VIA Interaction

Monday, September 25, 2006

OMMA East: Keynotes and Morning Panel

New York City -- Dispatch from the Online Media, Marketing & Advertising Conference and Expo.

Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer:

TV advertising will be 1/3 as effective as it was in 1990 by 2010.

Online news sites get more visits per week than network news sites.

Fragmentation: The average TV watcher sees 100 channels and watches 15 a week. There are millions of Web sites but people look at about 17 a week.

54 percent of Internet users have consumed video. 25 to 33 percent do it regularly.

Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo:

Topic was "How to throw out your plans, address crap and enjoy the ride."

Throw out your plans
Think of a three year plan three years ago when there was no You Tube, Flickr, Google, iPod or MySpace.

Disney had a smart strategy group and got rid of it. It was an additional step in getting a decision made.

Shifting sands: Time shifting, place shifting, shape shifting, power shifting and speed shifting.

In the last three weeks: NBBC, iTV, Windows Live, Amazon Unbox, Redstone and Preston part ways.

Point: The long-range plan doesn't work that well.

Address crap:
Percolation doesn't cut it in an espresso era: "If you think and you think and you think there is no iteration. You have to iterate to learn. You can't think your way into the future, you have to iterate your way into the future."

Mind your organization: Six CEOs he has met with have said the same thing: I know what to do but my people come in the way." We can't be ready for Web 2.0 when we are in Organization 1.0.

Mind your API: Companies don't know how to plug and play in the network. They are "porcupine-y." Ranges from blatant, subtle and "I really think you are stupid." Change that thinking: "Anybody you are dealing with you have to accept is as smart as you if not smarter." Caveat: He deals only with the very top or the young turks who have only been in an organiztion four years or less, and tries very hard not to deal with people in the middle.

People, not consumers or users: Get rid of the crappo language that we use.

How to enjoy the ride:
Hard core accountability, but with some new (additional) metrics: Outcomes, return on objectives (saving money can still be one), interaction, consideration, intent, net promoters (brand advocates minus people who hate your brand). Iterate to metric success through jazziness -- improvise, play off other people's music, company as a software release with alphas and betas, plug and play.

Be facilitative, see marketing as facilitation. This is the best time ever to be a marketer. Read many years ago that marketing is "identifying and meeting customer requirements" but found in his experience at large companies that they did not do that. It was hard to do and they had limited ability to meet those requirements. That's changed.

Be authentic. Kate Moss is popular because she has her own value system, sense of self, she's true and transparent. She doesn't shill, she just models.

Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media

Fox has an amazing story. They are launching popular sites, frequently leveraging My Space, all over the world.Thirty three billion page views on all properties last month.

Sixty percent of teens onthe Web create their own content.

Used the Simpsons premiere to create a cross-channel, immersive experience (sponsored by Burger King): Homer picked football games, seven minutes of the show was available for download prior to broadcast, etc.

Panel: Internet Speed Makes Media Planning in any Traditional Senseat Best Futile, at Worst Fatal

Tobaccowala, Levinsohn, Joe Marchese (head of online media practice group at Bainbridge, Carl Fremont, global media director for Digitas)

Fremont: Not abut eyeballs alone, but about engaging them.

Tobaccowala: There are three speeds and the slowest is people. Human beings change very, very slowly. Business models must iterate faster, but can't change every three to six months or you won't make any money. How you get to your business model does have to change every three to six months.

Levinsohn: In sme ways it is the same old thing: Find your audience and spend the money to reach them.

All agreed that you still have to rely on the old science but can't forget creativity. Both are necessary. Tobaccowala said numbers are important but "how you get there is the point of difference."

Levinsohn said two new acquisitions, Scout.com and IGN, embody the way Fox is going because they mix tools that enable people to contribute with professional content. "If you don't build something today with consumer and consumer input in mind, it's not going to go anywhere."

"If major advertisers don't realize they have to give up control, they are not going to reach the kind of audience they want," Levinsohn said. "Be open to be criticized. My Space and sites like it are the greatest focus groups ever."

He said that aggregating these really niche sites with small audiences will deliver the audiences that advertisers want. Marchese said that "one person can be just as influential to their 30 friends as Paris Hilton can be to 300,000. They are worh the CMP rate."

Tobaccowala said that the Long Tail is one thing, but don't forget the "Spiked Head": Citing LonelyGirl 15, he said most people hear about things from other media.

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/25/2006 12:05:00 PM

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