Does industry hyperbole make it impossible to focus on strategy? Leading marketers cut through the confusion.
The vote is in and the results are predictably murky. With nearly 400 industry leaders all gathered in one place, opinions were mixed on some of the hot issues that face interactive marketers.
Join iMedia’s Brad Berens and a panel of emerging technologies luminaries as they drill down to the pragmatic and separate real from imaginary and demystify emerging trends.
Watch Video (12:55) When Brad Berens, chief content officer and editor at large for iMedia and ad:tech, surveyed Agency Summit attendees about social networks, only a handful reported being on MySpace, by far the largest social network. Many in attendance said they used Facebook, with a significant portion reporting that they preferred LinkedIn. A minority of those in the room said they didn't use any social network at all -- surprising because conversational marketing has been an industry mantra in 2007, a year that saw Facebook emerge as a real threat to MySpace.
Mark Silva, the founder of Real Branding, who offered his insights as one of the Myth Buster panelists, said he wasn't surprised Facebook had overtaken MySpace -- at least among marketers in attendance.
"If you look at what Facebook is doing relative to MySpace, they are increasing the value of a friend by more accurately mimicking the social graph," Silva said. "That's part of what makes Facebook such a big deal, because it potentially could do a better job of tapping into word of mouth."
Second Life, a site that was once highly touted as a Godsend for word of mouth, drew sharp criticism from the crowd, which largely panned the platform.
For Adam Broitman, who heads up emerging creative strategy at Morpheus Media, Second Life's poor reviews highlight shortsighted thinking among today's marketers.
"You don't have to be a fan of Second Life, but you do have to understand and admire the platform because it's where consumers are going in the future," Broitman said. "I look at how my nieces and nephews are using sites like Disney's Club Penguin, which is very similar to Second Life, and you know that this is where marketing is going. Those kids are going to get credit cards someday, and I'm not sure that today's marketers, many of whom haven't even been on Second Life, are going to be ready."
While Second Life no longer seems to capture the attention of marketers, the emergence of video as an online ad platform appears to be the real buzz as 2007 winds down. With video, the panelists and the room found some consensus that the medium would soon be a viable advertising option, but that right now the rules have yet to be written.
Garrick Schmitt, VP at Avenue A | Razorfish, told the crowd that one of the reasons for ambiguity in the video space is that marketers seem fixated on matching video ads with video content.
"Right now there's a lot of video inventory so that seems to be driving this philosophy of video ads with video content," Schmitt said. "I'm not sure that will be the case going forward. Perhaps the ticker will work, or maybe it will be something else. The key will be to match a relevant ad, not necessarily the format of the ad."
Perhaps one of the reasons video seemed to be an ideal place for consensus building among marketers was because the medium's numbers seem to be exploding in terms of reach, while TV seems to be in decline -- a sure sign of audience migration.
According to Schmitt, NBC's "30 Rock," which has been a breakout hit for the network, hasn't brought in the kind of numbers similar sitcoms have been able to deliver in year's past.
"I think '30 Rock' has about 5 million viewers," Schmitt said. "That's something that's very obtainable now for online, so I think that's why we see traditional and digital merging so quickly in that area."
Adding credence to Schmitt's observation, Silva joked that 5 million viewers is simply "a good morning on YouTube."
But when Berens asked the crowd if there is a YouTube-killer on the horizon -- possibly from the likes of Hulu or Joost -- most marketers seemed to think the Google-owned property would remain in the lead.
According to Schmitt, that just means marketers who want to use video to reach consumers need to be comfortable with fragmentation. If the polling from the room is any indication, they also need to be comfortable with a world that offers more questions than answers.
Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.