IAB Engage 2008 round up

The 2008 IAB Engage conference asked "Who's in control?" Throughout the day speakers wrestled with this question, providing a unique insight into issues at the heart of the modern digital industry.

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Click here for downloadable PDF copies of all the presentations from the day.

Download three podcasts tackling key issues discussed during Engage 2008:

Are Brands in Control?

The Practicalities of Social Media

Mobile Advertising

Matt Mason - How youth culture is re-inventing capitalism

Matt Mason, ex pirate radio and club DJ and author of The Pirate’s Dilemma, kicked off this year’s IAB Engage event with a presentation discussing the nature of control. “We’ve seen huge changes from the one-way street model in terms of information being distributed. Now it’s two-way.”

“Lots of people see this as a threat,” said Mason. “They see pirates.” For these people, Mason had bad news: “It’s only going to get worse”.

For the ex-DJ though, this is a positive thing. “Pirates don’t just cause problems, they may just prove to be the greatest innovators,” he argued. “If you want to beat them the best thing is to copy them”.


Mason sought to explain his argument by outlining the relationship between pirate radio stations and established players. Radio, he argued, has found a way for pirates to co-exist with legal stations, with successful pirate DJs often poached by the established players. For Mason, this co-existence must become the norm in all other media.

“The rules are changing”

In another anecdote, Mason sought to show how the rules are changing for everyone - even life for DVD pirates is changing. Having trawled New York’s Canal St speaking to DVD sellers he was surprised to find them too having a difficult time, complaining about people who have stopped buying from them and are now downloading all their films for free instead.

But this new model is not a bad thing for media owners. As Mason pointed out this year saw the biggest ever takings at the box office. The key is to adapt.

As an example of this Mason pointed to the TV series Heroes. Although the show is hugely pirated, this isn’t seen as a problem. With merchandising and spin off comics and the like, the show made $50 million dollars last year, leaving Mason to conclude “there’s more than one way to tell a story”.

Jerry Yang - Morning keynote address

Given recent events, Jerry Yang’s morning keynote speech was one of the most eagerly anticipated speeches of this year’s conference. The Yahoo co-founder chose not to discuss the recent speculation over possible deals with Google or Microsoft, but rather addressed several key themes likely to affect everyone involved in online media.


Yang kicked off by describing Yahoo as “a starting point”. He discussed the evolution and opening up of the web. While he argued that web 2.0 “offers tremendous innovations”, there are also challenges with this increased competition. “What are we all competing for?” asked Yang. “Attention”.

“Attention is a scarce resource. If you can get it you’re going to be a more valuable piece of media.”

For Yang, the key to securing that consumer attention is “relevance” and “creating new experiences – but in a collaborative way”. Web 2.0 has brought what he described as an “explosion” of user generated content. As a result, “it’s harder to maintain attention within a sea of content”. His advice for people struggling to be heard is to “keep making it simple”.

Another essential ingredient for Yang is to embrace “openness”.

“We’re moving towards true openness of the web. This drives greater relevance and better experiences”

For Yang this spirit of openness is nothing to be feared:“Openness is a natural progression for consumers.”

Yang then outlined an example of Yahoo’s move towards openness. The company launched Apt in Sept, a system which he argues simplifies the process of buying and selling online inventory.”We’re very proud of this platform,” he said.

“Extraordinary environment”

Yang went on to address the current economic situation. He talked of the current “extraordinary environment” and argued that “the advertising industry hasn’t seen an era like this for decades.” He even drew similarities between the current situation and the bursting of the dot com bubble 2001.

But all is not lost. “We feel that people will continue to engage with the internet,” said Yang. “Companies will come out stronger than when they went in,” he continued. For him – as in 2001 - “quality” sites will survive.

Three key trends

Yang identified three key trends to watch in the coming months:

1 - “Branded advertisers have to continue to spend. Most of them will want to come back with a share of voice. They will need to drive stimulus and consumption when economy hits a certain level. It’s about trust, relationships and verifiability.”

2 - He pointed to internet advertising such as search marketing being critically important at this time. “Performance based advertising is very important to driving direct response. Search and lead generation continue to be a growing area for all of us. People are still searching, the question is are they searching for commercial or non commercial things.”

