Marketing in a Digital World 2004 Tour: Chicago
Marketing In A Digital World: Where Do We Go From Here?
By Elysabeth Alfano & John Bohan
"Over one hundred twenty marketing, research and agency executives from around Chicago gathered at the Ritz Carlton Ballroom last Thursday, June 10th, for the Marketing in a Digital World conference and there was a buzz was in the air. Technology and its impact on consumers’ everyday, minute-to-minute lives have brought us to the brink of a new marketing age.
John Bohan, President of i20Events, opened the conference by saying that we are half way through a twenty year period of radical change in advertising and marketing. 
However, it appears that the whole purpose of the first 10 years was to set the foundation for the next 10. Since 1994, billions of dollars have been spent to encourage a shift in marketing and advertising from traditional methods to new, more progressive techniques. Yet, digital advertising in its many forms still makes up only about 3% of the total advertising pie.
So what has really changed? “From a macro perspective, not much,” said Bohan. “But we are now at a tipping point, and when things begin to change, they change more frequently and much faster.”
Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer and the moderator of the conference, echoed the fast pace of change saying that on-line spending will increase 15% in 2004, broadband will be in 1/3rd of all houses by year end 2006 and Personal Video Recorders (i.e. TiVos) will affect $5.5 Billion in Television advertising in the 2006 via skipped commercials. He went on to say that consumer resistance to advertising is growing. Consumers are increasingly in control of their entertainment and information channels, and media fragmentation is out of control. 
The old model of interspersing commercials throughout content is dying as the consumer now has the ability edit out commercials via TiVos, XM Radio, spam control software and other devices.
So, does the traditional marketer hang up the towel and find a new job or does he embrace the empowered consumer and run more tailored advertising campaigns?
Sean Finnegan, Midwest Director of OMD Digital, is a strong believer of the latter and expressed his support for Consumer Behavioral Marketing and Search Engine Marketing. He told the audience that these forms of advertising will help revolutionize how media is bought, as behavioral targeting allows you to give people what they want, when they want it. Make it relevant! Taper the message exactly to their needs and—presto—they’ll give you their attention, and ultimately their dollars. In fact, 30% of consumers, or 45 million people, said that they actually appreciate targeted ads, explained Dan Hess, SVP, Industry Analysis and Marketing for comScore. Dan continued by pointing out that while Consumer Behavioral Marketing is more expensive, it also delivers better results.
Jeff Marshall, SVP, Director of Operations at Starcom IP,
termed the advertiser/consumer relationship as “The Value Exchange”. Advertisers provide the consumer with something of value in exchange for their time. Most of today’s “Value Exchange” is very simple. For example, advertisers make their commercials entertaining and, in exchange, consumers stay tuned. More sophisticated methods are starting to evolve and he cited Nike’s 15 minute, free, on-line workout with a trainer and American Express’ highly entertaining Seinfeld and Superman Internet segment as examples. Marshall’s message was clear: Make it valuable, and they’ll be comin’ back for more.
Wayne Chmiel, Director of Brand Knowledge & Global Brand Business at McDonald’s, shared McDonald’s strategy of taking a historically mass approach and making it personal by teaming up with SONY and allowing consumers to download a favorite song on the Internet for free. Make it personal with a little “iattitude” and they’ll be lovin’ it! To demonstrate how McDonald’s is changing, 
Chmiel also aired their new commercial with Justin Timberlake that was launched early last week. This type of creative is very different than what McDonald's ran just a few years ago and shows their adaptation to and understanding of the new digital consumer. They want to give people the opportunity to be independent, while still being part of a greater whole.
More real world examples were provided by Pete Peterson, President of the Travel Distribution of UAL Loyalty Services. He spoke of United’s new TED airline service and how they can taper ads to people on-line depending on where they live, which credit card they own and where they travel most often. Peterson then outlined how this targeted Internet advertising has changed their other media campaigns and helped UAL better target people in local print vehicles, as well. Viva the suburbs of Chicago? Why, when you can Viva Las Vegas on the affordable TED!
Like all good dialogues, there were points of difference. Matthew Mulderink, 
Director of Interactive Marketing at FTD.com talked about the potential of search advertising leveling off or there being just too much clutter for the consumer. Chmiel was clear that McDonald’s was hesitant about advertising on cell phones, wanting to remain heavy on the content radar and low on the SPAM scale.
The interactive conference also raised a series of questions from Ramsey and the audience: Is TV dead? What will make on-line marketing a bigger part of the budget? How do we fold in Internet marketing into the overall media plan so they work hand in hand? Will behavioral targeting and contextual advertising completely replace traditional reach and frequency models? How can we survive cookie flushing? Luckily, the dialogues continued during the break and afterward at a light dinner, where top marketing, agency and research executives from all ends of the spectrum networked over pasta, tuna sashimi, chocolate covered strawberries and an open bar.
Attendees were very pleased with the content and on-going dialogues that the conference offered. "The variety and caliber of speakers lent itself to a provocative and candid exchange on industry perspectives. Given the multi-city approach to this series, this is a very worthwhile event for client and agency side directors and management," stated John Joseph, SVP of Client Services at Performics. Colleen Cassell, Director of Multi-channel Marketing at Sears agreed, “The case studies were very insightful ... particularly into how a few big brands are using the internet to target (in a myriad of ways). Spawned some new ideas for my team.”
With billions of dollars spent in the last 10 years to plant the seeds of change in the marketing and advertising industry, the foundation is firmly in place for digital 
advertising to radically increase in the near future. i20Events’ Marketing in a Digital World conferences are forums for the leaders in the industry to share their findings and experiences with new, more effective advertising techniques that embrace the empowered consumer. Upcoming Marketing in a Digital World conferences will be held on September 9th in San Francisco, September 23rd in New York, October 14th in Detroit and November 4th in Dallas. These conferences are designed specifically for clients, advertising agencies and i20Event sponsors."
