For the past few years, I have been fortunate to attend several of the IAB’s Leadership Forums. The event’s organizer, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net), is one of the most respected providers of information-based events for the interactive advertising industry.
The IAB is based in New York and, as a result, the majority of its conferences take place in the Big Apple. In fact, New York will be host to a Leadership Forum on Digital Video in May, one on User Generated Content & Social Media in June, Mobile Marketing in July and Audience Measurement in November. Each of these conferences will cover issues that are crucial for today’s marketers, and the future of online advertising as a whole.
But, in Chicago, for the past four years we’ve played host to the most important (in my opinion) Leadership Forum of them all…the one on Performance Marketing. This is an event where the industry takes a close look at how Interactive is changing the face of DIRECT marketing.
This year’s event, titled "A New Era of Accountability" covered everything from next gen lead gen, to emerging media platforms, to predictive scoring, to the birth (and growth) of the ad exchange model. But the recurring theme throughout every presentation was accountability.
In his welcome message, Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB, stated that "The paradigm of performance marketing has continued to shift…The traditional notion that specific advertising vehicles or channels should be reserved solely for branding and others for direct response no longer applies."
Hallelujah!!! For too many years, our clients have been asking, "Why can’t my direct response campaign also build awareness?" or "Why can’t my branding campaign also stimulate demand and generate sales leads?" So, what about Brand-Response Advertising (a term we’ve been throwing around the agency for a couple of years)? Increasingly, marketers are acknowledging that the consumer is in control…today’s advertising objectives are written by replacing the words, "to build awareness" with the words, "to build engagement."
As a concept, "engagement" is understood by brand advertisers AND direct response advertisers–equally. The most successful brands in the world are those that have a loyal base of customers who are "engaged" in the brand. And, the most successful lead gen campaigns are those that work to immediately "engage" the target audience.
The Interactive advertising industry continues to push the envelope…developing increasingly complex advertising platforms and techniques. But every one of them has been developed from the desire to more effectively ENGAGE with prospects and customers.
As Mr. Rothenberg said, "As the mediascape evolves and formerly distinct lines blur, [marketers] must expand their thinking and their tool kits."
