ad:tech day 1 notes
My thoughts from ad:tech Day 1:
Keynote on digital consumers in Asia:
- This was about statistics and emerging markets in Asia
- Australia and China are the markets where the most innovative marketing in social media is happening in Asia-Pacific
- There are two major areas of emerging marketing in Asia-Pacific: social media and mobile
- There are 3 themes that underlie marketing in the region right now: cautious optimism, careful experimentation and getting real ROI
- Marketing overall is entering the digital age
- Data will be the “secret sauce” of digital marketing, meaning being able to get real information on what’s happening, what’s being viewed, clicked, timed, tracked, etc
- Search is the star performer right now
- APAC agencies are copying what’s happening in the west, adapting it for the APAC markets, and then re-exporting innovations back to the west
Keynote on engaging the youth:
There’s not so much to report from this session, although it was one of the most entertaining of the day. There was a panel of 5 students, 4 from Asia and 1 from the US. They discussed the ways that they use social networking sites, watch TV (online), read newspapers (they don’t) and what else they do online. It was just a fun discussion with a lot of energy. The main thing that stuck with me was that they don’t like companies following them on Twitter. 
- The biggest offering to advertisers and marketers is audience scale
- But don’t focus on ad revenues, because people aren’t spending right now
- Profile pages and product pages are a way of putting your brand into the community
- Brands can then associate themselves with pieces of content, like events
- The biggest opportunity is to get content converted into revenue from the users via gifts, rebates, vouchers, gaming, virtual items, microtransactions, etc
- People always use the social network that’s most local for them, and the one that their friends are on.
- Each social network is getting a slightly different flavor. For instance, Facebook is getting so common that people are having to clean up what they put out there, like removing photos from a drunken party. Others are more focused on where you can flirt, share party pictures, or others where you can do business. MySpace is still strongest on music.
- Facebook is not interesting for multimedia, banners or even for brand engagement, according to the Friendster guy.
- Yes, people may say things about you or your product, and there’s always a risk of bad comments. But bad comments may come anyway, and the best thing you can do is listen to the comments, and talk to your users.
- Mobile is the next major trend predicted.
I had some other commitments that kept me from the rest of the day’s program, but I’ll be back tomorrow. If you’re there, please stop by my panel.
