ad:tech

SES San Jose vs. ad:Tech Chicago

August 27, 2007 By Manoj Jasra 1 Comment

After attending ad:Tech Chicago and Search Engine Strategies over the last month made me realize that there are considerable differences between the 2 conferences. I know they’re difficult to compare because SES San Jose is quite a bit larger than ad:Tech Chicago and the target demographic is somewhat different, however I am sure there are marketers wondering which one they should attend. Here are my thoughts:

From a cost perspective, both SES SJ and ad:Tech Chicago are priced similarly at around $1700 for a full conference pass.
You’ll find three times more exhibitors at SES SJ. I found that both shows are getting more and more companies who offer Sponsored Advertising as well as Affiliate Advertisers.
I found the sessions at SES San Jose gave companies strategies that they could take away and apply to their own businesses. I found that at ad:Tech there were less strategic opportunities, many presentations simply discussed the status of their companies and the conference was much more geared towards future strategies such as mobile (which is good or bad depending on what you’re looking for).
From a networking perspective I noticed that it was easier to speak with people and discuss topics such as the conference, future bussiness opportunities, sessions and search marketing in general.
If you’re into “after conference events” then I think you would appreciate both the Google Dance/Webmaster Radio Bash at SES and the networking party at Fulton’s on the River in Chicago. I do have to admit the SES events were geared more towards a younger crowd versus the Chicago event.

Filed Under: ad:tech, Search Engine Strategies, SES

Building Relationships through Mobile – ad:Tech 2007

August 1, 2007 By Manoj Jasra Leave a Comment

This session featured Jack Philbin (President, Vibes Media), Bob Wesley (CEO MobileLime), Dean Macri (Founder/CEO Cielo Group) and Brook Pitts (Senior VP, Marketing Innovation – Bank of America).

What started out as a very dry session turned out to be a very insightful lesson on ways to create conversation and user engagement using the power of mobile. 2 of the most interesting uses of mobile campaigns were mentioned by Bob Weasley and Dean Macri.

Mr. Weasley described how his company partnered with Grocery stores such as Albertson’s to enhance shoppers’ experience. Initially there was a framework setup so that shoppers could be tracked (through their mobiles) as they walked through the various sections. Shoppers were also given the ability to scan and bag items instantly. Based on the person’s shopping behaviour and where they were located in the store they were served related promotions/advertisements. Dynamic advertising can also be served based on the weather as well as the season.

Mr. Macri spoke about a campaign his organization ran with their client BMW. Print ads with short codes (short number sequences which replace long URLs) were placed throughout various airports trying to entice users to find out more information on BMW’s vehicles. Once users entered the short code they were given a program which streamed videos regarding a specific type of BMW series. Users with older technology were offered pictures instead. Finally, users were given the location of the nearest BMW dealership at which they could make an appointment to visit a show room. The campaign was measured by the number of users “clicking in” using the short code, the types of videos/pictures viewed most, dealer popularity and appointments booked.

The session concluded with some brief lessons learned, here’s what the speakers said:

The mass market is not completely up to speed on mobile advertising yet
Mobile advertising is a very uncluttered environment
In 2007 it is important for agencies to test and learn (otherwise you will lose ground)
Consumers want to go beyond text messaging
Mobile advertising should be kept simple
You should always try to create strategies that add value for the end users

Filed Under: ad:tech, Mobile, Mobile Advertising

Chris Anderson: The Long Tail – ad:Tech 2007

August 1, 2007 By Manoj Jasra Leave a Comment

Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine, kicked off ad:Tech Chicago 2007 by taking a page (literally) out of his book: The Long Tail. One of Chris’ main objectives that he was trying to get across was that the era of the “Blockbuster” model has ended. As the Internet continues to provide limitless commodities of products to everyone, people are far less likely to purchase mainstream products/services. In today’s world people have more selection than they ever did before and enjoy selecting niche products/services. Anderson also made a great point in that selling products cannot be sold to a global, one size fits all market but rather have to be sold using niche or very segmented markets.

“What happens to the combined copy of all the millions of items that may sell
only a few copies equals or exceeds the value of the few items that sell millions each?”

Chris provides some great examples which proved his theory on the long tail:

Since spring of 2000 there has been a rapid decline in the number of music albums that achieved gold status (or above) because of the Internet and it’s capability to share vast genres of music.
The decreasing number in attendance for a movie’s second week: The Internet makes the sharing of conversation around movie reviews instant which can lead directly to less visitors attending movies on the second week.
An online company like Rhapsody offers 1.5 million different music tracks vs. a typical Walmart with only 55,000 Tracks. Companies such as Rhapsody receive 40% of all music sales because of this.
The highest rated TV show in the 50′s was I love Lucy, however nowadays you cannot single out one show as “top rated” because people have been given so many choices of TV programming to watch.

I really enjoyed Chris Anderson’s keynote and look forward to reading his book, The Long Tail.

Filed Under: ad:tech, Industry News

WebTrends Releases Marketing Lab 2 – ad:tech 2007

July 31, 2007 By Manoj Jasra 2 Comments

Reporting Live from ad:tech Chicago: WebTrends Inc., unveiled WebTrends Marketing Lab™ 2, an integrated suite of business solutions that optimize site performance, build customer engagement and drive more effective and targeted marketing. Joining an award-winning lineup of solutions including WebTrends Analytics™ and WebTrends Dynamic Search™, WebTrends introduces two new solutions that are powered by its open, enterprise-class data warehouse: WebTrends Score™, a patented technology that improves the way marketers quantify visitor engagement and measure the value and interests of customers, and WebTrends Visitor Intelligence™, a full-featured, multi-dimensional reporting and analysis solution for enterprise organizations that require deep visitor and marketing intelligence.

“WebTrends Score is a patented technology solution that evaluates visitors’ online behavior by quantifiably measuring the level of engagement or interest they have in content, products and services. By establishing rules that assign values to specific visit and visitor activities, marketers can go beyond conversion to evaluate the success of their efforts using realized and potential customer value. Score values can then be applied to consumer targeting activities, such as email, site personalization, offline direct marketing, as well as to campaign enhancement such as automated paid search optimization. This allows marketers to effectively target consumers and improve campaign performance.”

With WebTrends Visitor Intelligence, you can:

Identify, target and engage the people behind your web site visits.
Combine online behavior with existing offline customer data, such as CRM or demographics, to build a comprehensive Interest Profile that builds over time.
Replace mass marketing with relevant conversations that are based on the interests of your visitors, and keep them continually engaged.
Quickly identify and target groups of individuals with the most value to your business and highest potential to act.
Fuel email, behavioral targeting, and CRM solutions with richer online visitor data and set up triggered follow-up based on the actions a person takes on your site.
Incorporate critical online consumer insight into corporate dashboards and enterprise systems, such as CRM or a customer data warehouse, to provide a complete view of your customers.

I will get some further insight on Marketing Lab 2 from WebTrends’ CMO Tim Kopp, so stay tuned.

View the Full Press Release

Filed Under: ad:tech, Web Analytics, WebTrends

ad:tech Chicago 2007: Sessions You MUST Attend

July 23, 2007 By Manoj Jasra Leave a Comment

With ad:tech Chicago about a week away I thought I would recommend some conference sessions you absolutely MUST attend. ad:tech Chicago features 3 Tracks all with multiple sessions that I want to attend: