With 12,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, 125 press, 250 speakers, 63 sessions, Jimmy Wales, Kevin Rose, Steve Hayden, Jason Kilar, a separate contextual ad conference AdSpace, an SMX track and no less that 20 parties, ad:tech San Francisco, like ad:tech New York, kicked the recession squarely in the ass.

If you somehow missed the conference, be sure read the posts here on the ad:tech blog and watch David Spark’s spectacularly informative videos which capture the essence of the show. And don’t forget the party pictures too.

The next domestic conference will take place September 1-2 in Chicago. Be sure to follow @adtech on Twitter so you don’t miss a thing.

Interactive marketing has long sold itself on the promise of accountability and ROI measurement. Yet, at the same time there continues to be challenges in solving John Wanamaker’s problem: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Indeed, the common analytics tracking for online marketing campaigns are simplistic at best. It cannot measure how display ads (seen as branding) can impact search (used mostly for sales). Nor can most analytics tracking attribute the multiple searches and visits a person did that ultimately led to a purchase (See image above).

Enter Havas Digital and Yahoo. Their panel, Search + Display—Moving Beyond the Brand vs. Direct Response Model, not only showcased Havas Digital’s solution to this question but show great case studies of the insight and optimizations gained from a better and more true multi-channel analytics. (Note: all of the images in this post was taken by the Havas Digita/Yahoo PowerPoint presented at ad:tech)

MODERATOR:
Rich LeFurgy, General Partner, Archer Advisors

PANELISTS:
Dan Boberg, VP, Advertiser & Agency Professional Services, Yahoo!
Ed Montes, Executive VP, Managing Director US, Havas Digital US

The Promise for Advance Attribution in Analytics
The benefit of building a system that can do sophisticated attribution tracking lies in being able to track what are known marketing truths but have been difficult to readily measure:

1. Display (Brand) Supports Search (Sales)
There has been countless studies revealing that running display banners, which may or may not have been clicked on, increasing searches for the brand and eventually in to sales. As far as data go, the panelists quote two of the most often cited statistics on the matter:

1. Display + Search Provides Improved Branding
   “Exposure to a display advertisement increased related trademark term searches (brand, company or product names) by an average of 26 percent” - Yahoo/ComScore study of Fortune 100 advertisers, “Close the Loop: Understanding Search and Display Synergy”
2. Display + Search Provides Higher ROI
   “Users exposed to both search and display ads convert at a higher rate: 22% better than search alone, and 400% better than display only.” – The Atlas Institute, “The combined impact of Search and Display advertising – Why advertisers should measure across channels”

Having an attribution system that can readily attribute how much a display campaign drove search ROI would shift our perception for display as “just” a branding tool.

2. Tracking Beyond the Final Click
By default, most analytics systems attribute sale to the last link the customer clicks on. It completely ignores the fact that people may conduct multiple searches and clicks to a ecommerce website before than actually make a purchase.

All marketers know that the “last click” is not correct. If a search marketer blindly believed in the “last click” and on strict ROI measurement, we would all just bid on our branded terms and go home.

Case Studies
Working with Yahoo, Havas Digital did build such an attribution system that would help track the two issues above. Havas Digital and Yahoo presented several case studies on the system, called Armetis. Here are slides from a few of their case studies.

Case Study #1: When display drives sales-based ROI…for other campaigns

The above is a case study from an automobile manufacturer. While sponsored search drove the most “last click” conversion, the entire marketing picture shows that display advertising assisted in the conversion of 163 visitors. So scaling back down display advertising dollars may, in fact, cause lower sales for other marketing channels like search.

Case Study #2: Why some highly converting keywords cannot stand alone

From the above report, Campaign 2 seems to be both costly at a cost per conversion of $422 and one lowest leads performer. However by looking at search assist, we see it has been drive in assisting in leads for other campaigns. Without such data, a search marketer may have been too eager to kill campaign #2, yet end up driving lower leads for other search campaigns.

Closing Thoghts
While Havas Digital’s Artemis attribution system looks very impressive, there is no such thing as a perfect tracking solution. As the panelists pointed out, there are still large limitations based on the fact that users delete cookies and that cookies need to last (and survive) more than 90 days in order for tracking systems to properly attribute the multiple exposures and clicks that lead to a conversion. Then of course, comes the more complicated questions of how to weigh how far back can a banner show to user “claim” to have assisted in driving a sales one, two or five months later. The joke the panelists mentioned that one flaw is an agency could blanket the entire web with display banners and then claim “attribution” for any sale that happens there after.

In end, however, we do need tools like these to really optimize campaign and paint an ever more accurate picture of what really drives engagement and sales. Yet even the tool described here by both Havas and Yahoo were noted by both companies as still rough and far from complete. Indeed, the quest for ever better analysis is an interesting problem to me; I plan to write a follow-up to this soon on my own blog at Emergence-Media.com.

Don’t take my word for it - check out the Video where Julian describes Notable as well as some exciting news - a deal with the Olympics!!!

Ad:tech Interview with Julian Brass, CEO Notable.TV from Krista Neher on Vimeo.

Moderator:
Mark Donovan Senior VP of Mobile, Comscore

Panel:

Chip Canter VP Wireless Platform Development, NBC Universal Digital Distribution
Cheryl Lucanegro, Senior VP Advertising and Sales, Pandora
Niles Lichtenstein Director, Mobile Strategy and Integration, Ansible Mobile

What Are the Issues Facing Mobile?

Sharing some stats, of the companies with mobile currently in their media mix, all plan to continue. Of the companies which have never done mobile, 60 percent plan to include it. There is a barrier to entry in mobile marketing, however once a brand tries it they want to do it again.

Inventory is no longer the issue in mobile the two key barriers are the immaturity of the infrastructure and training.

The immaturity of the infrastructure creates a number of issues for marketers. There needs to standardized metrics and creative success stories to share with the faint-hearted. In many ways, mobile is sold, trafficked and tracked the same way as online media. If marketers wants this to scale, a large investment is needed. When this happens, “We can go out and sell and measure and traffic like we do the web”, said one of the panelists.

Training is another key issue facing mobile.  Marketers don’t yet understand how to develop the right creative for the mobile space and once the creative is developed, they are not always sending the traffic to a relevant landing page.  Agencies and marketers need more training to better understand how to optimize their ad campaigns for mobile - both in driving clicks and in driving action post-click.  The challenge is to “Make sure that you know what is happening on the back-end – what happens after the click and how are you measuring it?” said Niles Lichtenstein Director, Mobile Strategy and Integration, Ansible Mobile.

Mobile Success Stories

Cheryl Lucanegro, Senior VP Advertising and Sales, Pandora said that response rates are 3 – 4 times higher on the mobile phone than they are on the web.  Similar statistics have been reported by a number of advertisers.  Cynical marketers may attribute this to the newness of the medium (online response rates have steadily declined over time as consumers became able to identify and mentally block out ads) as mobile users click on ads simply to see what will happen.

While some of the success may be attributed to the newness of the medium, mobile success can be attributed to far better targetting.  Mark Donovan Senior VP of Mobile at Comscore reported that he was listening to Pandora upon arriving in San Francisco and heard an offer for a Dockers sale in San Francisco (he lives in Seattle). The contextual nature of the ad provided by the GPS in the mobile device has the potential to make advertising extremely powerful.

Mobile adds geotargeting, time of day, device profiles, etc to make the advertising more meaningful.  Layering on these contextual features gives marketers the opportunity to send the right ad to the right person at the right time.

How do you use mobile to build audience and experience?

They key to a successful mobile strategy is to build products specifically for mobile audiences upfront, not as an afterthought.  Build your main site for mobile users - don’t require them to go to a different .mobi site to access your content.  Browsers can identify the device that the internet is being accessed from and automatically redirect to an optimized page for that device - use a single URL strategy.  Create a great browsing experience for mobile web users.

As video sharing is shifting online, video producers can actually film videos to enhance the experience when viewing from a mobile device.  The music video“All the single ladies” by Beyonce was specifically filmed for mobile.  The key is “rethinking not re-purposing the content for mobile”said Niles Lichtenstein.

Ask yourself “What is going to be the best experience?”  Don’t create the content and then try to weave the advertiser in afterwards.  Build the advertisers in upfront to create the best possible user experience.

Mobile is Additive
Some factiods shared by the panel include:

  *Lite internet users are more likely to be heavy mobile users
  *Marketers have seen a 6% lift in audience from mobile by reaching users who were not online
  *Pandora says that over 30% of new users are coming through mobile and that 5% - 7% only use the site on their phone – they NEVER visit the website.
  *On your phone you are often on your “personal” time and not at a PC/employer time
  *People will watch live TV in their house from their phone
  *NBC has done studies (they use hulu and put full episodes on mobile) that supports that live viewership is up and the mobile viewers tend to be additive.

