IN THE PRESS
Click on the title of the publication to read the full article about the Venice Festival of Media 2008.
06/05/2008, C Scout.com
Trend: Bluetooth Marketing
Innovative mobile marketing campaign for Nike in China wins annual award.
01/05/2008, MediaPost
Ever The Malcontent, Starcom MediaVest Turns Attention To Consumer Intent
Starcom MediaVest Group has quietly created a massive consumer tracking study that finally answers a long vexing question for marketers: how media buys and advertising messages influence consumer intentions to buy their products. The study, which was unveiled internally to Publicis media executives during the Venice Festival earlier this month, has been in development for more than a year, and already has compiled profiles on more than 16,000 consumers in 28 markets worldwide.
29/04/2008, Propeller Communications
Catching Propeller's Eye - Michael Steckler
Finding new ways to make conference presentations engaging is a constant battle. No! Please! Not more Power Point?
Full marks then must go to AOL UK’s Managing Director Michael Steckler who, at the Venice Festival of Media, made himself the star of a short film to explain behavioural targeting.
He’s not quite Tom Cruise, but Michael’s willingness to adapt Mission Impossible to depict him as the gadget loving father of a young family searching for a new car shows the creativity and bravery needed to make an impact. The audience reaction was certainly positive – and here we are still talking about it!
The difficulty is getting the mix between engagement and actually delivering the message right. You have to watch carefully to link Michael’s actions before he starts his search to what happens once he’s online.
There’s no doubt, however, that a bit of thought and taking a few small risks can certainly make the world of difference to whether everyone – or no one – remembers what you’ve said.
To see Michael Steckler star in AOL’s behavioural targeting video, click here.
28/04/2008, The Kaiser Edition
Does Sir Martin Sorrell read The Kaiser Edition?
We (that’s the royal we) have been moving so I’ve fallen behind of a number of Kaiser Edition projects. Sorry about that, but that’s just the way it is.
So either Sir Martin reads the Kaiser Edition (hello Sir Martin) or he reads Stan’s column in Australia’s “Marketing” magazine.
25/04/2008, Acme Content Co.
Tag Records Discussed at Venice Festival of Media
Ah… the Festival of Media. There is something about ‘Festival of Media‘ that just doesn’t sound right. Perhaps something is lost in translation? Maybe it is a raucous party and I am bummed we missed it? Regardless, TAG Records appears to have been a topic of conversation on at least one panel, and it is always refreshing to hear about others that understand the idea.
24/04/2008, MediaPost
New Bedfellows: Research And Laughter
Two action-packed days at the Venice Festival of Media brought us not only wonderful insights and imaginative ideas on the future of commercial communications, but also total confusion and uncertainty in equal measure — and a lot of laughs.
Over 800 participants were drawn from five continents and included major advertisers (An 8-person team from P&G, with Bernhard Glock; Unilever’s Laura Klauberg; Coca-Cola, Philips, Nokia on the platform and more in the audience); the CEOs of all the major media agency networks -Jack Klues, Nick Brien, Dominic Proctor, Mainardo de Nardis to the fore; creative mega-players Chuck Porter and Sir John Hegarty plus the large, the discrete and the aspirant digital and analogue media owners.
Never before was the future of the business under such close scrutiny. Who should own the IP of communication ideas? Can we find new compensation models that reflect business value not time spent delivering the work? How best to measure the interaction and effects of commercial messages? And lots more, besides.
In wrestling with the contrasting claims of structures and deliverables, the excellent C-Squared organizers employed Synovate to use the latest and brightest technology to allow the participants to text questions to the presenters and to respond to questions from the podium.
This is where the new dynamic of research and laughter came together and effectively stopped the conference in its tracks.
As clients and agencies grappled with the future of everyone’s role in communication, the participants were asked “Are media agencies set up to become strategic brand leaders?” Good question.
The collective result from 800 of the world’s best communicators was: YES 33%. NO 34%. NOT YET 33%.
You couldn’t make it up. The greatest and the best our industry has to offer, and we just don’t’ know what’s going on, or what’s going to happen. Hilarious. It restores your faith in human nature. At last a business that is never short of answers recognizes that it can’t decide why it can’t make up its mind.
22/04/2008, Inside the Box (Schematic)
Notes from the Venice Festival of Media
The Venice Festival of Media is a new conference—just two years old—with an emphasis on media outlets. It is not a market, but a place for executives to gather and share their insights. Never mind the bellinis on Cipriani Island and dinner at Harry’s Bar, I was there to work, network and ensure Schematic was represented.
Since we joined WPP Digital, Schematic’s currency continues to improve. When I met people there and said who I was with, there was name recognition, positive nods and sincere acknowledgment. Just last year, Trevor, Nick and I travelled to the inaugural event trying to navigate who was who with the help of Rob Norman, our well-connected tour guide. One year later, we’ve crossed another major threshold. We’re involved in some of the largest and most innovative deals in the world and we’re teaming with the smartest advertising and media agencies as we fulfil the newest part of the solution set: digital.
This shows us where we need to grow and develop. By understanding the media and advertising sides of the business, Schematic gains enormously by influencing the budget allocations of these large accounts. Advertising spend is not shrinking—there’s no recession in our part of the business. Our opportunity, our business imperative, is to further build out our digital service offering to meet the demand of the market. Scaling this will be done the Schematic way: thoughtfully, with experimentation and innovation.
21/04/2008, Huxley Quayle von Blog
The future of media agencies discussed at the Venice Festival of Media
So maybe they should be put back together.
But perhaps there's another possible future. We could see a future where media stars break off from their buying agencies and form creative media hotshots, much like many creatives (including ours truly) have. They could then offer advertisers the high-value thinking and creative media approaches, while outsourcing the commoditized buying function to the large buying agencies.
At HQvB, we work in a flat, multi-disciplinary "brain trust" model. The idea is to allow clients to focus their resources on a senior, high-value team, that includes creative, media and planning as equal partners in the development of ideas that get people involved in bands. The lower-value execution and buying is then either outsourced, as in the case of media buying, or handled by HQvB, but only at cost.
No matter what the future has in store for media agencies, or creative agencies for that matter, we see the future in terms of focusing on high-value delivery. Sadly today, far too much of most clients' fees are consumed by low-value execution and administration.
