adtech Archive

ad:tech San Francisco has started, the booth babes are here in more than full force and the buzzwords are flying fast and furious. As I twittered at one point in the show earlier today, it seems a requirement that at least three buzzwords be used in any sentence, especially in answer to a question by a member of the press. Apparently this year’s ad:tech in San Francisco has record attendance and clearly from the twitter traffic there are more twitter users here than were active at ad:tech NYC. Today has seen a few announcements (more on those in later posts) and a variety of panelists, keynotes and lots of rather overly similar exhibitors.

But scattered amongst the affiliate networks, pay-per-click networks, SEO/SEM firms, and many others there are a few interesting companies and organizations here – and there is also most definitely a lot of networking occurring (indeed I overheard two women talking to each other about how great the networking was as they were apparently debating about heading back to their offices earlier this afternoon, I think decided to stay).

A few broad observations, in later posts I’ll go into greater depth.

1. The ad:tech crowd is not a purely Silicon Valley crowd. Far, far from it. A few of us here in jeans, but far more people in suits (and yes even ties). In general the men and women are in business professional dress unless they are booth babes, of which there are many (more than I expected). From the use of Twitter and some people who I know who are here, there is definitely a few of us here who are deeply technical, but for the most part though held in San Francisco, this is a not a Silicon Valley/Web 2.0 crowd.
2. The level of booths ranges dramatically. From a few booths which are truly among the most impressive I’ve seen in a very long time, to many others that even as I got very close to them left me deeply puzzled (not to mention at least two firms or organizations that had a booth but didn’t show up at all. Among the most impressive, a booth done over as diner, complete with Jones’ sodas, pies, and coffee and "booth babes" in 1950′s dinner garb. In contrast, there were booths with only signage.
3. Many of the bloggers and press (and audience) are more connected than the speakers. I have been tracking variations of the term "ad:tech" via Twitter tracking, the commentary of the active twitters is pointing out how basic many of the presentations have been. Others have been pointing out that there should be other perspectives on many of the presentations. I’m also finding a wide range of opinions about the crowd and event – some loving it, others finding it boring or basic.
4. There are too many _______. Too many ad networks, too many SEO firms, too many mobile platforms, too many too similar of nearly everything exhibiting here at the show. I’ve heard this from attendees directly, I’ve seen this sentiment via many people’s twitters (especially about "ad networks". [Full disclosure here, I am, myself, building a new ad network - though what we are doing and our focus is rather different, or at least I'd like to think that]

Now back to walking the trade show floor, avoiding booth babes and eager salespeople pitching affiliate networks and popunders.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur.

Allen’s note: A big thank you to Shannon Clark for covering FOWD. Awesome coverage of the event! 

All ad:tech NYC posts:

• Wednesday Morning Keynotes
• Walking the Halls, Lobby Lurking or the Best Meals are the Most Random
• Opening keynote on Brands by Nick Brien, CEO of Universal McCann
• first impressions three floors, 300+ exhibitors
• Ad:Tech NYC Overview

AdTech NYC was a great event for me, in four busy days I had the opportunity to get a good sense of the current state of the online, digital advertising industry. The combination of the overly packed exhibit halls, the standing room only lobbies, and after Monday they almost always full keynotes and panel discussions offered a great mix of opportunities to hear from both small, newly launched firms and some of the leaders of the largest digital agencies and advertising firms.

As I learned from talking with people over the course of the event in addition to the discussions in the public spaces of the sessions, exhibition hall, and lobbies, countless other meetings took place over the past week. In fact most of the CEO’s and senior salespeople I spoke with talked of having 6 or more meetings every day while at the show. Little time for much else besides meetings which would start with early breakfast and end late into the evening.

