Ending on a hot note

Wrapping up the LWIIE, was a presentation from Jeff Cole. The ever thinning crowd is starting to look a little worn. Could be a combination of food coma with the 82 degree (29 degrees for the rest of the world) heat, or it could be information overload. 15 Presentations and 1 live briefing/concepting session later, I think it's safe to say that it's near impossible to walk away from this without learning something.
Hopefully someone actually brought their swimsuit. Cannonballs on a New York rooftop would be a good way to end the day.
It was a pleasure blogging for you.

Enter Custom Title Here

Andrew Bloom from Spot Runner introduced the next big thing in customized advertising; electronically creating, delivering, and monitoring video ads to fit in any media plan. This raises the question, will we as creatives be useful anymore? Or just busier creating different video scenarios? I visited a similar agency here in New York called Visible World, where it was explained that this technology means that we have to work harder and smarter because clients will be expecting more and more. But imagine how awesome it would be to have a toilet paper ad that addresses your specific bathroom needs. Ok, maybe awesome isn't the word.

Sexy Interactives, not an oxymoron

Kevin Swanopel from One Club presented some award winning interactive banners and websites. Clever stuff. Perhaps one of the most intriguing was Kevin's "favorite" banner in which you could use your mouse to feel a naked breast (all of course in the name of Breast Cancer Awareness). Some other notable sites included beer.com and Victoria's Secret Pink Poker, which both involved partially clothed models who either serve beer at your command or strip down to their panties if they lose at a hand of cards. Who needs a subservient chicken when you can have a half naked woman on command? (I know all of the other bloggers were thinking the same thing, they're just too afraid of being sexist to write about it.)

Not your average Joe Bloggers....

Bjorn Larsson mediates a bunch of bloggers. Well, these are not your average Joes; they are founders of some the city’s most coveted blogs. Introducing Flavorpill’s Sascha Lewis, Engadget’s Peter Rojas and Gothamist’s Jake Dobkin.

Peter Rojas – who recently sold Engadget to AOL - talks about niche media and the power of sincere content. “Don’t dumb it down. Give it to them straight.” He also emphasizes the importance of advertisers really understanding the content of the site and that this synergy between niche content (editorial) and niche products (advertising) is a winner. The audience loves this because it introduces new niche products to them.

Sascha’s site Flavorpill publishes eleven email magazines, covering art, books, music, fashion, world news, and cultural events in six cities. He talks about the new dynamics between media, ad agencies and clients. “Things are mashed up more, there is more collaboration and media agencies have become more flexible. That concept of church and state is over.”

Sascha also claims that online media is a lot more flexible than offline. If something is not right, it can be taken down instantly.
“Flavorpill offers a hybrid of different services and has enabled clients to feel closer to us because we are more flexible.”



On maintaining objectivity and integrity as an editorial publication?


All bloggers – whose companies have excelled because of their exceptionally high quality content - unanimously concur “good content is hard.”

Sascha: “The integrity of the editorial process and the intrinsic brand essence is the foundation of our company.”

Gothamist’s Jake Dobkin concurs “Having accurate information, having it work, and selling it is still difficult.”


Their advice to us: “Identify the sites that are most fitting with your clients, and work with those clients and sites to bring synergy. Remember that blogs are popular because they are good.”

Killer comment of the session: “The web is a messy place. Need to embrace that mess.” Sascha referencing Wired’s editor, Chris Anderson.

Cheers to Bloggers!

Bloggers from Flavorpill(I love the weekly event emails!), The Gothamist, and engadget discuss their success, including co-branding, PR involvement, and future opportunities. The most important message these bloggers want us advertisers to know is, "Focus on designing a campaign to fit the blog. Don't try to shove the same campaign that you would run for one site onto another one...Running the same ad on a blog that you ran on Yahoo is just lazy." Digital media needs to no longer be used as just an after thought...customization is not the future, it's right now.

Where's the party?

I had admired a super cute LBD (little black dress) when I first arrived this morning. Well, turns out the dress comes complete with a consumer focused presentation from Erika Nardini, WW Branded Entertainment. She presented an interesting online event, sponsored by Nokia, that created a global community for New Year's Eve celebrations. "1 party. 5 cities. 830,000 hours of video". Her presentation focused on the ability of brands to create relevant content and the relationships that build around it. Cool stuff. My only thought was, why don't I ever get asked to be involved in these sponsored parties?

note said dress on the right

PC or MAC

Nothing tops off a trendy breakfast better than sipping an even trendier bottle of water ( it actually looks more like a suntan lotion bottle) while listening to the delightful "Tom from Microsoft" figure out the bugs with his PC. Handling the technology setback with pure grace, he finally was able to show a short video that that gave everyone a little giggle. His presentation was succinct and to the point so that he could give the stage to Caroline Vogt, also from Microsoft. She has a cute slide in her Powerpoint of all the flags of the countries represented in her technology study. It reminded me of a worksheet I had to color in 4th grade.