Tag: IAB

Full Circle: An SMW Wrap-Up

Posted on by Gary J. Nix

This is a guest post by Gary J. Nix.

Contrary to the belief of some, digital marketing conferences are not merely another chance for people to showoff how awesome they are, learn new autocorrect facts, such as the word Livestream converts to Kirstie Aimee (don’t ask), and come up with new-fangled buzzwords like screenagers and platblishers. These conferences are an opportunity to reinforce the fact that, no matter what adjective you use, it’s all marketing. This is something we must all remember, especially once you see the tag #MarketingMarketing on Twitter. And here’s why:

Games People Play

The IAB conducted a discussion on the relationship of today’s gaming and social experiences, both on and offline. Besides the fact that data tells us that two billion people are playing games digitally and about 900 million of those are doing so on mobile devices, the huge point is that people enjoy competition, collaboration, and sharing. These three levers are used in digital gaming now and have always been used in marketing.

Adding these elements in your marketing mix at the right time and in the right way will give consumers another reason to be involved with your brand. Plus, there’s a reason “Shall we play a game” is one of the most popular movie lines from the 80’s.

The Revolution won’t be Televised, but it May be Streamed

As expected, there was plenty of talk about content at Social Media Week. The most poignant from a marketer’s general point of view was presented by Percolate in a discussion that was really about content delivery has been revolutionized. While it is important to understand the seven core components of content marketing — audience, trigger, brand element, topic, campaign, business objective and platform — along with the importance of context, content has been delivered way before we’ve done so digitally. I only mention this to clearly state that content marketing is not a magic bullet. It is important for discovery and delivery in the world as we know it today; however, it is nothing new. We’ve been doing this for many moons and will continue to do so. It’s marketing. #NODISRESPECTOTPERCOLATE #ALLDISRESPECTTOJIMMYKIMMEL. That last hashtag was clearly a joke.

Millennials are Humans

This is a direct quote from a fun-filled discussion about the millennial demographic. Many truths about millennials were examined, such as their actual loyalty coupled with the ability to adapt, their demands regarding innovation and entertainment, their level of thoughtfulness, their aversion to banner ads, and their respect for serious issues. However, we have been talking about them as if they were some new species. Many of us have gone through a period of life with these characteristics, and some of us, like me, are still going through it. It’s good to know what makes this age group tick, but please don’t confuse them with a flying machine that can make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. Please don’t confuse them with #GenerationSelfie either.

Culture and Behavior Trump All

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, marketing relied heavily on focus groups and surveys for the data needed to understand what people wanted. Yes, these are still important actions, but we can get a plethora of information from the social web by simply listening. The discussions that take place reveal so much psychographic information as to how people behave and people follow and create culture.

To me, this is the most important recurring theme of the conference. At times it seems that we forget that the most important part of marketing is figuring out to whom we will market our product or service. We’ve become so caught up in how we will deliver the message, we’ve forgotten to make sure it goes to the right people or that the message even makes sense. So, before you go off with a beautifully designed visual campaign with bells and whistles on the newest platform, make sure that you remember that the consumer retains control over our businesses and we need to go to them and show them value. They’ll appreciate you for it.

Just my two cents…

Gary J. Nix is known as many things: Your favorite brand’s de facto ambassador. Propagator of true brandwagoning. Zeitgeist Firestarter. [American] HYPE man. Digerati Deputy. Random comedian. Life observer. Founder of #bespokehashtaggery a/k/a Cobra Kai. Enigmatic wunderkind. Zen BRANDarchist. Keyser Söze. But most importantly, he’s all about marketing, identity, and branding in business. Strategy, Testing, Implementation — all of these things must be done in order to ensure success. Risk & Reward are his R&R. Learn more here.

“Games People Play” image courtesy of Joshua, WarGames, MGM.
“The Revolution won’t be Televised, but it May be Streamed” image courtesy of Web Solutions of America.
“Millennials are Humans” image courtesy of Disney/LucasFilms/The Corellian Engineering Company.
“Culture and Behavior Trump All” image courtesy of KeyChangeNow.com.

