Notes from AdTech: Chicago

AdTech is two days of conferences, workshops, discussions and exhibitors dwelling on the latest research, application, and thinking around effective online marketing. Again, we had the industry thoughtleaders and local agencies and clients participating, including Cam Balzer from Threadless, arguably the most successful community-driven business; Adam Curry, former MTV VJ turned episodic video messaging; Gian Fulgoni, Chairman of comScore; David Moore, founder and CEO of 24/7 Real Media; and the various minds of the leading online marketers in the Midwest. This year’s AdTech was highly informative so let me share some quick hits.

N: There are over 400+ ad networks in the US. (You thought the fragmentation of TV and Radio was mindnumbing). The good news is they have not commoditized the business, yet. Many are small, highly targeted, vertical specific websites. “80% of publisher’s inventory goes unsold,” which reveals one of the underlying purposes of an ad network – to sell remnant unsold media inventory that the web publisher doesn’t have the sales force to sell directly. To squelch the notion that ad networks only work with non-premium websites, “Its about a quality audience, not quallity website.” A very loaded quote without the full explanation: most ad networks can segment their inventory by content as well as by behavioral traits thereby zeroing in on the defined target. This removes all intuitive leanings toward name brand websites and puts the onus back on the intention of most effectively and efficiently reaching the target. (Note: to be sure there are plenty of reasons needing the premium websites, if not going direct).

Social media is re-defining itself again – my takeaway. The old, “its about the conversation.” The new, “its about connecting with the individual’s interest.” I never bought into the “conversation” aspect – seemed too hokey to me. Kind of like the 15-year old writing the driving test based on what they would like it to be. Connecting is much more plausible because social media (more specifically social networking) reaches many planes and no one tactic is the holy grail. One panelist noted that their advertising on Facebook outperformed their advertising on other websites. Who says advertising on social media doesn’t work? I’m glad to hear her comment because we too have found advertising in social media to work just fine, when targeted and the message aligned with the readers’ mindset at that moment in time.

Display advertising is alive and well and thriving. But no longer is the tiny box with the logo going to cut it. To be effective online display ads (aka messages inside the box) must be more engaging, not static artwork fading into the background or cluttering up a page. It was terrific to hear my peers affirm our agency usage of rich media and expandable ads as one of the most effective forms for audience engagement. Adam Curry challenged us to “move beyond the box.”

Mobile marketing is picking up momentum primarily due to the emergence of iPhone. Although this industry has been around a while, until iPhone and the apps reached the masses, mobile marketing was more synonymous with text messaging. That said, did you know that only 11% of the US has an iPhone? In our audience yesterady, over 80% raised their iPhone when given the same query. So, this would be an interesting study in consumer behavior and profiling…who owns an iPhone and does this make them so leading edge they are susceptible to intriguing offers? (Being an iPhone owner I would have to say yes, but I am biased. Its just too convenient). Another sobering thought countering the iPhone hype: there are 5.6 million iPhone owners and 62,000 apps. One third of app buyers lose interest in a newly downloaded app after the first month.

Twitter accounts have skyrocketed 3,000% year over year – this makes it real. Although the juvenile uses hasn’t waned (common squirrel) several marketers have found non-advertising uses such as customer service (SWA alerting travelers following the hole in the fuselage incident), research and development (Threadless T’), customer insights (Allstate;s GoodHands Community). One mystery remains: if Twitter is borrowing Facebook’s status feature, and limiting content to mobile text messaging’s familiar 140 characters, it just seems natural for Millennials who embrace both to flock to Twitter (no pun intended). But they haven’t.

Widgets, Apps, Viral Video, Location-based messaging…so much to talk about. If you’d like to know more or voice your thought on the above, leave a comment.