s Nokias.

Michael concluded by saying that he hoped his presentation provided the delegates with some added inspiration and closed the conference by saying, "the internet is a great place to flex one’s muscles in." After a day of enlightening presentations, who are we to disagree?