How to Take Your Marketing Strategy Mobile at SMW

Posted on by Sara Adam

In a day and age where 75% of Americans don’t even go to the bathroom without their phones, it is clear that brands and marketers need a mobile strategy. Customer engagement is critical to success to a brand’s long-term success, so here our top three tips to keep up with your community, wherever they may be:

  1. Use Video
    Platforms like Vine and Instagram make it easier than ever for marketers to connect with their customers on the go. More than 40% of YouTube’s traffic comes from mobile devices. And that’s just one platform. That means it’s the most effective way to get your audience. Unruly seems to have helped master it, having delivered, tracked and audited 3.5 billion video views- they have “viral” down to science. So, if you’re going to use video on mobile, you should join Unruly for this seminar as they share their expertise and how to stay ahead of the competition.
  2. Use a Multi-Cultural Strategy
    If experts from Facebook, Twitter and Verizon care about multi-cultural marketing, you probably should, too. With our increasingly connected and diverse society, it is important to understand who your customers are and how to reach them. And marketing executives agree. African Americans and Hispanics lead the way in terms of adopting technology and represent a large portion of U.S. spending, creating vast opportunity for mobile marketers. Few get multicultural like IAB. So, don’t miss IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence panel on how you can grow the multi-cultural marketing strategy for your business.
  3. Go Local
    Reach customers right where they are and when they are nearby. It’s the easiest way to get them in your door. Advances in technology allow marketers to target consumers more precisely than ever, factoring in location and customer profile. So, it’s time to learn these tools. Learn how to increase engagement and sales conversions with a smarter mobile strategy at this session with experts from Qualcomm, Control Group, and Ogilvy.

To dive deeper into these topics, register for Social Media Week here. We have an amazing lineup of speakers and events on topics from entrepreneurship, technology and publishing. And even if you can’t make it, thanks to our partner Nokia, catch these events on Livestream by creating an account.

5 Minutes With IAB’s Jeff Fryer

Posted on by Nicky Yates

SMW NYC has some incredible partners- from our event partners to hub hosts to our growing media partners. This year, we are honored to be joining up with IAB for SMW NYC. Not only is IAB the leading body in the Interactive Marketing space, but also, they love collaboration. It’s a perfect pairing! Let’s extend a warm SMW NYC welcome to the IAB team- to get us started, meet Jeff Fryer, Social Media and Marketing Manager of IAB.

Jeff, how did IAB get involved in Social Media Week?
IAB has become more and more active in programing in Social Media Week, from last year hosting a SMW NYC session on social retail and brand marketing loyalty to our event at The Onion’s new offices for SMW Chicago about the amusing interplay between paid, owned, and earned media.

This year, we’re glad to put forth two sold-out events during Social Media Week NYC – an Author’s Roundtable with speakers who’ve literally ‘wrote the book’ on social, and a ‘Mobilecultural’ session at which leading agencies and marketers will discuss how they’ve been able to reach the emerging mobile, social, and multicultural users that marketers and brands are very hungry to connect with right now.

IAB is thrilled to be the Official Media Sponsor for Social Media Week New York 2013. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has had many of the brightest minds in social media working together since 2007 in a committee to develop, move forward, and educate the digital industry about social media in advertising. Along the way we’ve released best practices, buyers guides, delved into why people even share online, hosted tweetchats about paid/owned/earned media, and worked with our Data Council to recently demistify social data. As social media continues to reinvent how business marketing, we have a lot of very exciting challenges ahead.

We’re also honored at IAB that we just announced our Head of Brand Initiatives, Peter Minnium, to the Real-Time Academy marketing jury that select the winners for the prestigious Shorty Awards.

 
This year, our global theme is “Open & Connected: Principles for a Collaborative World.” How does IAB embody or support this idea?
With a global network of 37 national IABs and 2 regional ones, we are actively engaged with helping our members become digital influencers worldwide. It is through worldwide collaboration and cooperation that IAB continues to build strong markets, make digital standards fluid across borders, influence public policy, and produce world-class events.

Further demonstrating our dedication to “Thinking Global – Acting Global” IAB is partnered with Social Media Week from New York all the way through Singapore, where IAB Singapore is a local media sponsor and is moderating a few events.

