The IAB went to Manchester to present the latest trends and challenges in online marketing outside of London.
We recently headed up to Manchester hand-in-hand with some of the industry’s biggest names to take IAB Engage on the tour. The aim of IAB Engage in Manchester was to discuss the online market place and indentify the big challenges for the marketers (specifically outside the M25).
Morning session
Guy Phillipson, CEO of the IAB, opened the event providing background on the IAB and explaining how this was our second Engage conference outside London – last year’s being in Edinburgh. Andrew Bradford of AOL Europe followed Guy by presenting the ‘Brand New World’ research, having kindly come back early from his holiday to join us. Andrew ran through how the research was conducted before showing the results which demonstrated how the relevancy of ads is key, and how being irrelevant or serving your campaigns at inappropriate times or places can have a major impact on people’s subsequent behaviour and inclination to buy.
Manchester born, David Brennan then took to the stage in a double act with Guy Phillipson to present the “TV & online: better together” research which the IAB and television tradebody, Thinkbox ran earlier this year. Backed by case study examples from the FMCG, finance and the automotive markets, they ran through how there is an overall 18% point lift when both TV & online are used together. More impressively purchase consideration was increased by +21% points when consumers were exposed to both the TV & online adverts. Guy and David emphasised how creative synergy is key and maintaining a recognisable link through the campaigns created the most effective adverts. This session inspired many questions around the research which Guy and David spent a few moments fielding before we moved onto to hear from one of our sponsors, bigmouthmedia’s Andrew Girdwood.
Girdwood ran through some new brand metrics which illustrated how there are often occasions where exposure to a message through display, affiliate and search are all integral to a conversion. “This data along with tracking conversions and exposure to consumers”, Andrew explained, “illustrates a need for more coordination in digital campaigns”. This brought us to a well deserved quick coffee break, followed by our next session from search guru Jon Myers of MediaVest.
Lunchtime session
Jon ran through how search has “evolved” and how universal search is changing the face of our homepages. All content is converging on your search page with relevant information, Myers explained the impact this can have on brand reinforcement and the ability for campaigns to integrate even more successfully with other media. The results he ran through were staggering with purchase consideration rising by +22% where brands occupy key positions and brand recall doubling when the top positions are occupied. If this is the future of the new homepage then it is important to ensure that you gear your campaigns towards universal search accordingly.
After a morning full of research and engaging presentations, Tony Foggett from Manchester agency Codecomputerlove accompanied by Mike Harper, brand manager for Original Source bounded onto stage bursting with “a zing” to tingle the audience on their new campaign due to launch just days after the conference. Using platforms such as Facebook they watched and learnt from their consumer base how they felt about Original Source shower gel, and more surprised to discover how people love the product so much there are hundreds of Original Source groups with tens of thousands of members, not to mention those who have set up Original Source parties! They were due to launch the new site within days of IAB Engage in Manchester so do visit www.originalsource.co.uk and see what all the fuss is about
From one body product to the next Paul Mallet and Andrew Brown of creative agency Swamp took us into the lunch session by discussing their ‘Hair Police’ campaign for Schwarzkopf where hair styling products with pump sprays were turned into ‘guns’ and facilities for people to “name and shame” bad hair perpetrators across social networking sites. Executed by actors who symbolized the Hair Police this was a fantastically successful and innovative campaign.
Afternoon session
After lunch Kieron Matthews took over chairing duties, providing some light refreshment by showing the famous Youtube clip, ’Evolution of dance’. Alex Marks from Microsoft Advertising began the afternoon by running through the Context Matters research and how this is of particular relevance for the “social web”. He took the analogy of how we interact and expect to be communicated with in our local village compared to the “the big smoke”. In an online social community it is much like the local village where we do not expect push advertising but are more comfortable with word of mouth and personal recommendation, as opposed to the city where “big signs and neon lights” are much more acceptable. This is something advertisers should remember and take on board when considering how, where and when they are running their online campaign.