The Key to a Successful Mobile Campaign is Content
Like most media, content is king.  “When you put something out there that is fun and engaging, people will consume it” said the panel. Since mobile is permission based marketing (you need permission to send text messages, users choose to download your app or consume your media) creating content and programs that users want is the key to success.

Examples of Successful Integrated Mobile Campaigns
In the entertainment industry there are “Superfans.” They love everything and will consume it on as many platforms as possible. NBC did a test where they put a pineapple randomly in a show and viewers could text in every time they saw a pineapple in the show. The response was completely overwhelming (no numbers were shared). Viewers are eager to engage in content that is fun and interesting.

Project runway ran a campaign and over 90% of the people who received the first message participated in other components of the campaign.  The key is to know your audience and provide them with content they love. If the content is compelling enough, the audience will stick with that campaign and you can continue to build a relationship.

Before you Jump In…

Prior to engaging in mobile marketers should ask themselves “What is our goal and can we meet it or beat it through mobile?” Sometimes you have to walk away if the medium isn’t right for your marketing objectives.

“A brand should develop an app if they plan to use it in an interesting way; and also if you’re going to feed that app (ie. continue to develop it)”, said the panel. Pandora is an app that you will use every day or almost every day – how do you create an app that people will use regularly?  An app needs to be something that adds value and that people want to bring with them.

The key question is “Who are you trying to reach and what phone are they likely to be on? Will an iphone app help you reach your target audience? A mobile site? SMS?  Choose the right medium for your audience to maximize reach and your marketing objectives.

This panel seemed to think so. The Future of Mobile: Adding Mobile to the Mix shared some great insights on how brands can effectively integrate mobile into marketing efforts.

Moderator:

Mickey Alam Khan Editor-in-Chief, Mobile Marketer Magazine

Panelists:

Sophia Stuart Executive Director, Mobile Hearst Magazines Digital Media
Tony Nethercutt VP of Sales, AdMob
Marcus Startzel – Senior VP of Sales,, Millennial Media
Mike Becker Executive VP of Business Development, iLoop
Matthew Valleskey Head of Marketing Communications for Mobile Services, NeuStar
David Katz, VP, Mobile Advertising and Publishing, Yahoo! Inc.

Quality vs. Quanitity

Marketers are used to mass marketing where reach is king. The focus of traditional advertising was heavy on the top of the funnel - “How many people am I reaching?”. Both the internet and mobile allow marketers to target in more meaningful ways and focus on reaching highly relevant audiences with the right message at the right time. This can result in better overall ROI by attaining higher conversion rates from a smaller audience vs. traditional mass marketing.

“There is a common misconception that more is better” said Mike Becker, Executive VP of Business Development at iLoop. He pointed to a campaign run by Hipcricket, who ran a case study for daisy maids. They sponsored a contest where consumers were entered to win a prize – 700 people opted in to the contest and of those they converted 540 to customers. It isn’t quantity it is quality. Getting a better response rate from a smaller audience can be far more valuable.

How Can Mobile be Measured?

Like many emerging mediums, mobile suffers from a myriad of questions about measures. “The hard core ROI trackers were the first to get into mobile in a serious way. And they did great – they brought the same experience they brought on the PC” said David Katz, VP Mobile Advertising and Publishing at Yahoo! Inc. They measured results, they rotated creative and have set the stage for strong metrics in the mobile space.

There is a misconception that mobile isn’t measurable. It is. Avoid missteps by working with an agency that can set up metrics and reporting.

Integration is Key

Mobile is a great stand-alone platform, but integrating it with other marketing tools is key. We learned from online that ROI is often improved when digital efforts are integrated with traditional media – the same is true for mobile.

Tony Nethercutt VP of Sales at AdMob shared an example of a campaign by Adidas. The goal was to get people to opt-in to an SMS campaign. The promoted the opt-in short-codes in-store, on billboards and in TV. However, they got 20% of the opt-ins by using mobile to encourage opt-ins despite mobile representing an extremely small percentage of their budget.

Mike Becker reminded the audience of the power of mobile opt-ins in this type of campaign “because they opted in they can now interact through direct response later.” Essentially, you are building out your mobile email list.

Integration Gone Wrong

Take the Super Bowl – people are sitting at home with their phones nearby but marketers didn’t take advantage of creating integrated campaigns to take advantage of this. Flashing a short code for 5 seconds at the end of a commercial doesn’t give someone enough time to act. Mobile must be strategically integrated to achieve results.