(Map of IAB’s Global Network)

 

A core focus of SMW is collaboration. IAB brings together leaders in the interactive advertising space to help grow the industry and research best practices. Why is the collaborative approach so crucial?
As a trade association, collaborative relationships are at the heart of what our members embody. We have 20 committees & councils in our membership who are responsible for working together to develop solutions that improve the entire interactive advertising ecosystem. Team collaboration is critical to release a POV to the marketplace at large.
 

What are some of the most creative and successful interactive campaigns you’ve seen?
I have to be very careful how I answer this, as IAB does the MIXX Awards! I will say that I was impressed by the team that did the Oreos’ on-the-fly “Blackout Bowl” advertising during the Super Bowl. If you look past the tweet and pull back the curtains a bit, what really impressed me was the ability of the brand and its agencies to work together, ready to react in real-time during one of advertising’s biggest nights of the year. It demonstrates the potential future of social – we are for evermore in the world of reactive, real-time advertising and even ‘next morning’ could be too late.
 

Where do you see the interactive advertising space heading?
Participation with interactive advertising will continue to grow, but with a more advanced relationship. As the next generation of digital advertisers look for a way to innovate and reach through technology, new creative canvasses will also have to be adopted. That’s one of the reasons IAB has created its Rising Stars program – to challenge the ecosystem to reinvent old ad portfolios and build new opportunities for global brands and digital marketers.

Digital advertising will also continue to seismically shift towards mobile. More people are becoming comfortable with using their mobile devices, and advertisers have recognized they need to meet these users wherever, whenever, and however they are. As a sign that advertising dollars have started to flow where consumers are, U.S. mobile revenue doubled in 2012. At the same time, the dividing line between “mobile” and “not mobile” media and advertising is steadily wearing away – marketers and media companies alike will increasingly think about reaching the right audience wherever they are, across different screens, not siloing them based on what device they happen to be using.


 

IAB recently worked with MMA to release mobile phone creative guidelines for ads. Why are initiatives like this important to the field?
The mobile phone creative guidelines will make mobile ad buying and selling easier and more efficient, by establishing clear standard ad units that sellers can build into their mobile websites and apps, and buyers can design ad creative for. Agencies and marketers have long asked the IAB to include mobile ad sizes among our standard ad units, and this will address that industry need. Working with the MMA means that both trade associations with standardize around the same set of ad specs, ensuring we are all pulling in the same direction, in favor of faster mobile ad growth.
 

What are you most excited about for SMW NYC?
Is it a copout to say “everything”?

As the person responsible for the strategy & execution for IAB’s multiple social media presences, there are so many awesome events to attend. SMW NYC is like Social Media Mardi Gras for someone like me.

If forced to pick something, I’m intrigued by Emily Steel’s conversation with Jeff Dachis about the future of pre-purchase intent through social, and the ‘Engagement Through Imagery’ event at Curalate. Innovation through creative visual storytelling such as photos and videos will continue to become even larger in the coming year.

Social Media Week, here I come!
 

NonProfit Guide to SMW NYC

Posted on by Amanda Lehner

At a Social Media Week party last year, I asked a very accomplished entrepreneur, “so, will I see you at SXSW?” He looked at me and smirked, “I don’t go there anymore because everybody is there.” I see what he means. It’s important for a conference to maintain the right balance of top people in the field, great programming and accessibility — that is Social Media Week.

As a nonprofit professional at SMW, I always feel catered to as there are plenty events on using the powers of social media for social good. I also tend to veer from my track to learn from other industries and network with the speakers post event to pitch a corporate partnership (as any self-respecting nonprofit hustler would do).

Here are my top picks for SMW NYC. Also for networking, looks like the Society & Social Impact Hub at 92Y Tribeca is the place for us. See you there!