Official numbers will likely be available early next week but here are a few early numbers from the last conversations I had with the AdTech staff:

• pre-registrations (mostly for free expo pass) – ~13,800+ people
• full conference registrations – ~1300 people
• media – more than expected, likely over 100 press passes issued
• speakers – over 100 different speakers during the course of the conference
• actual attendees vs. registrations – estimated between 9000-10,000 for exhibition days (Mon & Tues) and about 1500 (including media, speakers and event staff) for the full conference
• as many as 10 or more parties on any given night, with at least 4-6 parties most evenings

Stories from AdTech NYC 2007 made the NY Times and many other major newspapers and the media coverage both old and new was extensive. One thing I have to applaud AdTech for they supported the media extremely well. The press room was conveniently located was also the speakers lounge and included beyond computers, dedicated wifi, coffee, and ample piles of press materials from exhibiting firms, free massages for speakers and the press (which after picking up materials from over 100 of the exhibiting firms was sorely needed the next day).

Combining the speakers and press rooms worked extremely well, while sitting in the press room I was often able to get a few minutes (or in some cases much more than a few minutes) conversation with speakers. The AdTech staff also arranged for speakers to be available to the press before or after some of their sessions, though I was too busy at other sessions to take full advantage of these more formal opportunities.

As I looked over the conference materials and watched many of the sessions I was struck by a few of the many differences between AdTech NYC and more "pure" tech industry conferences and shows. Unlike the majority of tech industry events, AdTech had a highly diverse group of speakers – with a large percentage of senior industry leaders who happened to also be female speaking. The diversity was not just on a male/female line. Speakers were drawn from a wide range of ages, races, countries and types of firms. I personally would have like to hear even more from speakers directly at the advertiser side of the industry but there are many from both digital technology firms and agencies – from both the technology and creative sides of the business.

It is a welcome reminder that not all industries are as myopic as the tech industry often appears if you only went by the speakers at major tech conferences.

The crowd at AdTech was relatively young, though again attendees were quite diverse and above all very actively engaged in talking with each other. I missed most of the major AdTech parties but seeing photos from some of the other media covering the conference, the parties were serious parties. In many ways the Hilton was and is a tough venue for a large, major industry show. But on the otherhand the very tightness of the venue lent itself to people connecting and talking. If you knew just a few people at the show (more than the less than a dozen I knew from before I attended) you could have easily sat in one of the two main bars in the lobby and waited as the conference flowed past you.

And while I made fun, to a degree, of some of the more outrageous ways people promoted their booths in the exhibit hall, for the most part the booths were manned by actual employees of the firms who were actively engaged in conversations with attendees on serious matters. Whenever I stopped and had a conversation I generally fell into an interesting discussion of the industry as well as that particular firm’s offerings.

I would like to thank Allen for the opportunity to report on AdTech NYC 2007. Watch for my ad network to launch in 2008!

Part one – The State of the Industry, presented by the IAB

Moderated by Randall Rothenberg president and CEO of the IAB the panel was Suzie Reider, head of advertising sales for YouTube.com; Michael Barrett, executive VP Chief Revenue Officer Fox Interactive Media; Arianna Huffington – Co founder and Editor in Chief Huffington Post; Matt Freeman CEO Tribal DDB Worldwide.

Great conversation though I entered in the middle so missed some of their introductory remarks and discussions.

In the Q&A a lot of discussion about pre-roll (and how bad it can be). Including from the CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide. Fox brought up 24. "Pre-roll is a clumsy way to get the sponsorship money" – "Ultimately we are not serving our clients well if we are irritating consumers"

Question about cookies – "education to the masses" (hmmm very odd perspective I think but he is assuming the audience is with him). IAB has launched a campaign around the value of interactive advertising – spywares w/cookies etc. Industry is trying to inform people. (Michael on the panel is on the IAB board)

Question about minors online (seems de rigueur for these types of panels)

Part two – Innovate or Die! Thriving in the age of disruption

Moderator -Jon Fine Media Columnist BusinessWeek. Panelists -Jason Hirschhorn president Sling Media Entertainment group; Paul Woolmington Founding Partner Naked Communications; Brad Jakeman Former Executive VP Creative Strategy Macy’s Inc (now a consultant).