This led us perfectly onto a session from Immediate Future’s Katy Howell. She shared her experience of working on the ‘Sony Bravia’ campaigns from “balls to paint to bunnies” where Sony have brought them in as early as the concept meeting in order to ensure their brand values are protected and their campaign is given as much longevity as possible. Katy also discussed the power of bloggers and the importance today of nipping PR catastrophe’s in the bud before they erupt, as well as constantly managing consumer expectations by tapping into thought leaders and bloggers.
Moving away from social media we turned our attention to Adrian Lacey of Tacoda who set out to dispel the myths of behavioural targeting. He outlined what behavioural advertising is and more importantly what it isn’t, running through how it works according to cookies and not people - a common misconception. There are so many privacy issues and questions surrounding behavioural targeting that these sessions are really important to further educate and answer the key questions and challenges. After all the talk of cookies it was time to eat some in the coffee break before we set out to take on mobile before the end of the day.
Late afternoon session
Laura Chaibi of Orange ‘leapt’ onto stage to open the last section of the conference, getting everyone up on their feet and excited about mobile marketing. Once all refreshed and seated again she ran through the exclusive ‘Orange Exposure’ research providing key insights to how consumers feel about mobile advertising - what is acceptable, what they are not willing to accept and what is considered intrusive. Consumption of mobile media has grown rapidly in the past few years and is set to explode. According to research, banner and sponsorship advertising are highly acceptable forms of mobile advertising, however idle screen advertising is the strongest and “most welcomed” format. It’s not thought upon as “the most tolerable” but infact is considered to be the most useful, personal and relevant. Making a final call for creativity, control and personalisation Laura left the final home stretch to Charles Sword, Head of Mobile for Yahoo!.
Sword ran through the advertising opportunities currently available in the market for mobile. He ran through two great case studies, the first from ‘Guinness Red' where consumers could use their phones to target by location where the closet pub where that they could redeem their free pint of ‘Guinness Red’ with a mobile coupon. Charles also ran through a Citroen campaign where you could find out “how Schmitt hot?” and German you are as well as book test drives and get info in your hand on the Citroen C5. We ran a short question session for the mobile experts to field some of the audience’s burning questions before heading back upstairs to the Bridgewater Hall bar for a well deserved drink and some delicious canapés.
All the speakers spoke about the need for closer integration between digital campaigns and other media as it’s an important way to build brands. The event was a huge success. Hearing the speakers key insights on the market place, inspired new ideas for advertisers and agencies alike to take back and implement in their own activities. We must thank our kind sponsors AOL, Advertising.com, bigmouthmedia and Orange for their support.
Speakers and their presentations from the day
Brand new worlds research: the simultaneous risk and opportunity of the “5th Estate” and how brands can thrive in it.
Andrew Bradford, director, regional sales & sales strategy, AOL Europe
TV & Online: better together
Guy Phillipson, CEO, IAB
David Brennan, Research & Strategy Director, Thinkbox
Getting Atomic: exposure to conversion
Andrew Girdwood, head of search, BigMouthMedia
Universal search: using search as a branding tool
Jon Myers, head of search & associate director, MediaVest
Creativity outside the M25The importance of creativity in the digital arena – an Original Source case study
Tony Foggett, managing director, Code Computerlove
Mike Harper, brand manager, PZ Cussons
The hair police: tracking down 18 – 24 year olds online - A Schwarzkopf Pro.Styling case study
Paul Mallett, managing partner, Swamp
Andrew Brown, creative director, Swamp
Context matters: how to engage on the social web
Alex Marks, UK head of marketing, Microsoft Advertising
Brand building in social media: creating impact, awareness and relationships - Sony Bravia bunnies case study: breeding like rabbits across the blogosphere
Katy Howell, managing director, Immediate Future
Dispelling the myths of behavioural targeting
Adrian Lacey, managing director, Tacoda
Exposure : uncovering mobile media consumption and attitudes to advertising
Laura Chaibi, media research manager, Orange
Mobile advertising: how does it really work
Charles Sword, head of mobile advertising, Yahoo!