Maybe it's time to rethink this.
21/04/2008, citizensound.net
It's official the DIY revolution is here!
And as if by serendipity, the article is about Manchester band the Ting Tings, who recent signed to Sony BMG, who's European CEO Maarten Steinkamp was one of our speakers at Venice. We promise that neither of these two events were connected.
The key for the Ting Tings was to ensure that no matter who the signed to, they would retain complete creative control of their music. This may seem to outsider to only a small concession by the band, but this is a big leap of faith for a major record label, who are used to a lot more control.
And in a true DIY spirit the album cost pretty much nothing to make. No expensive recording studio in the south of France for these guy's, with the band using Pro Tools and Garageband (an application that comes free with Apple Computers) to record the album in their own home studio. While their home-made lo-fi video for their single, That's Not My Name, was used in preference to a big budget record company promo.
Encouragingly the Sunday Times not only suggested that the DIY revolution would allow artists to take control of their own destiny, but also suggested we all go out and make our own DIY movies, fanzines, novels and fashion labels. Let's hope this hasn't given Peaches Geldof or Paris Hilton any new ideas!
By Nick Watt
21/04/2008, citizensound.net
Venice Festival of Media 2008 - DIY: Do or Die
Well, our panel at the Venice Festival of Media 2008 went really well.
John Ingham, CEO of ESP and MOG blogger extraordinaire;
Maarten Steinkamp, SonyBMG CEO Continental Europe and a man who speaks his mind;
Martin Stiksel, Last FM CEO and someone who forgets more about how people relate to music than I know;
Jon Webster, Chairman of the Music Managers Forum, and a man who held back from sharing too many stories on stage.
21/04/2008, Advertising Age
Media Agencies Try to Navigate Choppy Waters
VENICE, Italy (AdAge.com) -- If you went to the Venice Festival of Media this year, you couldn't help but think about profit margins. Not the slim ones of media agencies, but the presumably fat margins of the water taxis that are the fastest and most expensive way to zip around the collection of islands that make up this old city.
Even a short trip, say 15 or 20 minutes, could run as much as 100 euros -- or about $160 -- all for the privilege of a pitched, bouncy, herky-jerky ride that on a bleary morning might conjure stern memories of the previous night's bellinis. Propping up the taxi companies, which are the only option for harried visitors, is a basic economic principle: a scarcity of ways to get the job done.
No such luck for today's media agencies.
A predominant theme running through the presentations and panel discussions was that in today's advertising marketplace, there is no end to the competition for two roles the media agency is vying for: the seat at the right hand of the marketing team, directing its advertising spending, and the role of content czar (or "content jockeys," as Universal McCann CEO Nick Brien put it), managing the endless geyser of content big brands let loose today. The scrum includes parties as diverse as production houses cranking out branded content; consumers who have involved themselves in the branding process; and, of course, the ad agencies off of which media shops were spun -- perhaps mistakenly -- more than a decade ago.
Lingering insecurity
That question of whether the two agencies should be reunited, or rebundled, long a soapbox issue for creatives, got little truck with a crowd clearly reveling in its independence. But that doesn't mean the media agencies have worked out the inferiority complex that so often drives them to navel gazing at these events. One of the audience-poll questions asked whether media agencies are set up to become strategic leaders for brands -- a tee-up, you'd think, given the audience. Yet the crowd was divided just about evenly among the three possible answers: yes, no and not yet.
You could argue that a third wasn't a bad vote of confidence given that most of their agencies weren't even around 15 years ago. But somehow it's hard to escape the feeling that if you have to ask whether you're in power, then you're probably not.
That's where the Venice Festival of Media comes in. Now in its second year, the conference is meant to be the media-buyer and -planner community's version of Cannes, with the crumbling beauty of the palazzo-lined canals standing in for the crumbling beauty of La Croisette. The Venice event has a long way to go to match the liver-besieging week of the Cannes awards for decadence, scale or centrality in the industry. But it already rivals it for logistical nightmares. The 850 attendees -- twice last year's turnout -- were spread out among hotels on different land masses, putting large amounts of power in the hands of those sunburned water-taxi drivers and giving reason for griping. Venice very quickly emerges as a curious choice of venue for anyone working on anything resembling a schedule.
Nevertheless, most polled said they'd come back next year, even if they coupled their logistical complaints with a few quips about the dullness of much of the content. It's their event and, in a short time, a sense of ownership has developed, a cheering development for master of ceremonies Charlie Crowe, chief executive of festival owner and organizer C-Squared. In just a year's time, the buoyant, pocket-squared Mr. Crowe capitalized on the inaugural buzz and made the festival something approaching a must-attend, if more for the networking than the panels.
Talking to themselves
A clear challenge for the third installment will be to improve the content. Too much of this year's festival was dominated by stale discussions of media planning, hackneyed calls for more digital competence, and meditations on branded content that anyone who's picked up a trade magazine would know inside and out. The big names were there onstage -- Jack Klues, a thundering Alexander Schmidt-Vogel -- but they weren't challenged enough. Hot-button issues such as the rebates agencies receive in many parts of the world were given too-short shrift in light of how important they are to local buyers and sellers. And, typical of an ad conference, there was too much of the industry talking to itself.
The high point contentwise was most certainly a series of panels of media-agency CEOs. One British attendee describe the two-hour session as "a bit knockabout" on the way out, as good a descriptor as any, even if there weren't any major disputes. The panels offered a rare chance to see the people who control a massive chunk of the world's media spending on one stage, and it was a clear framing of the challenges facing media shops by the people who run them.
A major continuing challenge is the deep involvement of procurement executives in marketing processes putting downward pressure on the profitability of agencies of all kinds. For all the talk about strategic value and making investments in technology, said MindShare CEO Dominic Proctor, "five minutes later we're in a haggling match over whether it's a 1% or 2% [fee] on a service. That's a habit we have to break."
With that, Mr. Proctor hit on one of most difficult contradictions facing agencies. Just about everyone agrees the media world is increasingly confusing and requires smart strategists to navigate it. We also know that brands have never been so important to the C-suite. Yet the threat of agency commoditization looms as large as ever. While procurement is often the whipping boy in these situations, one agency CEO argued that corporate bean counters -- or, for that matter, clients and media sellers -- can't be blamed if media agencies don't continue their ascent.
