So it’s been a week since my last post. I’m rusty. Yet I’m down in Florida at the iMediaConnection Brand Summit, and the theme is “Turning Advertising Into Content.” I simply love that tagline, and quite possibly may steal it.
The event is packed with marketers from some of the largest names in the world — Coke, Best Buy, Bank of America, AOL, Cadillac, Martha Stewart, Target, Microsoft. Thank GOODNESS nobody is here from USAirways. The 6th best-rated video of the day on YouTube is my story of the horrible flight I took down here last night.
Highlight was meeting the guy behind the YouTube promotions for Intuit. We’ve all seen the Quicken tax ads (from the raps to the recent comedy contest), and it was fantastic hearing about how Intuit’s approach has evolved. Today is the one-year anniversary of the tax rap program, and obviously YouTube has grown a bit since.
To give you a sense of how much variance there is among marketers, I’ll contrast a few comments from marketers. On one hand, we have Intuit — the first brand I’ve even heard acknowledge (without any prompts from me) the value of promoting through creators who have established audiences. On the other hand, we have some eMarketing “administrators” that believe they’re exploring online video because they have video testimonials on their website.
The world is changing quickly, and Brad Berens (iMedia Communication) did a charismatic opening that allowed participants to vote on remote devices. I was encouraged to see that both agencies and vendors expect their television and print budgets to migrate online rapidly in 2008. Jeff Rayport (Fonder of Marketspace, LLC and former Harvard professor) gave a fascinating keynote that set the bar high.
Tomorrow I’ll be on a panel titled “The Golden Rule of Consumer-Generated Advertising: Know Thy Ad Creator.” If they videotape it I’ll post it. I usually take a camera with me on the panel, but I’ve yet to post a video… it’s not very entertaining to see me rambling about marketing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll fart audibly. That should make a good video.
Woes and sorrows. Woes and sorrows. Is there no value in promoting through creators who don’t have established (huge) audiences? What’s the cutoff number for an “established” audience? Is no one below that number funny or interesting? For instance, I find Ken Nordine’s stuff appreciably better (and a lot more soulful) than 95% of the corn syrup from the Youtube Partners. (More like 98.9%) He has 190 subscribers.
I know this is a specious argument. I know it’s all about the numbers. Quantity over quality. LCD. Maximizing bucks. Advertisers don’t even look at the videos they sponsor. Couldn’t be bothered. I know that. I went to business school. Still, I’m kind of sad for us.
hope to see some of that panel…post it if you can!
ack! Haven’t seen your new video yet, I’m rather behind on YT at the moment. But I can already tell you you’re not alone – I’ve had some pretty crappy experiences with US Airways myself.
I hope you’re having fun in Florida!
I have to admit the e-trade ad is the best I’ve seen in a long time. Anyone know, Is that Donnie?
Marquis did you know that Ken Nordine was the spokesmen for Tasters Choice Coffee back, I don’t know when.
Kevin I hope you upload the conference you can call it Bore Me Too!
I feel bad now about digging deep in my reg trying to get rid of Intuit.
I love Tasters Choice. The coffee, not the board of directors.
If you fart audibly during your part of the panel discussion, go on as if nothing had happened, and post it on youtube, I’ll give you 50 bucks.
Anybody else wanna chime in with more cash to make the offer even more attractive?