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Future of Media Summit Blog
Thoughts on Summit 2007
Panel discussions about ad personalization and targeting were especially interesting as panelists did a really nice job of providing real-life experiences - with which we could all relate - for each new trend. For the most part, those in attendance seemed to be in favor of the value proposition with seeing ads that are targeted toward their own interests (this way Anne-Marie Roussel doesn’t have to watch beer or truck commercials, but is able to get commercial about wine - further expanding her breadth of knowledge on the best wines! )
With regard to personalized shopping trends, Keith Teare, Edgeio Corporationproved the success of the ‘client relations meets personal shopper’ approach that a lot of big brand clothing stores are adopting. He pointed out that because he is not very excited about shopping – he appreciates the stores’ efforts to flag him with deals and new product offerings in his own size and style preferences. He also noted the significance of a job board – providing personalized job offerings within specific content niches.
With my experience with ad targeting and personalization, it seems these trends have really taken off in the past year. Not only are bloggers interested in writing about the monetization capacities for advertisers with these trends, but they seem to be really excited about the opportunities they present for users:
-offering streamlined avenues for shopping research (I want to find a nice shirt from Banana Republic without leaving my desk. Can I find the exact shirt, at a specific location, in the right size. Amazon keeps flagging me with book and movie recommendations. I was irritated at first…but to be honest, I really enjoy getting that email now…cause the recs are, in fact, targeted toward my interests.
- promoting online content venues by association with the ads they serve (top advertisers will only advertise with good/quality content and readers get to define how good the content is according to their preferences)
-most importantly, the more recent development of geo-targeted ads. It really works for me to be able to go onto an online mapping application, click on my destination city and learn about all the best restaurant deals, concerts, and even parking availability all within a given five hour time-frame.
It was great to see Gabe Rivera, Techmeme, again. Last year, I started using Techmeme and was so excited about the opportunities that this type of content ranking model presents. After having a conversation with Gabe at another event, I quickly noticed Gabe’s genuine fascination for trends in information dissemination and content clustering. Hearing him talk last night about his more recent findings in the relationships between blogging communities and social networking communities (Facebook), further proved my first hunch about his concern - not only for his own Techmeme service, but also for the evolution of social media and content, overall. I agree with his recent finding about the new use of Facebook as a means to link social networks with blogging or other content generation methods. This is what I’ve noticed with my own Facebook use.
Again, I was really happy with the collaboration between Sydney and U.S. perspective on the changing media landscapes. It was nice to hear first hand experience from people of each location who are developing their own companies based these new trends, e.g. Mitch Ratcliff, BuzzLogic, and Chris Gilbey, Vquence. It was especially interesting, seeing how this was the second conference, to see the progression of each market and priority of specific trends - between Sydney and the U.S.
Burning questions left unanswered:
I’m looking for a featured content site. Not just blogging, social networking, flickering, YouTubing, but a site that promotes the overall best of for each of these mediums. A place where companies can go to find good talent (could chose to advertise on their sites and could even choose to ask these content creators to assist in the creation of their own company video ads, interactive ads, etc.) Looking for a best of -- for each week (presenting the best content – all encompassing blogs, podcasts, vlogs, and publishing). Bring it all together, promote it (show us all the value it presents – why is it important to you), and allow companies and individuals to form their own ideas on how to use it - with regard to ad targeting and personalization, cross integration and collaboration with other content, conferences, speaking ops, creative projects…We need a Techmeme of this sorts…but I guess the model will be more based on suggested recommendations by folks like us, other than ranking the sea of content that is out there (as in news). Important to note, doesn’t have to be a lot of content…could be a few posts a week – but at the end of the year, we would really have a nice stack.
Thanks Ross and Team…can’t wait for next year!
Nichole Khan