"More than any other time in the last 20 years, our destiny is in our hands," said Steve King, worldwide CEO of ZenithOptimedia.
by Matthew Creamer
21/04/2008, AAAA blog
Media shops have new forum to ponder future role
As a sign of media's importance in the agency mix, the Venice Festival of Media, in its second year, is beginning to gain its own cachet as a kind of rival international event to the established Cannes fest. This year's festival focused on the challenges facing media shops as they try to be both the director of ad spending, as well as "content jockeys" for their clients.
20/04/2008, MattCreamer.com
In AdAge: Venice Media and Big-Ass Brands
I have two pieces in this week's issue. One's a recap of last week's Venice Festival of Media and the other is a news piece about the third installment of Millward Brown's ranking of the world's most valuable brands. I'm coming up short in finding a thread that winds through both stories so I'm not even going to force it.
On a personal level, I'm all full up on ad conferences. I go to about a half-dozen a year–and that's not nearly as many as a lot of folks I know–and the returns are now severely diminished. To sum up: Too much jargon, too many cliches, too many 30,000-foot analyses at the expense of talking about things that are actually working in the marketplace, little back-up of big swinging digital blather. In practice, Venice was no exception. As a symbol, however, the fact that the folks who determine where to place ads and who are architects of overall communications strategies can turn out in force for a two-day event in an old European city does represent something of a power shift that's gone on in the ad world. Once famously relegated to the last 15 minutes of the pitch, media is now front-and-center. Media fragmentation has made the planning and buying of ads a trade unto itself, that stands apart. In just its second year, the conference–and it is a conference, notwithstanding the “festival" part of the name–has scale and a level of buzz you don't see around many industry events. Still, it's not going to upset the center of balance now located in Cannes, where creative types descend every June to give each other awards and drink heavily. Cannes is an institution; Venice, now, is a curiosity, a meaningful curiosity, but a curiosity all the same.
More on the Millward Brown ranking in a separate post.
19/04/2008, exchange4media.com
International: Merging the Real World and the Internet
Much of the conversation focused on the "changing media landscape" -- everyone seems broadly aware that media markets are increasingly fragmented, digital is on the rise, social media is a critical piece of online activity and engagement trumps pure reach. Various networks recently announced that they will be mandating training to teach their television buyers how to better understand digital. Yet truth be told, my impression is that despite our industry's best intentions, the problems outnumber good old-fashioned measurable solutions.
In future posts, I'll dive deeper into solutions available today that solve many of these problems. For today, it probably makes more sense to introduce myself to you all and paint a picture of our business.
From 2004 to 2006 I worked at Linden Lab, the company that makes Second Life. While I was there, we grew our product from an obscure 3D virtual world into a place with hundreds of thousands of registered users. One of the things I focused on was bringing the first corporations in to conduct experimental projects -- in doing so I discovered an interesting market opportunity.
Because we were not a content creation company, I would have to find companies to service these corporate clients. Uniformly, the usual suspects (digital agencies, game developers and ad agencies) were completely uninterested. It was their lack of interest that provided the spark for me to start Millions of Us. I believed that Second Life would not be a singular phenomenon, but rather was the start of an entire category that would offer large opportunities for brands and entertainment companies to engage users in new and different ways. Luck and good timing were on my side. What began in my partner's garage 21 months ago is now a 40 person agency representing 1/3 of the world's most valuable brands ranging from Coke to Nike.
In the past two years, virtual worlds have received a great deal of media coverage (arguably too much). Yet much of the coverage is warranted: Gartner Group predicts that by 2011, 80% of internet users will participate in at least 1 virtual world. While Second Life has received about 99% of the media's attention, it only accounts for about 1% of all the users globally. Globally, sales of items in virtual worlds account for $1.5 billion. Those are big numbers and they're just the beginning.
For brands, the key takeaways are as follows:
Virtual worlds are a significant and fast growing market.
Virtual worlds are a subset of social media, which accounts for 30% of consumer internet activity in the US according to Comscore.
Virtual worlds turn the web into a "place," allowing users to connect face-to-face in real time.
Early data suggest that levels of brand engagement in virtual worlds are extremely high. Millions of Us has conducted some 60 engagements in virtual worlds for clients with engagement per user ranging from 2 to 24 hours.
We view the next year as a critical one in the growth of this industry. Several key events will dramatically affect the landscape and opportunities. First, we'll start to see an increasing understanding amongst clients that existing, web-based virtual world communities like Gaia Online, Habbo Hotel and Wee World have very large, active user bases that offer brands the opportunity for powerful results. Second, media and technology heavyweights like MTV and Sony will be scaling up their offerings in the space. In the case of MTV, this means extending the worlds they have built around broadcast properties like "The Hills" and "Laguna Beach." For Sony it is the release of Home, a high definition world connecting users of the PlayStation3 globally. Finally, we'll start to see virtual worlds plugging into existing social networks. There are 550 million users of social networks and as users begin to put virtual "rooms" on their pages, the game will change significantly. Not only will this add scale to the market; more importantly it will allow users to have virtual lives based on their real life identities. This represents a sea change for advertisers and the beginning of the mainstreaming of the market.
So what should brands be doing right now? Most of our clients have moved beyond the experimental phase and beyond experimental budgets. From that perspective, we recommend the creation of a strategic roadmap, with clearly defined goals and metrics. Once such a plan is created, tactics can be map against it and measured.
Second, as an industry, we are still undeniably in the early days. We still lack consensus about a variety of issues from interoperability to metrics. Millions of Us recently put together a coalition of over a dozen of the leading virtual world platforms to begin defining ROI for marketing in virtual worlds. This study, being conducted by Forrester, is an important first step towards defining what needs to be measured and creating guidelines for all worlds to follow.
Most importantly, we need to remember our role as educators and evangelists. This is all very new and somewhat foreign, and we need to continue explaining the space as it evolves and matures. I hope this blog can play a valuable role in that ongoing conversation.
17/04/2008, Right Brain, Left Brain
Back in one piece
Following a hectic few days in Venice, the C Squared team has largely dragged its way back to London, leaving a few stragglers behind to enjoy the city. The second Venice of Festival of Media had a delegation that was as dazzling as the setting and raised a series of key issues, with the lack of talent coming out as the biggest threat to the industry.
