Last week, I began recapping my experience during this year’s Ad Age Digital Conference in New York. I discussed how digital technology is both evolving traditional mediums like television and providing new opportunities to spread the values we’ve long shared.

During Day Two, the focus grew beyond how brands are transforming through the influence of new technology and spaces, and into how marketers and agencies must adapt their roles and strategies to keep pace. Here are some highlights I took from two of the Day Two keynote speeches.

From Interruption to Inclusion: Changing the Way Brands Tell Stories
David Fischer, VP Business and Marketing Partnerships, Facebook
Twitter: @davidbfischer
 

Narrative has always played a critical role in advertising, but the way those narratives are built and shared has shifted. Content is now “lightweight.” Fischer broke down what this change in content creation, delivery, and expression really meant:

•    Content is fluid and ubiquitous

•    Content is fast and immediate

•    Content is easily shared and accessed

Given this notion of “lightweight” content, the marketing opportunity has evolved into providing meaningful information that customers want to experience and share. Fischer listed a few statistics that showcased the power of shared content and engaging in people year round:

•    92% of people trust a recommendation of friends. (Nielson)

•    When a person sees a friend recommend an item on Facebook they are 50% more likely to remember the ad. (Nielson)

•    Fans on Starbuck’s Facebook page make 11% more transactions than non-fans — even when compared to non-fans who go to Starbucks. (comScore)

The state of new media storytelling means brands must have an “always on strategy.” Content is now no longer simply seen, but it is shared. Staying “always on” means always being accessible and remaining a part of the conversation. Large campaigns and big ideas are still important, but utilizing lightweight content delivery, often manifested through social media channels, gives the brand direction during campaign lulls.

Post-Presentation Thoughts

Social media doesn’t change the importance of good stories, but it changes the way those stories are seen. As the name of Fischer’s talk expressed, what is happening is a shift from intrusive messaging to inclusive messaging. People are not starved for content, so the quest remains creating meaningful content that customers actively want to see, hear, and feel. Brands should not just interrupt the lives of customers, but integrate with them. Engaging customers by creating and promoting genuine content is the key to encouraging people to organically share and spread a brand’s message.

The Role of the Agency in the Digital World
David Pakman, Partner, Venrock Capital, and Rob Norman, North America CEO, GroupM
Twitter: @pakman and @robnorman
 

In a moderated panel discussion, Pakman and Norman took on several questions related to how agencies should integrate and create technology and tech platforms. Paraphrased here are some of the notable answers.

Should agencies be in the technology business?
Pakman: We may not need to create tech, but we must be mired in it. Agencies should work towards less proprietary solutions and to integrate tech that doesn’t compete with what the client or client’s technology company uses.

Should agencies own technology platforms?
Pakman: It’s perfectly okay to own technology that enables effective ad buying and intelligence. Competing directly with existing ecosystem is probably not good. Agencies aren’t going away, they are simply changing as advertising and media ecosystems grow.

Should agencies own technology?
Norman: More important than simply owning technology, agencies should have a cohort inside who understands tech. Their purposes should gear towards integration over origination. Smart agencies are looking for combinatorial success with marginal utility relative to where we were before this new combination.

Where/How does innovation happen?
Norman: Tension in the ecosystem drives progress and innovation.
Pakman: Smaller organizations are unburdened by cost structures and legacy systems — they can innovate relative to incumbents. The incumbent can never move rapidly enough to displace themselves.

Post-Presentation Thoughts

A balance emerged from their discussion between the importance of integration and the role of smaller organizations in driving creative and technological innovation. Holding the resources to create custom solutions suited to you and your clients can seem appealing in a confusing marketplace. However, proprietary solutions often hinder smaller budget operations and restrict technology growth across agencies and industries.

Click here for Day One of the Ad Age Digital Conference Recap

Day Two

The Ever-Expanding Online Universe

This was an engaging talk about the sheer growth of online media from Lorraine Twohill, Google’s CMO. Today, it’s estimated that the web contains 800 exabytes of digital content, up from five exabytes in 2003. These days, in three days time, we create what was the overall digital content in 2003. Simply amazing.

Social Networks: The New Engine of the Global Economy

Brad Burnham, Partner, Union Square Ventures believes the future of economies will increasingly depend on social and online networks and information. As such, there will be a premium on the efficiency and engagement of the networks. Over time, users will expect more services and value from these networks. Burnham believes the future will see online networks subsuming bigger and bigger chunks of the global economy. If you look to media, we may already be witnessing this phenomenon. Threaded throughout his conversation was the concept that the social sphere can be curated by marketers, but a very deft touch will be required so as to not over-commercialize this sphere. Those brands employing a heavy-handed approach will fail.

What’s the Value of Sharing?