3 - Yang expressed optimism and concern that the recession may delay marketers adopting new technologies such as broadband TV and mobile. “I am optimistic about mobile advertising and broadband TV advertising but marketers need to be able to invest in new technologies.”

Conclusion

The Yahoo founder ended with a sobering thought - but perhaps an inspiring one. He referred to the current times as the “darkest days”. However he went on to say that “times like this that great companies are born.”

Sarah Messer: Control conundrum: is anyone tipping the scales?

“All roads lead to research” stated Sarah Messer, Head of Commercial Research & Insight at ITV, who commenced her session with a video chronicling the growing power of online consumers.

“Evolutionary timescales are changing” stated Messer who went on to argue that the internet is moving so rapidly there are a huge number of new challenges for advertisers to face.


One challenge of course is on the research side.

“Who should we listen to?” asked Messer. Yes there is a huge number of companies producing research but “who should we really trust?”

Messer went on to present findings from the re-launch of ITV.com. The relaunch allowed consumers to experience a number of new features: to watch live video, catch up on already broadcast programmes, watch mini clips and to look back over the ITV archive catalogue. She also went on to outline ITV.com’s growth over the last year, looking specifically at the success of the X-Factor which last year had 1 million ad impressions and is expected to hit 70 million this year.

Justin Billingsley, Brand Director, Orange - The case for 100% digital

Addressing the key issue of his presentation Justin Billingsley argued: “It is a crushing inevitability that we will all be 100% digital”.

For him there are just two reasons for offline:

1 – “The over 50, white males in the board room who want to see their offline ads.”

2 – Agencies – “how do we get our agencies to change from a digital agnostic approach?”

Billingsley went on to talk about the world’s first banner ad - an ad for AT&T dating back to October 25th, 1994 – before pointing out that has no interest in talking about display advertising. He would rather talk about “all the stuff that doesn’t look like advertising”.

As a case study, Billingsley examined the Obama campaign – probably not the last time we’ll hear the new US president’s name mentioned today. “We have a lot to learn from this brand,” said Billingsley. “He can teach us a hell of a lot about how to use digital.”


The Obama campaign was also interesting to Billingsley from a UGC perspective. “In a year from now people won’t be talking about his 30 min advert. They’ll be talking about the user generated content”. As an example he pointed to the ‘Wassup Redux’ that become a YouTube phenomenon in the run up to the election.

For Billingsley consumer “value” is not measured in monetary terms. He is interested in how many times people talk about his brand. One of the key places that people talk about brands of course is on blogs. Blogs are, he says, “the new backyard fence”.

It’s interesting then that he seemed pleased to tell the audience that searching for Orange throws up orangeproblems.co.uk as the fourth natural search result. This is a “privilege”, he says as it allows Orange to see what people are unhappy about. A useful lesson.

Afternoon keynote

Rt. Hon Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Andy Burnham’s afternoon keynote address to the Engage conference emphasised the significance of internet advertising to creative Britain and the wider UK economy, and called for renewed partnership and cooperation in balancing varying demands to ensure the UK remains a world leader.

Having explained that he was not here to talk about X-Factor, Burnham, opened with the famous Saatchi quote on advertising which he saw as being “where art and commerce meet most closely”. Burnham acknowledged that he was in many ways, “the minister for advertising” and pledged to do more for this great “British industry”.

Moving on to talk specifically about the internet, Burnham outlined the “fundamental changes in the way we access information and entertainment” – some of which have of course brought serious issues for Government.

“Safeguarding children continues to be a concern”, said Burnham, pointing out that we safeguard children playing outside and we have a watershed on TV, and saying that the “stakes in the ground” on regulating online content aren’t quite there yet. “That’s something I think we need to work on,” he said.

Focussing now on regulation, Burnham commented: “The Government is moving away from thinking that the online world is completely ungovernable.” The reason for this he said was that the internet was now so much a part of people’s lives: “The online world has moved from the fringes of people’s lives to the very heart”.

Burnham next acknowledged the role of advertising in the online sphere. “The internet wouldn’t exist in the way it does without advertising. Advertising has a crucial role to play”, he said. Online has been an enormously successful business model, he argued, witnessing “phenomenal pace of change”.



This is something Burnham is keen to build on he says, outlining proposals for building what he called a network of “strong systematic support” around the creative industries which would result in the creation of apprenticeship schemes and the like. He further acknowledged that there is “a bedrock of support I need to put in place.”