By Olivia Solon
18/04/2008, City A.M.
Ray Snoddy: Reports of death of TV adverts are greatly exaggerated
The audience was made up of those who decide how and where marketing money is spent. It was claimed that in those plush seats in Palazzo del Cinema sat the bottoms that controlled 90 per cent of the developed world's advertising revenues — give or take a dose of marketing hyperbole.
The scary bit is what interested them. They were absolutely fascinated with branded content — getting your brands inserted into the heart of movies and television programmes. Naturally they wanted to get their hands on the spectacular audiences assembled by social networking sites such as Facebook.
They were also big on viral marketing and producing their own video on demand programming for the internet. What they appeared to have only passing interest in was conventional television and the traditional 30-second ads.
PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Press was mentioned once but only in the context of “the demise of…" Everyone in the media knows about the gloomy trends but this still amounted to a parallel universe.
One of the many break-out “thought leader sessions" lasting one hour was devoted to print — an honour not accorded to television. At the print session Per Mikael Jensen, chief executive of the free newspaper publisher Metro International, injected a note of reality.
Sure times were hard and innovation absolutely necessary. But if you add magazines and newspapers together they account for approximately 38 per cent of a world advertising pool of around $160bn (£80bn). Television accounts for another 38 per cent. So each of the two major world media account for considerably more than all the other communication channels put together. That is now.
There is equally no doubt that dramatic changes are taking place. Manufacturer Unilever's Laura Klauberg told how a company that used to be one of the most traditional of advertisers was now using videoon-demand for a dozen of its brands. Even a margarine brand had “webisodes" of its own and AXE, the men's deodorant, had been launched with internet films.
In the old days network television would have been the main beneficiary of such products. The rate of change in the media industry is not about to slow down any time soon and new winners and losers will undoubtedly be produced.
The danger is that the views expressed in Venice between the Bellinis will become a self-fulfiling prophecy — unless they are properly challenged in the interests of a keeping a little more perspective.
18/04/2008, citizensound.net
Venice Festival of Media 2008: Learning from Sports Marketing and Gianluca Vialli
Rob Simmelkjaer, former ABC News anchor and ESPN reporter, bravely dealt with continual sound distortion on the mikes and ran a really interesting panel. Meanwhile, Gianluca Vialli provided an example of a true professional…modest, charming, insightful and engaging - many of the young Premier League stars could learn from him in more ways than one.
I asked them what lessons could be learned from the sports world for the music world, as more brands move into music.
Dominic Fawcett, Managing Partner of Mindshare, rightly stated that there has been too many instances in sports marketing where the connection between brand and sport made little sense to consumers. He was also concerned that the creative expression of the brand/sports partnership was a little too forced -
Brand X: We are part of the team
…ouch…
Meanwhile Kevin Roberts, Editorial Director, SportsBusiness Group raised two interesting points. For him, the sports world is struggling with a fanbase that is ageing, be it cricket, football, rugby, tennis or the Olympics. no such problem in the music world.
Secondly, Sports he said struggle to attract lots of female fans. So sports marketing is also limiting from a brand's perspective. Another reason why music makes sense for many brands…
So citizensound does have a future then!
By Paul Bay
16/04/2008, MediaPost
Venice Festival: Next Question, Please!
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE marketing industry is still debating the question of bundling versus unbundling our services. Monday afternoon at the Venice Festival of Media, two creative leaders, Chuck Porter and John Hegarty, spent a fair amount of time pondering the potential of bundling media back inside the creative agency. This morning (Tuesday), I sat on a panel of media CEOs and the very first question readdressed the top: "What can we do to resolve the bundling question once and for all?"
We solve it by retiring the question -- and the word -- entirely. I asked the audience to help me eliminate from our collective vocabulary the word "bundled" as it relates to our industry.
Bundling is a legacy concept that, for better or worse, is evoked in reference to some past era. Or, it is used as a way to somehow dictate where people should sit, who should own the client relationship or controls the P&L.
It's time to move on. More accurately, it's time to move forward. Last week at the IAA conference in Washington, a really smart Frenchman said: "Solutions for the future won't fit in the containers of the past." Indeed.
In our search for integration, which our clients demand and deserve, we should stop debating an archaic concept. Instead, we can aggressively pursue new models of partnership, open architecture and any possible mash up required to deliver brilliant ideas and solutions to our clients. (Much like we have achieved through the Leo Burnett/Digitas/SMG collaborative model.)
All of us have to operate with an open-source mind-set and redirect all the energy we have expended in a philosophical arm wrestling match with creative agencies into issues that challenge us every day.
Curiously, in a question posed to the Venice audience before the panel started, the dilemma of the talent gap was decisively selected as the most pressing issue we face as an industry. Our clients want more strategic thinking, more actionable human insights, more digital innovation, more creative opportunities to leverage content. The list goes on. These broadening expectations require an ever-expanding scope of talent, and we have to get that right to preserve our ability to connect our clients' brands and messages to people. While this morning's panel returned to the talent topic, it received only about three or four minutes of comment.
Talent is a topic that deserves our passion, focus and attention. So let me make a proposal to all conference planners and panel moderators who will be tasked with selecting topics and content areas over the next several months. Let's re-purpose any time or energy that might otherwise be devoted to the question of rebundling media, and direct it into an imaginative exploration of how to better inspire our current talent. And how to entice tomorrow's talent to join our ranks.
17/04/2008, Pioneering PHD
Greetings (on the way home) from Venice
The second annual Global Media Festival just wrapped up Tuesday night. It was 2 days of focus on the future of media. The organizers are C Squared the group behind Cream Magazine , which is dedicated to regularly celebrating the best of global media achievement. And although the organizers opted not to name this conference, for me the resounding theme was one of juxtaposition.
From the outset I was struck by the juxtaposition of a conference dedicated to the digital future of communications being held in the ancient city of Venice. There was plenty of juxtaposition of old and new. From featured speakers like advertising legend Sir John Hegarty to dot come millionaire and MySpace co-founder Brett Brewer… Venice was often a study in contradictions.
There was the juxtaposition of the shortage of natural and human resources and a healthy discussion about the industry need to address both. On Day 2, Peter Seligmann, the CEO of Conservation International addressed the conference on the issue of sustainability. He implored all of us in the communications business to use our considerable influence to make a difference. It was certainly a proud moment for PHD when the efforts behind PHD Sustain were recognized. I also learned that PHD has just recently entered into a pro bono relationship to work with Conservation International, which is great and inspiring news.