Starts with a useful definition of disruption – consensus on breaking current models (that you didn’t create from one panelist). "Everyone worships change, it is cool to be disruptive". Why does this stuff matter? (Microsoft is still bigger than Apple – though I would personally argue this is misleading in some ways)

A bunch of discussion, now moved onto the logical area of music. Brought up LiveNation – and now cut off this topic (tabled for the hallway afterwords)

Great comment "that speech was zero calories" on political talks (I think the guy from Sling Media)

Pinging back to the first keynote today about threat from opting out of advertising.

Morning overview and early post-lunch takeaways

The audience is much smaller now that the trade show is closed, but it is still a very large number of people. My perosnal estimate would be a bit over 1000 people who have stayed for the full conference program. It is a bit difficult to estimate as post-keynotes the talks are spread across at least four separate rooms (and multiple other conferences are being help in the small spaces throughout the Hilton meeting spaces.

All afternoon as one session let out a line formed to get into the next session, on the one hand a sign of slightly cramped spaces and challenging logistics, but also a sign that the topics have been resonating with the audience. On one panel this afternoon they asked how many people in the room were from agencies, in a room of probably 500 or so people, about 30-40 people raised their hands.

However after the keynotes this morning the sessions seem to have been diminishing in energy levels as the day has worn on. I don’t know precisely why I have this perception, some combination I suspect of spaces which are indoors and windowless, with ample white noise in the background, slightly dimmed lights, and too many speakers talking in mostly a monotone voice. There is a marked difference between the speakers who talk while standing – and the panels which so far have mostly been with speakers seated, behind a table on which they can (and sometimes do) lean down, shoulders rounding.

I am going to skip the final panel this afternoon and instead head out to a dinner here in NYC. At the dinner will be many people who are attending Ad:Tech, but also people who are in town for some of the many other conferences happening this week here in NYC. Though so far at least little news has been made here today – certainly this week will go down as an important week in the digital advertising world.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur. His first server on the Internet was in 1991, he started his first company in 2000 after many years working as a technology consultant.

This is my first full breakfast to late night parties Ad:Tech. While my startup is in the ad industry, my background is very much on the technology side of the internet, more so than the online marketing/advertising side or the traditional agency part of the ad industry. As a result here are a few observations I have made of the show, a few minor corrections to my previous posts, and an exploration of what this blogger/entrepreneur did on Tuesday other than walk the exhibit hall and catch the keynote presentations.

Before the first keynote I arrived a bit on the late side to Ad:Tech this morning, the exhibit hall had been open for about an hour and I had yet to have any coffee. Instead I stood, waiting, in the middle of the large Hilton lobby. After a little while of standing, catching up on emails, twitters and blog posts, I sat down. Had this been San Francisco or a "web 2.0" tech industry conference, in the ten minutes or so I stood there in the lobby I would have seen and greated dozens if not hundreds of friends – people I have seen dozens of times at industry events, parties, and previous conferences.

However though Ad:Tech is a tech related event, it is a very different audience and attendee demographic than say O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Summit or the TechCrunch 40 conference.

My meeting, however, was with two fellow tech entrepreneurs also attending the show. We ducked across the street to the Starbucks hidden under scaffolding across 6th Ave from the Hilton (much shorter lines there than at the Starbucks right in the Hilton). We then went up to the press room and talked. Unlike myself, their experience of the show has and will be very different, they have full days of meetings scheduled – indeed the CEO noted that had he not had full days of meetings scheduled but had had just a few (or no) meetings he would have canceled his reservations and stayed in SF.

We talked about my observation yesterday about who was not exhibiting – and about who was here at the show. One thing I learned most definitively is that many of the firms who did not have a major presence (or indeed any presence at all) on the exhibit hall floors are, in fact, here at the show in force. Companies such as MySpace (some 30+ people), AOL (and Ad.com etc), and I assume but haven’t fully confirmed Yahoo! where indeed here, just had chosen not to have a small, cramped booth presence to tie up people – instead they chose to focus on scheduling lots of meetings.

