After a mammoth 308 seminars, workshops and events, the premier event for marketing, brand, advertising and technology professionals, Advertising Week has come to an end. As part of their prize for winning the Yahoo7 Digital Stars competition, Australia and New Zealand’s media young guns took on the bright lights of New York City to soak up all they could from the industry’s best.
Hearing from global CEOs, with the likes of Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington talk about how their businesses are adapting to change and the challenges that they face, the group came back with insights to further their careers.
Here, they share their key take away lessons:
1. Data driven marketing needs better execution – Simon Conyard, MEC Sydney
Digital has reached a time of maturity, in which consumers have high expectations on the experience they expect from brands, with a stronger importance placed on ‘surprise and delight’ executions. There too was significant discussion on the importance of automation facilitating data driven marketing and driving a more relevant experience for consumers, at the right time. However, GasBuddy’s Mark Coffey and Bridget Davies, Vice President of Advertising at eBay North America rightly noted, this has created an expectation of instantaneous success from data driven marketing with a stronger focus only on the purchasing mindset and a lack of invention in the execution. They concluded by saying there’s an expectation that an advertiser can meet and marry you in one display banner ad, though this of course isn’t the case.
2. The traditional funnel is dead – Josh Reiri-Allen, Carat New Zealand
There was one quote that stuck with me from the week and that was from Campbell Soup Co.'s, Yin Rani - “The traditional funnel is dead”. This stuck with me as the planning strategy I have always used is based around the funnel, but with the changing media landscape and more people consuming media on mobile there’s also the emergence of technologies such as AR, VR and AI, and how this will effect the consumer journey to purchase as we speak to a new generation of audience. I thought this was really important for the overarching trend of one to one conversations.
I do however feel like this trend is awhile off, especially utilising such emerging technoligies. Oath’s David Shing made a point in one of the talks that technologies such as AR and VR at this point and time are more gimmicks then genuine advertising opportunities. Until VR has genuine penetration into the market, it is still only something that people will use on an occasional basis.
3. Debating and discussing emerging technologies– Sara Hilgendorf, Carat Brisbane
The most challenging thing is how quickly this space moves, but the application for advertisers has massive potential. As one speaker noted, VR isn't about product placement but rather placing your consumer in your product. It's a phenomenal vehicle for storytelling. It's also a responsive channel, where the consumer has the ability to affect the outcome. Not only does this offer a personalised experience to the user, but it provides rich insights back to the advertiser. What will remain a challenge in the space, for now, is scale. If brands want to be present across every platform, they'll need to design their campaigns for the lowest common denominator, and that's not always the best user experience.
Though one of my favourite comments from the entire week was that ‘the most exciting thing about this industry is that it's still being invented.’ With the volume of disruption that has taken place in ad land, we are operating in an ecosystem whose only constant is change. But I am excited and optimistic to see where this industry goes. And based on the conversations from this past week, if we remember to think differently, be customer first, and embrace innovation, we'll figure out whatever comes next just fine.
4. Challenges in the future of media measurement – Vartika Arora, Cadreon Sydney
The biggest challenge to be highlighted during the week was the future of media measurement. As seen in Keith Weed’s (Unilever) report card, cross platform was marked with a big fat F, and that measurement is in need of immediate attention. Solution? A conversion shouldn’t be where the conversation ends, it’s about the full customer journey and an identity resolution has the ability to connect people, data and devices.
These media talents are the brightest in their field, and their newfound insight into issues, challenges and brainwaves occurring in the US are easily transferrable at scale to their day-to-day client work, in market in Australia and New Zealand.