Tag Archives: Conferences

Inside Look at DOOH Forecast (via PQ Media)

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Patrick Quinn – President & CEO, PQ Media – “Digital Out-of-Home Media Forecast”

Exclusive look outside of folks at PQ Media at new data & research (4th edition will be published in February 2011)

Lots of data to digest, hard to keep up, but good stuff.

He asked a question of the audience – how many of you represent (audience of about 20):

  • Venues – 1
  • Brand – 0
  • Agencies – 3 (inc. me)
  • Integrators – 3
  • Network Operators – majority

DOOH has one of the best chances to succeed as a new media platform

3 Key Drivers of Economic Growth

  1. Innovation & technical support
  2. Changes in consumer demand
  3. Drives ad & marketing spending

PQ Media has ID’d 3 phases of successful new media:

  1. Gold Rush
  2. Shakeout
  3. Breakout

FACTOID OF THE DAY – How fast each major ad network reached $1B in revenue – DOOH is #3 behind Internet (5 years) & mobile (7 years) – DOOH (9 years)

Gold rush phase for DOOH – 2003 – 2008
Shakeout occurred 2008 – 2010 (they believe the shakeout will continue through 2011)
Breakout phase will occur after 2011. Few market leaders control the industry. About 70% of Digital Place-Based Networks & Digital Billboards/Signs are both dominated by the top 10 operators. For the breakout to really occur, you need to see more than 70%. Consolidation needs to still occur and it is expected.

DOOH Media definition (according to the them):
DOOH media includes advertising vehicles developed through new technology to target more mobile and captive consumers in less cluttered locations outside the home. DOOH media use innovative concepts designed for greater consumer engagement, participation and brand activation.

They break DOOH down into 2 categories:
Digital Place Based Networks (integrate targeted entertainment and/or info programming with ad pods narrowcast on digital video screens) & Digital Billboards/Signs (advertising-only messages through screens equipped with LED or LCD techs)

DOOH Industry snapshot:

  • 267 digital place-based operators & aggregators
  • 426 digital place-based networks in five venue categories
  • Over 1 MM video screens installed nationwide
  • 117 digital billboard & signage operators
  • About 4,000 digital billboards & signs in 4 location categories

Total DOOH grew 1.5% in 2009 to $1.8B
Where does OOH fit in the overall ad spend? – only 4% of ad spend
DOOH represented 25% of that small percentage in OOH

Key Trends:

  • Magic number for DVR penetration – 35% in DMA for it to reach a point where TV will no longer become as powerful ad network (hmmm)
  • 44% media consumption occurs outside of the home
  • DOOH media is attractive to brands because it offers ads up to targeted audiences in captive venues for extended periods of time
  • DOOH is becoming part of integrated media solutions
  • More market leaders providing broader target audience scale
  • Operators investing in sales and marketing staff, strategic and tactical improvements

Key DOOH research:

  • 70% interaction w/ digital signs per month
  • Digital signage perceived as more engaging than static
  • Interactivity is promoting longer dwell time
  • Digital billboards generated 6-10x more revenue per month than static

Challenges:

  • Content & creative needs to improve with standards to increase engagement
  • Agencies are seeking methods to better plan and buy DOOH more efficiently
  • Remains cost-prohibitive for many DOOH network operators to develop local sales teams
  • Capex for new and improved technologies continue to impact profit margins
  • Metrics still need improvement to meet agency/brand requirements and compete w/ other media
  • Competition for other merging media remains stiff
  • DOOH operators need to embrace and develop strategies to capitalize on emerging mobile and social media options. Smartphones – 20% of subs in 09 rising to 50% by 2014
  • New techs driving mobile/DOOH convergence – SMS, Bluetooth, QR codes, LBS, Graphic Recognition (camera) – all of the things I talk about being enabling technologies

Preliminary Forecast:

  • Place-Based Networks – 15% – 16% growth in 2011
  • Digital Billboards/Signs – 18% – 19% growth in 2011
  • Overall DOOH – 16% – 17% growth in 2011

Key growth drivers – better audience metrics, improved sales/mktg tactics, national scale more widely available, expansion into new venues, integration w/ mobile and social, emerging technologic enhancements (ie. 3D)

Questions/Answers:
Captivate – largest in-office network in the US. Wall St. Journal Network – 2nd largest.