We’ve all shared content online and understand its importance in spreading information. But how do you monetize online connections. Jared Hecht, GroupMe CEO, has formulated that sharing link on Facebook is worth $1.00 to brands — on Twitter, 10¢.

Beyond the App – Making Mobile Matter

This was a great presentation about the value of mobile marketing.  Amy Curtis-McIntyre, CMO, Old Navy and Evan Krauss, EVP, Ad sales, Shazam provided insights into how to maximize the return of your mobile marketing efforts. It turns out that 86% of TV viewers use mobile devices while watching TV (Nielson/yahoo mobile shopping study). And while TV remains the primary ad medium for a majority of Americans, more and more consumers are using a second screen simultaneously while watching TV. Dual and triple-screen viewing is confirmed in my own focus group of one — the other night while using my PC, watching Modern Family, and playing Word With Friends on my EVO.  This is also a testament to what we saw during the Super Bowl from Audi with their use of hashtags in their broadcast content — driving spikes in their twitter engagement.

Arianna Huffington’s Perspective

Arianna Huffington had plenty to say (as you might expect) about the future of online media. Huffington sees a new business zeitgeist emerging:

• Companies will do well by doing good (supporting causes and cause marketing)
• More firms will focus on localizing their attention and efforts
• Organizations should appreciate the importance of work/life balance
  

What’s Next After Ad Age Digital

It’s always energizing to hear how your peers are approaching the complex business challenges we all face, and the Ad Age Digital Conference was no exception. I can’t wait to integrate some of the innovations and thinking presented at the conference into what we do every day with our clients at Springbox.  

In April, I was privileged to attend Ad Age’s Digital Conference in New York.

To say it was an exciting event would be an understatement. Technology and marketing are converging in new ways, and digital innovations are revealing a new future for our industry and our clients.

There were three tracks of presentations that attendees could explore, covering topics on video, mobile and social media. I attended discussions on a wide range of topics. Here’s my collection of memorable moments from the two days:

Day One

Gaming as Media

Where has your target audience gone? According to John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, there’s a good chance that they’re gaming. He believes as many as three billion consumers worldwide will be gaming soon and it’s high time to consider gaming as a key component in brands’ media mixes. Says Riccitiello, gaming is interactive, not linear media. Engagement is crucial to building brand — and it must be done interactively.

Consumers & Content Creation

Wendy Clark, SVP Integrated Marketing Communications & Capabilities at Coca-Cola, appreciates the lead that consumers have in online conversations. Brands can no longer control the message. At best, brands can be invited to co-create. And considering that fans have 2x the consumption frequency and 10x the purchase intent of non-fans, marketers should pay attention to their fans.

What Works Best on Facebook

As part of the Disruptor Series, Michael Lazerow, CEO and Founder of Buddy Media, offered effective strategies for Facebook wall posts. Having analyzed Facebook wall posts from 200 of the world’s largest brands, he drew the following conclusions:

• Keep wall posts short — 80 characters or less; these are 27% more engaging than longer posts
• Beware of URL shorteners — Full-length URLs offer three times higher engagement rate compared to shortened URLs
• The soft sell pays off — Event and winner offers perform better than free shipping and/or cost-saving messages
• Questions work — “When” and “where” questions are best. Avoid “why” questions like the plague
• What time should you post? — Thursdays, after work hours have 20% higher engagement rates 
  

Absolute’s Stooplife: Reaching Audiences with Limited Edition Products

To reach niche markets, Absolute Vodka engaged nine bloggers and asked them to wax poetic about Brooklyn. Each of their perspectives, their unique “stooplife”, was paired with limited edition products. The results garnered Absolute’s best limited edition product launch to date, with 4-minute-average site visits, more than 500 media placements (double from previous city results), 110 Million online media impressions and 2.5 million reach on Twitter.

How CIOs make purchase decisions

Searching for a strategy to target CIOs for your next B2B campaign? Try social media. According to Karen Quintos, Dell SVP and CMO, more than 90 percent of CIOs make technology purchase decisions through social media. Karen Quintos went on to comment that building social into the fabric of the day-to-day isn’t always easy and is an evolution, but is now unquestionably built into how Dell does business every day.

Consumers are leading the way forward

Geoff Cottrill, Converse CMO, believes social media is unavoidable for brands. In 2010, Converse had more than eight million fans on Facebook. Their strategy for the future? Let go — their consumers will tell the brand where to go. It was a big risk, but, according to Cottrill, it has paid off. Fans skyrocketed to 15 million on Facebook, and surged from zilch to 14 million on two separate sites. Going forward, Cottrill stated that Converse’s spend in traditional media will be less than 10% of its budget. The remaining 90% will be allocated for emerging media. 

 

Editor's note: Check back tomorrow for Leland's account of the Ad Age Digital Conference, Day Two.