Other interesting juxtapositions that became apparent in Venice:
With the juxtaposition of the old mass communication model of one-to-many migrating quickly to become one-to-one (with the rise of social media and peer-to-peer communication) there was a very interesting observation that suggests … in the heyday of mass communication, brands used to tell stories to consumers. In the new digital age of communications, consumers will tell stories about brands.
There was the juxtaposition that Sir John Hegarty alluded to that revolves around experience. His thought for the new age is that we all come from a world where we learn and then do. He believes that we need to alter our behaviour for the new reality to “do and then learn"… and hey … who wants to argue with a man who has achieved knighthood?
There was also the juxtaposition of content and context. For years we have heard the mantra that “content is king", but in an age where technology is enabling smart messaging to receptive audiences, we are quickly moving to an era where context is king. This is a major leadership challenge for us as media practitioners and there was certainly a resounding spirit of readiness from the media throng in attendance.
One final note on Venice … it was truly great to see PHD so dominant on the world media stage. Beyond the aforementioned sustainability initiatives, our ETNA planning interface was featured in one of the breakout sessions on Media Creativity, and our Global CEO, Mike Cooper, addressed the conference most eloquently on the future of the media business.
Like Venice once proved, it is quite possible for a culturally significant (albeit small) body to make a big and lasting impression on the world… we should all be very proud.
by Fred Auchterlonie
16/04/2008, MediaPost
Venice Festival: What Do Clients Want?
WHAT DO CLIENTS WANT? EVERYTHING. And a lot of it.
One of the more anticipated discussions -- the Global Client Debate -- of the Venice Festival of Media brought some interesting insights and calls for change from media practitioners sitting in the enclosed auditorium of the Palazzo del Cinema.
First, one caveat; it really wasn't a discussion. The discussion part was cut off because of time-management problems. But it was a wake-up call that inspired thought and retrospection.
Laura Klauberg of Unilever was first to take the stage, demonstrating through well-recognized work (Dove's "Real Women" campaign) why Unilever earned the title of Digital Marketer of the Year (Ad Age). Laura stressed the importance of taking risks and acceptance of failure. Not everyone can "hit a home run first time at bat," she said. The takeaway for me is that baby steps are, well, for babies. Let's take some aggressive leaps with eyes wide open, acknowledge that to change the game is as much about taking risks, as it is re-writing the rules.
Bernhard Glock of P&G took on the voice of social responsibility, sharing with us Tide's "Loads of Love" campaign. It was both a moving and awakening tribute to the human spirit and corporate responsibility. And while we in the audience have the privilege to be here in beautiful Venice drinking in the views of the Grand Canal, there are others who are inspired just to have clean water.
With a quick gear change, he also dropped a word of caution: If you can't contribute to the overall marketing communications process that is both valuable and collaborative, "you won't be invited back", said Glock. These words thundered through my mind over and over. Media professionals fought for years for a seat at the boardroom table.
Now that we have the invitation, are we consistently providing value and actively leading the discussions that earned us this seat? Or are we just keeping it warm for the next contender who is more hungry? My belief: stay hungry. It's just as powerful a motivator as the possibility of not getting the second invitation. And this is a risk we don't want to take.
Closing out the "debate" was Pio Schunker of the Coca-Cola Co. and Sital Banerjee of Philips. First, Pio opened with the Coke Zero product launch case study. (If you haven't seen the commercials, do. It provides a rare lens into Coke's corporate culture and is more telling than any annual report.)
He also used an analogy that I will borrow: "matching luggage" referring to marketing plans where the same creative product is simply repackaged for multiple media outlets. Just because the marketing message lives in multiple outlets, doesn't make it integrated. "Matching" yes, but not integrated. And finally, Sital called for agencies to sufficiently train young media folks to understand basics of the craft. Not having these basics is a "criminal offense."
It boils down to leadership. To lead is to take risks. To lead is to inspire and innovate. To lead is to listen and make decisions unapologetically. And clients look to their partners to do this. That's what clients want, everything. They demand it, and deserve it. For the media professional who's sitting in that seat: hold 'em to it, protect it, own it.
To do anything less is suicide.
17/04/2008, Media in Canada
Who won what at the Venice Festival of Media?
Before I get to the winners at the second annual Venice Festival of Media, I might say that the opening session started with the highly anticipated, "Agency CEO Hot Seat Sessions." The problem was that the only real hot questions came from the audience, not the moderators.
There were some mutually agreed upon, rather generic, topics such as the need to invest in talent as the best way to respond to the new demands in our businesses, and that media agencies are best positioned to take the new strategic lead in brand strategy development.
Participants were: Nick Brien, worldwide CEO, Universal McCann; Jack Klues, chairman, Publicis Groupe Media; Mike Cooper, CEO, PHD Worldwide; Steve King: worldwide CEO, ZenithOptimedia; Mainardo de Nardis: CEO, Aegis Media Group; Alexander Schmidt-Vogel CEO, Mediacom worldwide; Maria Louisa Francoli, CEO, MPG; and Dominic Proctor, CEO, MindShare worldwide.
Things got warmer when the always-delicate topic of rebates, or AVBs, was raised by the audience - which the moderator immediately referred to as "the elephant in the room."
I was very impressed with how Dominic Proctor addressed this question head on. "It is a valid source of income in some countries," he stated, adding that "as long as it's transparent, then it should and must be accepted." I was also pleased to hear Alexander Schmidt-Vogel say how "It has come time for media agencies to have the courage to say no to unreasonable demands by clients to cut costs."
The audience raised another interesting topic when it was pointed out that only one of our industry's global CEOs is a woman - when our industry consists of roughly 60% women. I am personally pleased to know that this is not the case in Canada, where some of our industry's top CEOs (country managers) are female.
After lunch, I attended what I believe were the two most interesting seminars of the Festival. One was "Playing Around. . . Advertising Through Gaming," for which the speakers were: Damien Blackden, digital president EMEA, OMD; Dario Raciti, gaming leader, OMD Digital; Reuben Steiger, CEO millionsofus; and Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive Inc. (part of Microsoft).