Largest opportunity – Cinema is the gold-standard. National CineMedia is the largest (backed by 3 major theater owners). Office space, too, is doing well. Skews over 50% women, the alpha-moms.

R&D, where’s it being spent? – advertisers – GPS, mobile web, proximity-based (hmmmmmmm)

How many networks have national footprint? Very few.

Nut – clearly, advertisers are seeing the value in DOOH networks – they’re using it as an Awareness channel. I don’t think they’re recognizing the full potential (interactivity, personal experiences), but I also don’t think it will take them long to get on board.

Word of the session – Alpha Mom.

CETW Keynote #1 – Inside Target’s Multi-channel Strategy

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Chris Borek from Target – “Bull’s-eye!  Keeping your eye on the Target – Successful Strategies of Customer Engagement Technologies”

Key ingredients for the theme of this show – Engagement & Technology

Engagement is all about emotion – want to spark something that enables  the consumer to “feel” – favorable attention

Experience is a little bit different – it’s a touchpoint, not a feeling, but the “type” of experience (good or bad) dictates what kind of emotion (engagement) will be felt

Target looks at Engagement as – “Helping our guests find things, learn about things, and ultimately buy things.”

Strategies for How Target Engages Guests:

  • Consider the environment – physical space
  • Challenge assumptions + Evolve
  • Go Where “She” (target audience) is…but don’t stalk her.  Mobile – enable shopping anywhere, anytime – they call mobile a “bring your own kiosk.”  Doing lots of things w/ mobile including coupons and an app.  Simplicity, functionality, utility are the keys to mobile success.  (Good!)  Social – She’s there, they’re there.  He talked about some of their learnings in the social space – same ol’, same ol’ – it’s an ongoing/never-ending conversation
  • Listen & Learn – What does your audience want?  “Video Game Learning Center” – answers some of the needs from their target audience (I just wonder how much “she” is using this??)  Her needs are all about easy and fun.  Is she intimidated by these touch screens?
  • Wow ‘em – 8.18.10 – held a Kaleidosopic Fashion Spectactular.  Looks very cool – used the side of a building to showcase models/new fashion line – made a big spectacle out of it in NYC.  Target gave away some branded binoculars – nice event.  Check it out:

  • Let her drive – Consumers are becoming more and more empowered to have personal experiences – IMO and I’ve talked often about this – this is going to be a conscious expectation of the consumer before too long.  My Merona – can piece together a fashion look/outfit that she might like (on FB page)  My Target Weekly – piece together your own circular based on the regular, weekly Target circular (on FB page) – can filter deals you want and then the coupons.  And it keeps a history so it grows over time.
  • Leverage that media!
  • Collaborate + Stay true to your core

Nut – Target understands their target (couldn’t help that one) audience and their story.  These 2 key components enable them to tell their story across multiple platforms in a compelling way.  They are really pushing the limits in trying to understand all of the channels in today’s landscape and to their credit, using them, even if it’s experimentation.

Word of the session – Cheap Chic

First Impressions of CETW

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I’m here.  Hungry, but here.  I had the fortune of getting together with my mentor last night and it was the perfect way to start this trip.  But we let the talking and catching up trump everything, including eating and sleeping.  So, I’m hungry and tired.  But it’s going to be a good day.

Here in NYC, this show seems smaller than the one in Vegas earlier in the year.  This is my first time at the Javits Center so maybe it’s optical-illusion-like and it’s really not smaller.  Just seems to be.  Not a bad thing – in fact, this is one of the things I like about this show – it has a small-town feel and I can certainly appreciate that.

Seems very stuffy this morning.  I’m seeing lots of people walking in in their suits.  Not me.  I’m going to get a breakdown of audience attendees that I’ll share.  But I say this should be a no-tie affair.