I also wondered how many ad agency folks were here at the show – I have been repeatedly assured that many people are here, but other than one person from an agency in South Florida, I haven’t yet personally met many (speakers excepted). Later today (Wed) the show has promised that more detailed numbers of attendees will be made available, so far the only publicly stated data point is that over 13,000 people had pre-registered – based on the number of people I have seen so far, my personal estimate is that at least 9000 probably more than 10,000 people have been at the show in at least some capacity over the past two days. I will be asking to see if more detailed breakdowns of who was at the show in attendance can be seen (and for example, who was here just for the free expo pass portion and who stays on).

On that note, I overheard in the halls today at least one woman looking forward to "when all the expo only people leave and finally people I want to talk to start seeking me out" – I didn’t catch who she is with but the sentiment I suspect is shared by many, my prediction for the next two days is that they will be a very different and much smaller crowd. I’m not yet sure what the makeup of that crowd will be, but I suspect it will be easier to find people after a given session and easier to meet new people (to a degree) – however whether everyone whom you might want to be meeting will still be here is another matter.

After the last keynote of the day I wandered down to the various hotel bars to try to get a sense of the conversations, to try to meet new people and to round up a group to have some dinner. At the last minute a few friends who were in town (some for Ad:Tech others for other conferences also happening here in NYC, all had schedule conflicts so I was left with a planned restaurant but no one to eat with). I stood and then later sat and watched the crowds ebb and flow.

As I wandered I realized that indeed the audience here is one I do not yet know. I did have a great and fairly long conversation with one good friend who was also here at the show – talking about his ideas for his new venture as well as what I am doing and where we both see the industry as a whole heading in the next few years (see my first overview post on Ad:Tech for my views).

Then I answered a question about where to possibly find great sushi with a ‘would you like to join me for great Korean’? And thus a great, but highly impromptu dinner was assembled. A group of four of us had a great meal, recorded a podcast for Ten Golden Rules where we talked about the show so far, and then after dinner ended up having drinks with other attendees at a bar in Grand Central Station.

A great reminder, yet again, that for all the value of scheduling many meetings, lunches, breakfasts and dinners, it also does pay to have flexibility, to talk to fellow attendees (but possibly strangers) and be open to group dinners and other post-conference events. These conversations, rich, long and accompanied by good food and drink are almost always the ones which get built on over time and lead to great things.

So my advice – by all means schedule meetings like crazy before the show (I know I will before my next Ad:Tech) but also leave room for some random conversations – also look for ways to be approachable and to approach others, to include not just those whom you know from years of past work together, but also new people who are also passionate enough about your industry to spend their time (and often given NYC hotel prices very real money by any measure) to be at the event.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur. His first server on the Internet was in 1991, he started his first company in 2000 after many years working as a technology consultant.

The presentations started this afternoon at Ad:Tech NYC with opening remarks by Drew Ianni the chairman of AdTech Expositions. After his remarks, he introduced Nick Brien, the worldwide CEO of Universal McCann.

A few highlights from the opening remarks. Over 13,000 pre-registrations this year for Ad:Tech NYC (most I imagine though the breakdown was not mentioned were expo only). Over 350 exhibitors. All sessions will be made available as podcasts from Ad:Tech. From starting with one event in 1996, Ad:Tech has now grown to a global series of events, most recently adding Sydney to the roster of cities where they hold events.

In Drew’s view the direction of the ad agency industry will be shifting yet again, away from the unbundled model of the past decade and slowly back to a more bundled model, though with many new players – such as PR firms, CAA, and McKinsey Corporation also entering the industry.

A side note, one of many small signs that though technical the ad industry is not entirely up to speed with the tech industry, in Drew’s slides he used the term "opensource" as a single, compound word. More accurate is the phrase "open source".

The formal title of Nick Brien’s talk was "The New Media Universe: Forging a Model of Interdependence"

Nick starts seated on a stool with a video clip, black and white, featuring the very old school, traditional view of advertising from the perspective of a client, selling soap, by way of ongoing, irritating repetition of the product name.