I think we all know that media investments in gaming platforms will never be at the cornerstone of our clients' media plans. But it was truly interesting to learn how some clients can and do benefit from this investment.
Realism is the focus and goal within the gaming community, and the reality is that brands are a part of our lives. Whether it's test-driving the latest Nissan in Second Life, or using your Xbox to race it in Red Bull's latest online rally, brands exist everywhere - so for virtual worlds to be realistic, brand must continue to be present.
A key element of this discussion was that gaming provides a frequency of product placement like no other, as the average gamer spends 11 hours per week gaming and often plays the same one over and over. Compare this with cinema, where today's movies are filled with product placement but movie-goers rarely see the same movie twice.
The most notable brands that have benefited from the gaming medium are, to name only a few: Red Bull, Nissan, Doritos, Vodafone, McDonald's and Coca Cola.
Sony plans to launch "Home" in 2008, a virtual Second Life- styled game which will link all of Sony's PlayStation users around the world. This is a further illustration of how gaming communities and platforms have a global reach - while most traditional large-scale advertisements are merely nationally.
The biggest problem with the gaming medium is that clients don't believe in its potential. They don't realize that games offer certain target audiences a truly first-hand experience with their brand. Hmmm... . I seem to remember some clients questioning the Internet's potential during its infancy as well.
The other problem is that gaming publishers' income is predominantly driven by subscriptions and virtual world purchases rather than advertising. So there is still a learning curve for the publishers to recognize the benefits of making their designs more media-investment-friendly.
Speakers at the closing session, "New Media Business Models," were: Joanne Bradford, EVP of national marketing services at Spot Runner; Brett Brewer, president, Adknowledge and co-founder of MySpace; Carl Johnson, CEO, Anomaly; Greg Nelson, GM/chief media officer, MSN (part of Microsoft); and Anssi Vanjoki, EVP/GM, multimedia at Nokia.
Wow, I thought. New business models. Should we be afraid? Is Spot Runner a competitor to our media businesses, ad agencies, or both? Has Anomaly finally been the one to convince clients that the value of a creative idea is not based on salary percentages plus a multiple to cover time, social charges and overhead? Is Adknowledge going to run our online businesses out of business one day?
I'll just touch on two of the presentations, in order not to ramble on and on, as I was told that videos of all presentations will soon be available on www.CMDglobal.com.
I personally knew that something interesting was going on at Anomaly a couple of years ago, when a former classmate of mine at The Creative Circus - then co-creative chief for Wieden & Kennedy's cornerstone Nike Account - left to join Anomaly. Anomaly's business model is truly revolutionary for the ad industry. I was a creative and then went on to become CEO of an ad agency, and I've struggled with the subject of having to convince clients of the value of the creative process.
What we keep hearing is: "Time sheets reward the wrong behaviour. Agencies should be rewarded for the quality of the idea." But I believe ad agencies of the future should own, not just simply create, intellectual property, and Anomaly has successfully positioned itself to do so. Be it through revenue sharing, royalties or actual partial ownership of brand launches, they have successfully positioned themselves as agencies that don't merely makes ads, but solve business problems.
And now, with the advent of Spot Runner, every Mom and Pop store can make their own ads and place them on TV. Fully-personalized, 30-second ads start at less than $500!
During Bradford's presentation, for example, she showed a commercial she'd made the night before in her hotel room. Although it won't win at Cannes, it was truly amazing to see how SMEs can now bypass ad and media agencies to create and place their own TV spots. I think most of us know this company already, but if you don't, I strongly suggest you check it out: www.spotrunner.com.
My overall impressions of year two of the Venice Festival of Media? I was most impressed with the transformation Microsoft has gone through over recent years. It's truly no longer just a software company. It fully understands the digital future and is well positioned to improve the way we live our lives, and the way we service our clients in the new modern digital world. I say: Come on Yahoo, think it over!
Who were the big winners? C Squared, the parent company of the festival, Cream Magazine and CMDglobal.com, and Media & Marketing announced its round-up of the best in media innovation for 2008 in a unique one-off publication, "Cream of Venice," which was distributed exclusively at the festival. In the publication, Cream editor Alastair Ray, of CMDglobal, states that its goal "is to create a gold standard for creative media and showcase the smartest thinking around."
Agency Network of the Year: OMD
Advertiser of the Year: Unilever
Campaign of the Year: Nike Zoom, MindShare (media) and Wieden + Kennedy (advertising)
Agency Office of the Year: Starcom, Sweden
In addition to these four honours, 15 "Cream Picks" where chosen. A full description of the winners and examples of excellence can be found at www.CMDglobal.com.
by John Domas, CEO of Toronto-based MPG
16/04/2008, Media Daily News
Venice Festival: The Dubious Debate
VENICE–After a festival that started with hearing from old-line media (NBC) trying to act like a new wave content/relationship-driven company, and a new media company (Facebook) sounding like a company very sure of its future, it was time to hear from the middle men.
15/04/2008, Marketwire
For Brands, the Way to a Man's Heart Is Through His Mobile Phone
M:Metrics Reports That 36 Percent of 18-34-Year-Old Males Access Mobile Media and 9 Percent Respond to SMS Adverts in Western Europe
VENICE, ITALY and LONDON--(Marketwire - April 15, 2008) - As the media industry assembles in Venice this week for the Venice Festival of Media and in London for the Mobile Marketing Forum, M:Metrics reveals the demographics and size of the audiences for mobile media. The measurement firm reports that young males are a rich target for mobile advertisers, as among mobile phone users 36 percent of 18 to 34-year-old men accessed mobile media in February. Men in this age group are also highly receptive to SMS advertising, with 9 percent responding to an SMS advert they received, versus a 4 percent market average.
15/04/2008, MediaPost
Venice Festival of Media Touts Openness
The open theme was carried through by Mike Murphy, Facebook's vice president of media sales, who stressed the social network's open application approach. It not only benefits users with more than 20,000 applications, but also helps to bring the “garage" developers into the Facebook ecosystem.
But the elephant in the room for both speakers and their companies was monetization. Will NBC's open approach bring in much-needed revenue growth? Does Facebook have the right strategy to drive massive revenue from its 70 million users?
Notably, the session used some interesting technology from Synovate to kick-start the dialogue between the audience and the speakers. That's a pleasant change from the “pass the mike" approach of most conferences.