Additional Resources

The panel provided some additional resources to continue to enhance your mobile learning:

Mobile Marketing Association
Mobile Marketer
Nielsen
Comscore

“When presented with bold new ideas, people reference what they know more than what they can conceive.”

Senior Director Michael Perman of Levi’s passed us oranges, recounted memories of his dad and deluged us with blue-jean trivia in an ad:tech sesh entitled “The Power of Storytelling.”

See snippets of tweet coverage. It’s apt that Levi’s give us the skinny on storytelling’s underrated appeal, given that its capacity to spin tales has beguiled us for years. Anyway, here’s some videographic deja vu.

Denim—The Unlikely Mineral. On the origin of jeans, and how you can still find some balled-up in mines:

Stories as Tactical Strategy. How best to approach a story-driven campaign:

Storytelling Successes in Digital. Examples of online campaigns that successfully managed to incorporate narrative—and engage users:

Ogilvy Vice Chairman Steve Hayden conducted a keynote titled “Fear, Love and Advertising” at ad:tech SF last week. I livetweeted it; you can see some of the tweetage here.

Hayden kicked off by explaining the premise behind his talk: in this dire economic clime, when everybody’s castrating their own creativity, he hopes to encourage the industry to shelf their fears in favour of a little (well-informed) wonder.

He woke the muse by blasting us with iconic ads, like the Apple Newton stuff and “True Colors” from Dove’s Real Women campaign.

Then he gave us a long, colourful explanation of a hexagon he calls Hayden’s Mandala—a complex (and yet simple!) cycle of everything a person/brand goes through when facing a major growth trajectory or change. Here’s a video snapshot of that:

Then Hayden did something I’ve never seen a keynoter do before: he passed the floor to people whose products he thinks will change the media environment. I was awestruck, and only more so when I saw what came next.

Following Steve Hayden’s report that 25% of users watch TV and surf the web at the same time, Intelevision lets users bridge those worlds.

The online interface is generic enough: you can showcase your favourite shows, and see what your friends’ favourites are. It’s the interaction that differentiates it: Intelevision makes it possible to click on your favourite show on the ‘net—an action that switches on your TV and actually plays it. Ad interaction is fantastic too: during their demo, the Intelevision folk aired a Capri Sun ad on TV while engaging users with Capri Sun games from the online interface. Users could also see alternate endings to the spot.

Here’s some video of the Intelevision demo, using Lost and The Kids Choice Awards as examples:

And here’s more neat footage of Lost, coupled with American Express ad integration/interaction:

Pretty saucy, right?

Richard Chandler of Bunkspeed came next. Bunkspeed is this mildly incredible 3D imaging software that makes it possible to develop product packaging and compose print, TV and digital/Flash creative with as much ease as playing a video game.

Witness while Chandler creates packaging for a Dove product, then incorporates it into client-approved ad imagery. It’s downright magical:

He also built some Flash animation for Stolichnaya right before our eyes, and brought Ogilvy’s classic (PENCIL-DRAWN) Rolls Royce ad into the 21st century, with as much ease.

If you’re as razzle-dazzled as I was, visit the Bunkspeed website (linked above) for a free demo.

The stuff that comes out after an interview is sometimes just as good as what you get during. After our audiovisual taste of the future of HootSuite (and a power-fail story about ZipCar), founder Ryan Holmes of Invoke Media and publisher Krista Neher of The Marketess riffed on the photo storage merits of Facebook and flickr.

Compelling factoid: while it may be true that flickr hosts over three million photos, the unlikely Facebook totally pwns that figure. As of October 2008 Facebook became the largest online photo storage site—clocking over 10 billion pics and counting.

Obviously there are big differences between the sites. Krista argues that flickr’s too public for comfort, and people are more inclined to curate personal images in a space where they can control who sees what. (Apropos to that, I like how Ryan murmurs, ”...stalker” at :22.)

How has social networking changed online photo storage and personal life-whoring in general? What’s coming? We contemplate these questions and others while I clutch a digicam with one hand and macaroon-gorge with the other.

If one could identify a trend in parties at this year’s ad:tech in San Francisco, it would be this; more, smaller and no open bar. It all makes perfect sense in a “down economy.” Excepting a couple of parties, most were small events held at small venues with limited or no open bar. That didn’t seem to stop people from having fun though this year.

As early as Monday night, the eve of ad:tech, Glam Interactive held a small event atop the Clift Hotel in the Spanish Suite. From 7P-9P, members and guests mixed and mingled before the general ad:tech crowed began to glow in. While it was open to all, it never really got all that busy.