Tuesday, February 19
Using Film to Galvanize Lasting Social Change
GIVING GANGNAM STYLE: An Ideathon with the #GivingTuesday Team #SMWGT
Rewiring Government for Openness, Connection, and Choice, Featuring Susan Crawford and Beth Noveck
Open and Unfiltered: Defending the Internet, Featuring Alexis Ohanian and Eli Pariser
Keeping Up with the Agile Consumer
Authors Roundtable: Social at the Intersection of Paid, Owned and Earned Media

Wednesday, February 20
A Conversation with Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder and CEO, Warby Parker
Content Marketing: How to be Memorable and Measurable in 2013
Lean Startup for Social Good: Create a Compelling Website User Experience Using Lean UX

Thursday, February 21
How Social Is Your Foundation?
Societal Brands In a Social World
Social Media Analytics Helps UNICEF Save Lives

Friday, February 22
Keynote: danah boyd on the Ethics and Challenges of Dealing With “Big Data”

Advisory Board Member Christian Borges: Social Media has revolutionized Back-to-School; Most brands miss the boat.

Posted on by Michelle Welsch


Christian Borges is the VP of Marketing at Mr. Youth, the agency known for its innovation, fresh thinking, and awesome atmosphere. He’s spent a good chunk of his career immersed in the world of communications and experiential marketing, creating cutting-edge strategies that engage consumes both online and in the physical world. His resume boasts names such as Deep Focus, Weber Shandwick, Ogilvy PR, and Fleishman-Hillard, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have him as part of our SMW NYC Advisory Board.

During SMW12, Christian and his colleague David Yarus, Marketing Manager, are hosting The New College Orientation: How Social Media Has Revolutionized Back-to-School. This not-to-be-missed event at IAB‘s NYC Headquarters will take participants back to their glory days, leading them through the world of those first magical days of university life. Their format is such an interesting take on the freshman experience, we had to learn more.

Tell us more about your event!

We’ve been studying the impact of Social Media on the college consumer for years, and this year we’re revealing some of our most powerful findings to date. Essentially, back-to-school and the college orientation experience has changed dramatically as a result of social media. As soon as students receive acceptance letters in March, they immediately turn to Facebook and create online communities with their incoming class. These hyper-active communities are transforming what was once a week-long orientation in August into an extended journey, where students connect with one another and gather important information online.

By studying the conversations and overall activity across two hundred of the largest Class-of-2015 Facebook communities, we have decoded the back-to-school experience post-by-post. Our analysis reveals an unprecedented understanding of the journey through the lens, lives, and keystrokes of the students themselves. Our event features an immersive sensory experience and in-depth conversation around the findings of this study.

What inspired you?

We wanted to  move away from the typical panel and create something exciting for SMW NYC attendees. We challenged ourselves to break out of the mold and change the game. By collaborating with the IAB and students from around the world, we’ve developed an even that brings the modern back-to-school journey to life.

How many students helped you with your concept?

Ten students from around the globe met weekly for the past month through Google+ Hangouts to collaborate and concept the various builds. There are eight core conversations woven through the six month journey and our team of student creatives developed each conversation into an installation piece. That said, since this data was collected from over 54,000 threads written by over 50,000 students, we’d like to think they helped develop the concept as well.

How has school orientation changed?

Graduating high school represents one of the most formative moments of these students lives. After living under the authority of their parents, students are finally the drivers of their own car: decisions, lifestyle, and their future is up to them. When transitioning to college, students are given the opportunity to redefine who they are and can reshape the identity and reputation they’ve previously developed.

Whether this is for the better or worse is hard to say, but one thing is for certain, as soon as they arrive at school these students are free to make entirely independent purchasing decisions. They form buying patterns and brand loyalties they’ll take with them throughout life. This presents brand marketers an incredible opportunity to add value to the back-to-school journey and maintain relevance to students at the most important time in their lives.

How is the modern high school graduate student unique?

These students grew up on Facebook (since Grade 7)! They tweet, type, and text in the blink of an eye. The world has always been at their fingertips. They don’t want your logo plastered across their chest, they pride themselves on individuality. They demand authenticity and they’re immune to ad-speak. They do their homework while watching TV, chatting online, texting, and playing Words With Friends — all at the same time. Social media is part of their DNA. The question isn’t how is the modern high school student unique, but rather what elements of our own “outdated high school experience” is still applicable today?

Register online for The New College Orientation: How Social Media Has Revolutionized Back-to-School, or send a tweet to Christian or David for more information.