It was also a bit striking that the content in the morning seemed very U.S.-centric, given the decidedly global feel in audience makeup and, of course, the Venetian locale.
by Peter Gardiner
15/04/2008, Media in Canada
Venice Media Festival: Roving media exec reports mysterious absence
From as far away as Japan, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Russia, delegates came to attend the second annual Venice Media Festival. In fact, the delegate numbers more than doubled last year's tally and client participation was three times higher.
On the first day, we attended "Thought Leadership Sessions," heard multiple speeches and were encouraged to interact with the speakers either by voting or submitting questions via the festival's wireless infrastructure.
"Content. Content. Content" was repeated throughout the day, as in: "If you have the content, then there will always be consumers there for your media form." However, on the first day of the festival, content was unfortunately lacking. There were, of course, some highlights, but overall the festival's first day left something to be desired.
But I, for one, will not turn my back on a festival that we, the media agencies, need and must support. This festival represents our businesses and our future, and we must be the ones to push for its further development and improvement. I am quite sure Cannes had its hiccups in its infancy, and I personally remember attending the One Show in NYC before it truly became recognized as a "festival."
Of course, we heard a lot today about new media. Yet on day one, festival organizers failed to round up even one Generation Y new media guru or founder. It felt a bit like we were listening to the grownups' interpretation of the subject. Facebook was discussed, but no one spent time analyzing the fact that its early users were in fact a trend-setting niche group of young people.
People are talking about how these same young trend-setters, loyal users today, might desert the brand as it becomes more mainstream. Yet we heard lengthy pitches from Facebook's global sales director, Mike Murphy, about the endless benefits for our clients' investments. Does history have a way of repeating itself? Maybe, maybe not. But let's all remember the turbulence Nike went through for a few years when Mom and Dad starting wearing the swoosh.
Jonah Bloom (the well-respected Ad Age journalist who also attended our CMDC conference last week) put Facebook's Murphy on the hot seat. He asked him about the possibility of his company plateauing, and the risk from MySpace after its announced new partnership with the music industry. However, Murphy was well prepared with facts and figures to prove otherwise.
A positive note we learned is that Facebook will begin to allow the portability of one's online profile to other sites some time in 08' or '09. This is a user-friendly offer which will only increase the way we use social media for eCommerce, etc.
The most interesting comment I heard today came from Chuck Porter, of Crispin Porter Bogusky, who said, "New technology has only made it that much easier for consumers to ignore your brand." Ouch! That's a fact, but it still hurts to hear it.
As we all know, blogs, social media networks, etc., are often used by consumers who have less and less need for, and/or are tired of, mainstream media. And interruption is not a good media strategy to reach them. So the challenge is to reach these users unobtrusively with communications they will either use or find beneficial, not with more banner ads that invade their social space.
There was some good news. Modern media is being put on the BIG stage. I think we'll all learn a lot by sitting back and watching how it's used, both strategically and viciously, during the US presidential run-up. So far, the race shows a 64% increase in ad spending on modern media compared to this time four years ago - with over US $73 million spent in online already.
Tomorrow looks more promising. In the morning, there's an Agency CEO Hotseat Session, when CEOs from the world's most powerful media agencies will convene to discuss four major issues facing their industry sector today: Planning Versus Buying, New Forms of Content, Competition & Consolidation and Media Taking the Lead.
Afterwards, delegates will choose between four Thought Leader Sessions: Increase Your Media Efficiency, Digital Futures for Out Of Home, Printing Pressures: Facing the Future and Managing the Three Screens.
In the afternoon, delegates will get to choose between four additional Thought Leader Sessions: "Playing Around. . . Advertising Through Gaming; Sustainable Communication Strategies; Brands and Bands - DIY, Do or Die; and Behavior Targeting.
During the closing session, New Media Business Models, delegates will listen to and participate in a debate about new methods of trading, new remuneration models and upcoming new definitions of media value - with leaders from Nokia, MSN, Anomaly, a co-founder of MySpace who went on to found Adknowledge, a Spot Runner-like company for online. Then it's off to the Gala.
by John Domas, CEO of Toronto-based MPG
15/04/2008, Media AM (Campaign)
Agency bosses warn of commission cuts
VENICE - Agency chief executives have warned that media networks are being held back by downward pressures on levels of commission from clients.
Speaking at the Venice Festival of Media, bosses of the major networks all warned that agency development is suffering as clients tighten their belts.
Dominic Proctor, the worldwide chief executive of MindShare, said: "We must get away from this reliance on driving down price through procurement. We're all talking about how important it is to invest in the future and then getting into a haggling match over whether clients pay 2 or 3 per cent for our services."
Addressing the same issue, Mike Cooper, the worldwide chief executive of PHD, said: "My biggest fear is that we don't break the mould and continue to sell our services on a savings model rather than showing how we can add value to clients."
Other issues addressed by a panel of eight agency chief executives included the continued threat posed by Google.
Proctor said: "Google is certainly a threat and the more they go on platforms and say that they are not a threat, the more I'm certain they are."
Agency bosses also discussed the future shape of the media agency and the opportunities available in areas such as branded content.
Mainardo de Nardis, the chief executive of Aegis Media, warned: "We're all lucky to work in such a creative industry but we're incredibly conservative in the way we approach it - with talk of P&Ls and silos, we try and separate everything we do as an industry. We're not good at taking risks - we're moving the right way but let's do it a bit quicker."
Ian Darby, Campaign
15/04/2008, Digital Out of Home
Venice Festival of Media
Not for us an invite to the Venice Festival of Media.
We do see however that our good friend Ajay Chowdury and all round good speaker / ex-private equity / EnQii CEO is leading the debate around digital out-of-home at the event.
We understand that he announced that the digital out-of-home industry is set to double in size in the next five years. The thought leadership session, entitled 'Digital futures for out-of-home' will also feature presentations from CBS Outdoor, Posterscope Worldwide and MPG UK.
The 2008 Venice Festival of Media brings together over 800 delegates representing the world's advertisers, media agency networks, content developers and media owners. The event aims to address the issues currently faced by the global advertising communications industry, and feature speakers from across the world.
Ajay Chowdhury told the assembled press “Digital out-of-home can deliver in an environment where traditional media is failing to communicate with its target audience. Developments in technology, flexible content and a greater understanding of customer frame of mind are bringing digital to the forefront of the industry".
