Approximately 200 gathered at the Ritz in Tyson’s Corner on Nov. 17 for host Potomac Tech Wire’s breakfast roundtable covering Internet advertising and marketing outlook. Joined by moderator Paul Sherman, editor of Potomac Tech Wire, were Anne Hunter, VP, advertising effectiveness products, comScore; Ernie Mosteller, VP, creative director/emerging media for Brunner Digital; Rochelle Sanchirico, senior director of acquisition marketing, Washington Post Digital; Mark Walsh, CEO and chairman, GeniusRocket; and Mike Zaneis, VP, public policy, Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Some of the Capitol Communicator’s take-away bites from the discussion were:
Walsh – “Non-intrusive advertising is working. Provide entertaining, creative and engaging information, do not overdo it pushing the brand” “CPM metrics are dead in the water”;
Sanchirico – “Advertising that has a call-to-action has the best conversion rates”;
Zaneis – “Search accounts for 47% of online ad spending”;
Hunter – “Less than 10% of the people that click-on an ad are the people you want to reach. It is brand equity online that is on the upswing and resulting in actual sales offline.”;
Sherman – “As blogged in Techcrunch - Advertising is failing on the internet because traditional advertising does not carry over on the Internet”;
Mosteller – “The web is not a zero sum game. Unlike print there is always more space, unlike TV there is always more time”;
Zaneis – “Digital Video has grown by 35% in the last year”.
Sherman introduced a scenario to the panel and asked them if given $5 million to promote a Gap jacket before Christmas, how would they spend the money. Responses included:
Walsh – Go to the hippest clubs in major cities and give the jacket out to the hottest people and then request that they get the word out if they liked the jacket;
Sanchirico – 25% on online display ads, 25% in social media, 25% in Search and 25% in mobile and blog;
Zaneis – Max out search;
Hunter – search, social media, have the jacket worn by the Mafia Wars guy, have the iTunes silhoettes wear the jacket; and,
Mosteller – Not enough information to make a recommendation.
Sherman asked the panel what they thought would be the hottest media segment in 2010 online, responses included:
Walsh – Social networks/communities
Mosteller – Social media and higher quality video
Sanchirico – Video
Zaneis – Video
Hunter – Targeting
Of note, no one mentioned mobile. Zaneis stated that every year for the past five years was supposed to have been the year of mobile advertising. Mosteller stated when it comes to mobile you have to give the consumer a good reason to opt in to mobile advertising. The bottom line may be: My mobile is too personal, don’t invade that space.