ad:tech London Review
ad:tech London – Tuesday 21st September 2010
“The world’s leading digital marketing event” hails the banner above the entrance to Olympia’s National Hall in London.
Does it live up to that claim? I’m rather hoping there’s bigger and better out there, otherwise this whole internet thing may not catch on at all. Maybe San Fransisco is where ad:tech better lives up to its reputation.
I’m being a little unfair though. Visiting ad:tech today for the first time, I was just there to scout around the exhibition and take in some of the free seminars. I didn’t attend the high-class conference, which is no doubt the highlight of the event.
My intention was simply to get a feel for the emphasis being given to different aspects of digital marketing (by industry suppliers presenting to potential clients), the degree to which integration is promoted as critical to success, and of course to make some new contacts along the way.
On those counts, the day was certainly a success. There was a broadly equal presence of ad and affiliate networks, search engine marketing agencies and mobile solutions, with content provision, usability, analytics, email and so on being slightly less prominent. Google had a large area dedicated to its “Ads Factory Tour” seminars. The significance of social media, and the need for integration, were being enthusiastically repeated in all quarters. However, despite a few agencies offering social media solutions, and a popular but rather modest Facebook stand, the “social media industry” was somewhat notable by its absence. This was surprising and disappointing, especially given that Twitter were giving the keynote speech at the conference.
There were a total of 50 free seminars taking place throughout the day. These were organised across five tracks, covering branding and content, reach and targeting, measurement and analysis, conversion and engagement, and mobile marketing. It was standing-room only at every single one of these. In fact they were so popular that many people missed out. This is where the size of the Olympia venue demonstrates its inadequacy for an event of this scale (or perhaps the priorities of the organisers in their use of available space).
I picked out three of the seminars, focusing on the social media integration agendas in the ‘convert and engage’ track. All were very well presented and delivered high quality insights.
Accelerating new customer acquisition with email and social media
Presented by Kirstin Hersant of StrongMail
Think about what your brand touches [in terms of audience interests]
Kirstin highlighted how online buyers rely on the advice of influencers when making purchasing decisions, with ‘peer influencers’ being the most trusted and the most difficult to reach. She outlined best practice in exploiting existing email data overlaid with third-party social data and the importance of sound market research and A/B campaign testing.
How to monetise your social media audience
Presented by Cyril Zimmermann of Hi-Media Group
Social networks are distribution platforms
This was an enlightening presentation about micro-payments in the context of social networks, which also emphasised the growth of mobile. It highlighted that the monetisation of social networks can come from advertising, micro-payments and/or brand marketplaces.
Will Facebook be equal to the Internet, or will it be a commodity?
The pros and cons of ‘Facebook Credits’ were summarised, including the 30% Facebook commission and the lack of performance statistics. Some eye-opening figures came out of a case study about Fotolog, which showed that the 8% of their users who paid for a premium service (using micro-payments) accounted for a third of all Fotolog’s revenue.
New innovations in SEO
Presented by David Reilly of Barracuda Digital
The title of this one had me half-expecting some badly regurgitated nonsense about SEO. Thankfully, however, David Reilly knows his stuff and gave a straightforward and very well received presentation that highlighted four key things that are changing the nature of search:
- Social Media
Which is having a “critical impact on SEO” because of its influence on link building and the capture of long-tail traffic. - Real Time Search
“Will require a radical shift in content production” and management. - Mobile Search
Forecast to account for 73% of all searches by 2013, up from 24% in 2008. - Web Search and TV Convergence
Illustrated by the May 2010 launch of Google’s “Smart” TV open platform.
Overall, ad:tech is certainly worth a visit, even if only to take the pulse of what’s happening in digital marketing now and in the near future, but it’s the insights from the conference and seminars that deliver the real value of the event.