The conference is held at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, and runs from Sunday 13th to Wednesday 16th April 2008.
Adrian J Cotterill
14/04/2008, On Demand
And they call this work?
The Venice Festival of Media. A great event and the best gathering of the who's who and who was who of the advertising media business. It's a rare treat.
It's day one and thus too early to comment on the content but we live in hope that substance beats out platitudes for once.
The first topic is branded content which to the studios means brand integration with content they create.
There is no doubt that this inspires and delights our clients but two issues persist. Is the concept scalable? Does it move the needle?
Answers later?
April 14, 2008...8:56 am
Platitude watch. The Facebook Story at Venice
Mike Murphy Head of Sales at Facebook explains elegantly the scale and the user utility of Facebook and disputes the possibility that growth is topping out. The editor of Ad Age is not so sure!
At the heart of Murphy's point is that by opening the Facebook platform to developers has reduced the need for new social networks as the wannabes can build all the audience they want without leaving home.
Why am I hearing the faint echo of 'do no evil'?
So with 'users at the centre of their universe' where does the money come from?
All Murphy will say is that we don't want to overdo banners and buttons but won't quite get to the point of what they can and will do. He is at least in good company. All the advertisers here think social networks are important but very few of them know what to do next.
Perhaps this is another case of a need for more and better human capital to be applied to opportunities where the potential is awe inspiring but the path to success is not clear.
Paradoxically though the aforementioned developer community is starting to make money.
As an idle thought if Facebook were REALLY that valuable to its users I wonder what would happen if they charged to charge each user $1 per month?
April 14, 2008...10:17 am
Platitude watch 2. Can media agencies lead strategy?
Oh good lord,
Aren't we done with this debate? Yes we all know creative and media agencies have separated corporately, yes we all know that they have to work better together.
Quite clearly message creation and message distribution both require high level strategic and tactical input if they are to contribute to business need. Furthermore they need to be contemporary and relevant and reflect the connected and interactive reality of now.
Maybe the point is this. The above holds true for both communication strategy and brand strategy but sometimes the two are confused. The first is an agency function that requires distributed networks to deliver market relevant solutions. The latter is very different.
Brand strategy is a client job. They own the damn things not their agencies. Sure they need advisers but do they need agencies or a qualified SWAT team of people that cross disciplines, cultures, values and generations.
April 14, 2008...12:00 pm
Money talks - the client panel at Venice
Unilever, P&G, Renault, Philips, Motorola. Coca Cola all represented by their heads of media or heads of advertising.. Our life in their hands.
Three things stand out. Deepen the conversation, use digital channels as the connective tissue and allow the consumer inside the communication program.
What is clear is that the complexity of spending money in this way, through these channels and at this speed is going to require new resource allocation and skills.
Errr that's it
April 15, 2008...7:52 am
Day 2 in Venice - the agency CEO panels
No one can start these sessions without talking about power and billions of dollars and the 'control' of those dollars. Always useful to remember whose money it actually is.
First up are Jack Klues and Mike Cooper of Publicis and PHD.
Jack Klues observes that the new world order won't fit into the containers of the past. He is right of course and all the holding companies have the assets to do this but it's a bold play to collapse P&Ls without P&Ls collapsing.
The real tension is behavioural not structural of course but it's the behaviour of not only the protagonists but also their shareholders and their clients that matters.
Curiously absent in the discussion so far is any reference to effectiveness of these structures and the value of the new talent that is being so vigorously recruited.
April 15, 2008...8:08 am
Venice - the CEO panel part deux
Alexander Schmidt-Vogel of Mediacom and Steve King of ZenithOptimedia.
ASV in strident tones says that the fundamental issue remains that for the most part our entire industry is devoted to creating and delivering messages that people don't want to watch. Fair point well made.
Steve (watch the platitudes lads) talks of the transformation from transactional partner to communications partner. Top man to have the cohonas to raise the issue of the need to GET PAID MORE TO DO MORE.
The ownership of the IP arising from the push into branded content is clearly potentially transforming of agency economics. Good topic from Michael Kassan and answer from ASV who recognizes the need and the right of agencies to own and leverage content IP.
All they need now are the skills and the appropriate attitude to risk. That's easy enough!
April 15, 2008...8:23 am
CEO panel - the stallion speaks
A home fixture for Mainardo de Nardis of Aegis, also up the charming Nick Brien of IPG.
MdN says that collaborating with people outside your ownership group is easier than with your co-owned partners. He would say that wouldn't he?
Nick inevitably disagrees and sees it as behavioural rather than structural.
On to the interesting matter of consolidation of the big digital players. Nick thinks it's all ok. Bigger players do bigger and better things and that is good for agencies and clients. They both think that consolidation is not a barrier to innovation or competition.
Well it's a view.
April 15, 2008...8:43 am
CEO panel 4 - beauty and the beast
Maria Luisa Francoli from MPG and Dominic Proctor from Mindshare.
Organizational change to drive accountability and creativity is both a priority and an opportunity to create businesses that sit at the heart of marketing services.
The question is speed of execution and maintaining organizational fluidity given the zero likelihood of the destination being the same by the time we get there. The joint challenge of managing different kinds of talent and new technology cannot be underestimated.
So that's it from the CEO's. No moments of epiphany but at least some openness and realistic evaluation of the challenges ahead and a clear understanding that the need to demonstrate value and be paid properly for delivering it.
April 16, 2008...5:33 am
Venice - last word
Well that's it. The Who was Who of media heads home. Sensational networking and renewal of friendships but what else?
Well certainly no great breakthroughs. The great and good were cautious but unanimous in the view that renewal of talent, proposition and compensation were the necessary ingredients of profitable growth. All true but hardly 'this just in' material.
As for the conference itself the crazy logistics of Venice were a tiresome but fair exchange for the beauty of the place but the conference logistics themselves were nearly as crazy and rather less forgivable.
Here a few tips for next time..
1. Get the program running to schedule
2. Don't cut the presentations of key speakers at the last minute
3. Don't have black tie dinners unless there is a wedding involved.
4. Give up on 'break out sessions' especially if they are run by sponsors as commercials.
5. If you believe that change is in the air focus on that and those that catalyse it.