The show organizers – Lawrence and team – are good.  They are personable (getting back to the small-town feel), full of enthusiasm and ideas and most of all, want to put on a show that will be of value to the vast range of attendees needed in this industry.

I’m looking forward to catching up with some of my Preset buddies and hearing from many different people – sessions look to be diverse and interesting.

My CETW Session – Teaser

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I’m speaking at CETW next week.  If you’re in NYC at the conference, let me know.  I’d love to catch up.  My session is called, “Strategy First: Incorporating Digital/Interactive Out Of Home Into Campaign Strategy” and it takes place on Thursday 11/11 at 10:30.   Out of the two industry shows this year, I really enjoyed the focus of CETW.  I think DSE focuses more on the technology aspect, and CETW is trying to focus on the audience (consumers) and engagement.  (From what I understand, DSE is trying to shift the focus of their sessions to be more diverse and address elements like audience and engagement.)  Anyway, CETW was nice enough to reach out to me in the Spring and work with me on creating a panel that addresses an agency’s POV on OOH (notice I didn’t say “digital signage.”)  I’ve observed that there haven’t been many agency & brand-friendly panels at these two conferences and as a result, they aren’t attracting many agencies or brands.  I feel like this is a great opportunity for both of these conferences because the reality of OOH as a new, more powerful media channel is right in front of us.  Agencies and brands must understand how technology has impacted the ability to engage consumers outside of their home and all of the possibilities that brings.  And if that were presented from a realistic, practical level – talking about what we (agencies) deal with every day in getting work done for our clients + what we believe the potential of this new medium brings – from people conceiving and doing the actual work, seems like it would provide some much-needed insights from a different, critical POV.  So, that’s what we’re doing.  We’ve got a panel made up of different roles (CMO, Account Planning, Strategy/Execution, & Creative Direction) from different types of agencies (media, advertising, and PR).  It’s designed to be an interactive session, with minimal “formal” presentations.  We’ll give an overview of who we are, where we come from, what we do, and then take turns answering questions that address how we get work done, what we think of “OOH,” its potential, its role, executing it, brand story, our relationships with brands, and the bright, shiny object syndrome.  If nothing else, it will be a fun panel, full of energy and good discussion.

Digital PR Summit – Quick Closing Thoughts

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OK, shutting ‘er down for right now.  It’s been a long day and I see work emails piling up so I’ve got to spend some time addressing those.

The last panel of the day (that we’re missing) is about “Leveraging Video for Your PR Efforts.”  As a old filmmaker, I understand the power of video in telling a story.  The immediacy of social media has changed the rules in terms of production value, but there is great value in telling stories in pictures, regardless of how highly produced (or not) it is.

The sessions here were pretty good.  The morning started off slow, the afternoon picked up.  Heard some really good things here today and it’s been good to get other people’s perspectives.  Hearing all of this, though, gives me great confidence that the direction we’re going (FH TX, as a group) is the right direction and we will lead the way.  We have much work to do ahead of us, but it’s the right group and we’ve got the right people doing it.  I have no doubt.

Panel 5 – Digital PR Summit – Smart Digital Tactics During a Crisis

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Here we go again.  Rapid fire today.

Panelist – John Bell (360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy)

5 trends in Digital Crisis Mgt:  1) Everything happens at lightning speed, 2) People demand hyper-transparency, 3) Dialogue is as important as message delivery, 4) Search reputation delivers multimedia, 5) Brand detractors have the same tools

Understanding what to do in the first 24 hours is critical.  Don’t have to respond/react quickly all the time.

2-way dialogue is essential.  You have to be ready to answer for everything.

Panelist – Dallas Lawrence (Burson-Marsteller) – this dude is no joke.  Seems like a real smart guy, straight-shooter, fast talker.

How you sell this crisis planning in the online space?  We are great storytellers for our clients, but horrible about telling our own stories.