In terms of regulation, Burnham talked of the” blurring of the boundaries” between content and advertising and the growing number of consumer complaints on this issue. Touching on the hot topic of behavioural targeting he commented: “I can see the benefits of advertising that is targeted, but I also feel there has to be informed consent.” Online is “very fast-moving territory,” he said. “Government has to stay ahead.”

Burnham went on to briefly outline some key points of his vision for a regulatory framework. “We look to the industry to act responsibly in its own interests,” he said. “If you do that, you’ll have the support of the government.” Burnham continued: “We have to try and establish some societal norms in this online world. I don’t think we’re there yet. We’ll get there if we work together.”

Finally, responding to a question raised by the IAB’s head of regulatory affairs Nick Stringer about the lack of involvement of the online community in the drafting of the Digital Britain plan he stated:“I can give you an assurance that we will make sure the voices of this industry are heard in that debate”.

Random fact: Andy Burnham’s favourite ad – “the orangutang playing the drums”. The Cadbury’s ad didn’t score highly on brand recognition with the minister of state, but at least it was memorable.

Control in your hands: mobile round table

Chairman: Guy Phillipson, Chief Executive, IAB
Panel: Steve Ricketts, Head of Third Party Services, Orange
Fergal Walker, Marketing Director, 3
Roxanne Lomas, Account Director, Vizeum
Tim Hussain, Head of Mobile Advertising, Sky

How does mobile give marketers control of their campaigns? What control do consumers have over the type of marketing they receive? What are the issues facing each area of the value chain?

These and other questions were under review at the final round table discussion of the day at the IAB Engage conference.

IAB chief executive Guy Phillipson started things off by arguing that the mobile industry is moving forward fast, but still has a long way to go. Journalists are always talking about ‘the year of mobile’ he complained – so just when is the tipping point going to be reached?

Turning to the panel he asked Steve Ricketts to outline some key advances made in the mobile sector over the last year. Ricketts isolated four main developments:

1 - There’s less hype, more reality

2 - There’s been lots of behind the scenes work done

3 - Customer behaviour is changing with people using their mobile more often than ever before. Further, insight into consumer behaviour is improving

4 - Advertisers and agencies have hired people with the necessary knowledge to move things forward.

Leading on from this, Phillipson volunteered that mobile is now being seen as “the glue of a campaign”.

“There’s been a step change in the last 12 months,” said Roxanne Lomas. “People are now looking at mobile as part of the digital mix.” For Lomas, another encouraging sign is the fact that advertisers are starting to think how mobile links with above the line and below the line activity.

“It’s complementary to every other medium out there” suggested Tim Hussain.

Fergal Walker was keen to talk about the unique qualities of mobile. “Mobile’s engagement with the customer is absolutely unique,” he said. “Customers don’t just tolerate mobile advertising, they embrace it,” suggested Ricketts.


But there is still much to be done. As Lomas argued: “There is a knowledge gap within agencies. There is also no standard auditing tool.” As a result she argued that the people buying and planning media “don’t have the confidence” that they should have. “There’s an education job that needs to be done.”

And what of social networking? Phillipson asked “Are Facebook and MySpace a gift to mobile?”

Hussain argued that the future will see users accessing social networks from their taxi on the way home. Ricketts suggested that people now access social networks on mobiles because they are locked out of them on their work computers.

But, looking to the future, is mobile cost prohibitive? And if so, how will this impact the industry? Hussain agreed that “costs are high”. For example he advised companies to invest in short codes, something which he admitted “can be expensive for small businesses.” On the flip side however, he went on to argue: “To build a mobile site is a lot cheaper than building a website”.

Rounding things off, Phillipson asked the panel what their advice would be to advertisers.

Hussain suggested: “This is not Beta Max – mobile is not going to go away. It’s growing”. As a result, he argued, it’s better for brands to get involved now than have to develop a compex mobile strategy five years down the line.

Ricketts offered: “Think mobile – don’t just add it on at the end”.

And as for Walker, mobile offers unrivalled, measurable return on investment. For this reason, he argued, he has continued to see month on month growth in his sales figures, despite the difficult economic conditions.

In the end though, one question was left hanging in the ether. “Will there be brands that exist only in the mobile space?” asked Hussain. Time will tell...