On Tuesday night, there were more than ten parties ranging from affairs like the Tatto Media party to large blowouts like the Advertise.com party held at ad:tech party standby, Ruby Skye. Both parties, while wildly different, were a good time. Oops, and, even though we didn’t attend, NickyCakes would love us to mention the fact he, along with several others, held a party at which Jello wrestling, apparently, turned into an all out brawl between two women wearing, well, nothing. There’s a video of the spectacle floating around on YouTube.

On Wednesday night, after a great dinner with Hollis Guerra and Erika Golden from Blast! PR,  RockYou and Rubicon hosted an event in the Lobby Lounge of the Intercontinental Hotel, Notable.tv had a small gathering at Aventine and AdverCircus2, held at the multi-room 1015 Folsom, closed out the conference with fire dancers, acrobats and a troupe of musicians.

Thursday, the last day of the conference, is always a quiet experience. The exhibitors have packed up their booths and the number of people roaming around Moscone drops dramatically from about 13,000 to 2,000. It’s sort of sad and anticlimactic in a way but also a great day to process the learnings and experiences o the first two days.

Next ad:tech? Chicago in September. See you there.

Forget, for a second, about the vacuumy café noises and the girl with the crutches in the background. The weather is pretty, Schoggi is cozy and we have pistachio and rosewater macaroons.

Fun fact: Founder/CEO Ryan Holmes of Invoke Media, parent company of HootSuite, has never had a macaroon before. When I ordered them at the register, he asked if they were “Asian hamburgers.” And then I died.

Notes on this video:

1. HootSuite is one of the cooler tools available to marketers on Twitter right now. It has a proprietary URL shortening feature (ow.ly) with a built-in ad and revenue sharing model. HootSuite can also manage multiple accounts at once.

An update, slated for the near future, will boast still more features and turn the HootSuite UI into a cross between Firefox (with tabs!) and TweetDeck. Yeah, that sounds scary, but Ryan assures me they’ve got good info architecture/usability peeps back at Invoke.

I believe everything he says. EVERYTHING.

2. (And most crucial.) Krista Neher (remember her?) tagged along with us for the interview, and in an odd compulsion to be productive she asked if she could record us both.

This interview format makes me uncomfortable—I’m more Louis Malle than Oprah—but she said we should try it and didn’t tell me I had hair sticking up on the side of my head the whole time.

It drives me bananas, but it’s not like you can just NOT post an interview because of flyaways.

Notably, Camera Eye Krista didn’t notice because she was too busy trying not to laugh at Crutches Girl. (Observe how the frame shakes violently when the latter arrives. At this point, both Ryan and I take pains not to look at her.)

Amielle Lake is the CEO of Tagga, a Vancouver-based company that helps agencies add a strategic mobile component to their campaigns. (Think broad SMS efforts, mobile websites, etc).

The service—currently live in Canada and the US—includes reporting and dashboard management, and payment models are flexy.

We sat down yesterday to talk about Tagga in a video interview. As luck would have it, I ended up gleaning a lot more than I expected. Amielle tells this great story about Tagga’s birth and the state of agencies at that time; it also turns out she worked in mining and knows French cheese like this. (*crosses fingers*)

Funny what you can find out when the pressure’s on (ad:tech was ending, hence the skulky suited man in the BG) and you know your first take MUST be perfect (I don’t know how to use my video editing software. But you probably guessed that).

Compulsive Twitterers can hit the Follow button at: @tagga and @amiellel.

MODERATOR:
Daisy Whitney, Host/New Media Minute and Reporter, TVWeek
PANELISTS:
Mitchell Oscar, Executive VP, Televisual Applications, MPG
Joshua Herman, Digital Marketing Innovation Leader, Acxiom
Davina Kent, Director of Strategic Alliances, Comcast Spotlight

While the panelists were great in talking about the mechanics of how targeted and interactive TV advertising works, the meatiest topics were focused around the challenges of targeted/interactive advertising with some helpful case studies to indicate possibilities for advertisers.

Challenges
Privacy and Implementation
Cable operators have issues with allocating bandwidth to allow for interactive advertising (ads that you can click on with the TV remote) and targetable advertising (target cable users by demographics etc).

Additionally, legal laws regarding privacy issues surrounding have also to be worked out. How narrow can you target base don the cable company’s database? To what extent can advertisers marry their CRM data to the cable operators for targeting purposes? Indeed, one of the attendees stated to the panelists that he was unable to execute the type of targeted advertising the panelists discussed; the cable operator told him it went against privacy policies.