3 key online threats today: 1) accidental 2) deliberate but uncoordinated 3) organized campaigns

You have to be prepared to tackle any of these threats.  Do you have a social presence?  A voice?

Good, interesting stats – 75% receive news, 50% actively gather news, 37% create news.

If marketing is running social media, do they know how to handle crisis?  There must be integration with corporate communications.  If not, it’s fatal.

6 out of 10 members of the House of Representatives are on Twitter and more Republicans on Twitter than Democrats.

Panelist – Gary Spangler (DuPont)

Going to talk about “issues” management, not particularly “crisis” management.  Search is a huge component.  Paid search specifically.  Buy keywords, send them to your content.  Yes.

If you deliver your voice in a valid, transparent, caring way, consumers are willing to hear your point of view.

If brand has negative attack and all the brand does is set the record straight on the negative issue, the issue is still going to remain.  The brands have to turn it into a positive.  Need to leverage relationships/earned media at this point.  When writing a press release, make it a social media press release.  Create that same piece of content in a way that it can be blogged, tweeted, etc… Don’t have to use them, but you have them.

Between issues, you need to be developing relationships with influencers.  Build trust.  This is such a vital component to managing any issue/crisis.

Panelist – Sarah Tyre (Ketchum)

Again, it’s important to have a presence.  Also, as much as you can, set ground rules/expectations.  So, if someone has a complaint w/ their vehicle (let’s say), here’s the person/channel to contact.  Secondly, you’ve got to listen and respond.  Respond quickly, openly, honestly.

If someone asks, “what should my digital crisis management plan be,” your first question back should be – “Do you have a regular crisis management plan?”  The approaches can’t be independent of one another.

Three steps – Diagnose (goals, set focus), Manage (strategize, determine best voice, engage), Redefine (measure, optimize)

Need to train company/organization on crisis response.

Don’t look at social media space in a vacuum.

Questions – what are the most underutilized tools in crisis management?  John – SEO/SEM and video.  Dallas – Twitter and general council.  Gary – email and web pages.  Sarah – SEM. (All of these are basic.  Smart.  Don’t need to overthink “channels.”)

Dallas gives another nugget in the Q&A session:  Over-communicate, don’t make the problem worse.

Panel 4 – Digital PR Summit – ID & Engage the Right Influencers

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Panel 4 here.  2 more to go. Big news is that I won the raffle during this session and it’s Stephanie’s new book – Perspectives on Social Media Marketing (when I won, she said, “oh, you don’t need this, he’s a digital guy.”)

Cutting through the Clutter: How to ID and Engage with the Right Influencers

Panelist – Stephanie Agresta (Porter Novelli)

All things digital should be grounded in community.  Big shift in how “digital” has been thought about in the past.

The amount of time and effort that goes into this can’t be about the platform.  It’s understanding that we need to manage an ecosystem of relationships.

Showed their “Engagement Protocol” – Listen, Set Objectives, Asses Influencers, Define Participation/Content Strategies, Develop, Measure/Optimize.

Who owns SM – PR or advertising?  Some of the challenges for ad agencies is what it means to develop and manage things like editorial calendars.  PR also has advantage of being able to craft messages around different scenarios.

Gillette Fusion ProGlide case study – their community management started long before the “launch.”  Approach a combo of “influencers” and consumers.

Some of her favorite tools to find “influencers”/thought leaders – klout.com, oneforty.com, slideshare.net, and of course, search.twitter.com

Panelist – Deirdre Sullivan (MWW) – consumers are no longer influenced by branded ads.

Users are now turning into valuable contributors.

There are a zillion conversations out there in many different communities.  How do you join the conversation?

1. Build social capital – present yourself as a trusted source/authority.

2. Become influential – if you want to attract other influencers, become one yourself.  Create content.  Speak your mind.

3. Develop strategic partnerships – you don’t have to “pay” to play.

Panelist – Heidi Sullivan (Cision)

You must be able to understand which “influencers” are most appropriate for your brand/industry.  Not all influencers are created equal.  It’s not necessarily the number of eyeballs, but the impact within that community.  As you look for influencers, it’s important to look beyond “followers.”