After the clip Nick polled the audience, 10-15 people in the audience were from agencies. The image he showed was an analog example, the above the line world of advertising. He describes the current state as being across the board above the line, below the line, online and offline.

Among a series of other slides he shows one labeled convergence. On it he shows the iPhone, but in another example of how the ad world at times is a bit behind the tech industry, his slide used the pre-release image, not the current version (missed the YouTube and the iTunes icons).

In rapid fire succession a few of my notes from his slides:

consoumers interlocked with brands and agencies.

Not new media – "new marketing".

The marketing model has fundamentally changed.

Brands are one of the most exciting part of the industry today. Every product faces overcapacity – thus brands matter even more. Brands are facing major change in the media landscape.

He then showed a great video which I have requested a copy of to embed here and link to – it shows on a global scale just how much has already changed in the media and digital landscape, here even I found these numbers and stats compelling and useful to think more deeply about.

Slide about ad avoidance showing love examples using digital branded ad games etc.

Reporting on research from Tivo on ad avoidance. Best is 30 times more likely to be watched than the worst and the worst is 5.5 times more likely to be fast forwarded.

Nick is on the board of Tivo btw.

Showed the Shakira example (so about 6-9 months old but at least still from this year online).

My mental prediction, he is now going to move to Dove.

Yup, he moved there about their campaign for beauty. However in a note that would be repeated in a later panel which also cited the Dove campaign he showed the "lardo" parody video instead of Dove’s original and highly viral video.

A brand is a promise – but not ownable by a corporation anymore.  !!!

Cited the Forrester "complexity lies at the center of the marketing funnel" image which breaks with the traditional ad agency view of a relatively simple funnel through which consumers act and replaces it with a many-to-many maze with many forces entering and a complex web in the middle where some inputs can contradict each other and pull a consumer in many directions.

(a note here, many people I deeply respect object to the term "consumer" and I do as well, but here I am reporting on the language which Nick used in his presentation, he referred to people as consumers. A strong argument can be made that in today’s world "consumption" is not the best way to term the relationship between individuals and how and what they spend money & time on – for one we now may be creating as much or more than we "consume". But this is a discussion perhaps best for another day or at least a separate blog post)

Nick closed with a series of & statements describing what agencies have to deliver for Brands today:

Persuasion & influence.

Big Ideas & exceptional experiences.

Communication and conversation.

Innovation and integration. (which he notes takes risks)

Unfortunately though Nick was generous with his time after the keynote, so much so that the group of us talking with him had to be asked to move aside so they could finish resetting the space for the next panels, he did not have time to take questions from the audience.

If he had I had a few different questions which I pose here for the readers to consider – over the course of the next few days I hope to also continue to explore these questions with other speakers and attendees at Ad:Tech NYC 2007.

1. Beyond one time "stunts" (such as the LynxJet multi-media campaign Nick discussed in his keynote) what can brands do on an ongoing basis to build, reinforce, and expand their brand’s reach and value?

2. While the US Internet market remains large and has very strong advertising spending already, the rest of the globe is rapidly catching up to (and by many aspects surpassing) the US. What does taking a global focus mean?

3. What are the right metrics for tracking branding focused efforts online? For example what time frames are the best to use (and why)?

Later today (Wednesday Nov 7th) among the many panels scheduled for today are a few which cover brands, I hope to make all of these and will write up my thoughts from each.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur. His first server on the Internet was in 1991, he started his first company in 2000 after many years working as a technology consultant.

A quick update on this week’s conference coverage. I am here in Las Vegas covering Blog World Expo and PostieCon or IzraCon or WhateverItsCalledNowCon. I’ve got a headcam so you never know what might show up on tape!

Shannon Clark has been reporting on ad:tech in NYC and will continue through the balance of the week.

Rachel Clarke will be covering the Future of Web Design in NYC beginning tomorrow.

Till Klampaeckel is covering the NY Tech Meetup this evening which includes a presentation on Vimeo and Drop.io, two companies we covered in the past week.