Project Canoe
Project Canoe has been a lot like mobile marketing: it’ll hit mainstream next year. Project Canoe‘s aim is for cable operators to build a method for advertisers to purchase advertising time through a single mechanism, instead of separately contacting and negotiating with dozens of cable operators. The project aims are high, yet results have proven elusive.

Level of Segmentation
The panelists discussed the issue of over segmentation. Cable operators are still attempting to define how much they can segment users, balancing between: 1) being highly targeted ads; 2) having a large enough audience; and 3) the budget to create targeted ads. As Daisy Whitney of TV Week, if an advertisers segments too narrowly, you may end up with only a reach of two cable users.

Results
When it came to results, the panelists had a few case studies but it was apparent it lacked depth in terms of metrics and insight. The lack of a formal PowerPoint case studies may have been a factor.

Dog Ads
A targeted advertisement in Huntsville for dog food found that TV viewers were 38% less likely to turn away from a commercial if they were actual dog owners versus a non-targeted dog food ad.

ING Insurance
Mitchell Oscar of Televisual Applications talked about a targeted advertisement for ING Insurance. They used Acxiom to marry ING’s CRM data and the cable operators to target and upscale existing ING customers on insurance products. Acxiom was also used as a “safe harbor” so personal information from ING and the cable operator were not directly exchanged.

Oscar explained they used a Domino Pizza coupon to attract sales leads. He noted a high CTR rate.

Pricing
In terms of pricing, the panelists stated that the average cost for targeted advertising was 30% higher than regular TV advertising. From the panelists, it seem the higher cost seemed to be worth in terms of achieving successful engagement but more case studies are needed. But, with targeted advertising also comes to requirement to create relevant advertising for each segment.

Moderator:
Mark Naples, Managing Partner WIT Strategy
Panelists:
Luis E Castaneda, Global Digital Marketing, Xcentuate LLC
Hooman Radfar, CEO and Co-Founder, Clearspring
Ira Rubenstein, Executive VP, Global Digital Media Group, Marvel Entertainment
Ben Pashman VP Sales and Business Development, Gigya

Social Media is Everywhere
Hooman Radfar kicked of the conversation asking “Is all media social? How do we integrate social features into all of our media?”  People are social by nature.  In the “real world” (ie. Offline) people are inherently social; web 2.0 is now enabling these social interactions to take place online.  All online efforts should include the opportunity for consumers to interact with each other and the brand or content producer.

More people are using social networks than email.  Marketers get really excited about this, but it isn’t revolutionary – people are choosing a new medium for communication and conversations that were already taking place.  Marvel said that facebook is one of the top referring sites and one that they expect to continue to grow in importance.

How Do Brands Play in the Social Space?
Prior to jumping in to twitter, plaxo, facebook, myspace, etc brand should ask themselves “What are the socialization traits that your brand will have in the social media space?  You are asking for your brand to participate in conversations -  it has to be relevant and invited.

“Now you have to build an ongoing relationship with your customers via a variety of mediums – Facebook, Twitter, etc” said Ira Rubenstein, Exeutive VP of Marvel Entertainment.

Permission Matters in the Social Space
Marketers need to have permission and add value to play in the social space. “I think that permission is key.  Facebook learned that with beacon.” said the panel. As long as there is permission granted along the way consumers are interested in engaging with brands online.  Make sure that your application permissions are set right – they can be controlled and that users are respected.

Facecbook provides a better communication messaging platform vs. email.  The permission based nature of it makes it easier to control who can connect with you.  For example on email anyone can send you messages which is where the proliferation of spam came from.  On social networks consumers have greater control over who they can connect with and marketers need permission to connect with them.  In order to get permission they have to be relevant and respectful.

A Key Social Media Advantage: Flexibility
Marketers have to be flexible online – often times after launching something it will be used in a way that wasn’t initially intended.  You may also see results that are successful but perhaps don’t match your original metrics.  For example, you may launch an app and not meet your # of download goals but find that engagement among those who have downloaded them.  Be flexible.  How can you leverage the success that you have (ie. High engagement) to build your brand?

You can change your media quickly and fluidly online.  There is the potential to morph quicker and it can be cheaper vs. traditional media.

Before you Jump In
Prior to jumping into social media you have to ask yourself “How does communication and how does the conversation fit into your campaign?”