Grab the RSS feed and be notified as soon as one of us posts new updates.

There are ad:tech exhibitors spread across three floors worth of ballrooms at the Hilton New York. Seriously three floors worth of people handing out paper, lots and lots of paper, plus the de rigueur tchokes. Small, cheap, foam footballs. Many types and sizes of balls, Frisbees, pens, mints and more. Advertising folks don’t seem to be, for the most part, all that creative when it comes to promoting themselves. Some firm is handing out cell phone cozies that look like a lounge chair – not so effective as the product, not the company was what was being talked about in the hallways.

And one of the most elaborate booths is, seriously, giving away air. Microsoft Atlas has a full blown, flavored, oxygen bar.

But that is the surface layer, the pile of papers rarely viewed and the toys given away to children, nieces and nephews.

So some observations about who is here at Ad:Tech exhibiting. This is just based on impressions, on the less than 50% of the firms that made enough of an impression that I stopped, looked at their literature, learned a bit more about what they do and who they are.

I have been told that the NYC show is intended to target an audience of mostly advertising industry folks (hence the NYC location). The interesting thing is that I don’t really get a sense that there are a lot of people here who are actually in the advertising industry. Perhaps I’m stereotyping to a degree – but also looking at badges, overhearing conversations, and watching booth discussions – I haven’t met many actual media buyers or ad agency types. My guess is mostly they are downstairs, not up here in the exhibit hall.

Mostly online marketers so far, a lot of booth folks (many of whom appear to be hired, though some – generally I think the more interesting firms have actual employees working the booths).

Rough stats on company types

So far at least one law firm per floor. Apparently there is demand for lawyers in the ad industry.

About a half dozen or so companies promising solutions (or at least approaches) to deal with click fraud.

More ad networks than you can really count. But I will try to get at least an estimate. My quick count, well over 30 and counting. Four or five just in "in Text advertising" (with many claiming this is unique). Many many more promising Hispanic markets, with each also claiming to be the largest international ad network. A number of third tier search engines/search sites (and Google is here).

A virtual sea of TLA (of course that’s "Three Letter Acronyms" ) – CPC, CPA, CPM, CPV (not sure about that last). Dozens of firms focused on email marketing. Nearly ten firms focused on metrics.. This is not counting another dozen plus firms focused on affiliates and managing "CPA" leads, ad networks and the like. Three or four firms offering mobile ad networks of some form.

Over ten, perhaps many more than ten, firms focused on email list management and marketing. Including a few who are offering "guaranteed delivery", claiming to achieve this entirely legally and ethically (not at all clear how they plan on achieving it.).

About a dozen or so search engine optimization firms, not as many as I might have expected.

Very few, again so far at least, traditional media buying firms. Firms who represent a range of brands and manage their media buying and placement online – across ad formats, platforms, networks and more. From a personal perspective these are the firms I am most interested in talking with – as I’m in the midst of building an ad network and they represent the exact right group of buyers for me to talk with about our offering.

My current count is at about ten firms offering a white label ad server of some form for firms to build their own ad network (and in a few cases their own affiliates networks).

And in smaller clusters there are assorted technology firms – a number of hosting companies, a smaller number than I expected number of firms helping with rich media serving, and a few others.

Who is not here – or at least not as large a presence as might be expected

Yahoo does not have a booth of their own. They do have partners here but not a Yahoo booth.

Google has a relatively small booth (Doubleclick has another booth in the same room however).

AOL does not have a booth.

Many of the larger media buying firms (Agency.com for example) are not here. Neither are some of the largest Lead Gen firms (though there are certainly many lead gen firms here).

I do not see many of the major players in online video – no VideoEgg for example. Also missing are the major content delivery networks (which I would argue have a great deal of synergy with the requirements of a large scale ad network – i.e. serving up rich media quickly, reliably, and often in a globally optimized manner).

Tomorrow I will focus mostly on the sessions and keynotes.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur. His first server on the Internet was in 1991, he started his first company in 2000 after many years working as a technology consultant.