Her 5 key steps to ID’ing, finding the right influencers:

1. ID your keywords

2. It’s all about RESEARCH – more and more agencies are beefing up their research staff.

3. Do the math – Web analytics + social analytics.

4. Map your results – it’s more than just their “followers.”

5. Engage – build that relationship! Rule of 1/3 – 1/3 is about you, 1/3 is conversation/engaging, 1/3 is social karma (find other articles you like, retweet their stuff) – (I don’t do a good job of the conversation/engaging part – gotta work on that!)

Panelist – Kellie Parker (Sega – Community Manager)

Been doing community for 10 years now.  She works w/ PR & marketing within Sega.  Most of the time, it’s the same content, just framed/said differently, depending on audience.

Measuring return on “new” marketing is about measuring more of the intangible vs. the tangible.  Big shift.

It’s important to evaluate your current measurement tools.  Do you know how to use them?  If not, get a hold of the vendor and ask them questions.  They probably have webinars.

Questions – how many people do you have working in your SM dept?  Kellie – there are 3 of us.  Have a staff member in London.  Helps for time zones.  They’re active 2/3 of the day, which is a great advantage.  Small, scrappy team.

Question – a lot of times there is no one on the client side who is an advocate and not willing/able to run communities, what’s your perspective on “selling” it in to the client and managing the community?  Stephanie – from a community management perspective, there are CM’s on staff, fully disclosed as PN staff.  Ideally, there is someone on the agency side who can own, or halfway own, community management.  There can be a hybrid, too.  From thought-leadership perspective, you can always partner with SM influencers – have them guest blog for instance.  Approach from content-management, story-telling perspective.

Question – What’s your view on sentiment analysis on listening platforms?  Kellie – it’s good and bad.  Quick look, finger on the pulse.  You’ve really got to go into the conversations and see what the real sentiment is – if you want to do a good job of managing the community.  Understanding this can even affect business b/c you learn what people like/don’t like and then can filter than information back to the right people in the organization.

Keynote – Digital PR Summit – Social Media: What’s on the Horizon (Keynote)

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Lunch Keynote:  Social Media – What’s on the Horizon?

Sarah Evans (@prsarahevans)

“What I’m going to say is probably not that cool.”  (But she’s got cool boots on).

In February, she tweeted an earthquake that happened in Chicago, then posted on CNN iReport and before you know it, she had NYTimes and CNN calling about the story, then before you know it, she had business leads because it seemed like she “got” social media.  She said, “I don’t do traditional advertising/outreach for my business.  It takes time to build relationships.”

It’s not about the next Twitter or FourSquare.  It’s about understand how people use online communications and bringing a little structure and focus on how to use social.  It’s about creating tactics NOT around the tools – not platform specific.

Focus on these things first – need to have these things in place:  SMP and ID how organization is going to be structured around SM.

Some guidelines that she outlined:

Find an opp to showcase what you do best.  Many times, you’re going to be the first company to do something in this space.  That’s a GREAT opportunity.

Hijack a conversation.  Livefyer (check it out)

Meet a need in an innovative way – #journchat – online weekly community dedicated to making industry better, networking.

Ask them what they want.  Give them what they want.  If you ask people what they want, you have to be prepared to give them what they want.

Don’t underestimate mainstream or traditional media.

Generate A LOT of quality content.

Do it for a good cause.  She talked about her Blogworld ’09 experience & Beat Cancer initiative.

Give freely, give often.

Questions – what do you think about the recent Gladwell article in The New Yorker?  (Impacting “real” social change.)  She doesn’t necessarily agree with it.  Social media is another tool and it can work and it can be valuable.  If it works, it works.

Question – Can you talk about the Crisis Center experience?  Crisis center came to her and E.D. said, “I heard you do something w/ computers.  The shelter is way behind on payments owed to the state.”  So, they launched a letter of support.  E.D. said they used to have reporters come in and tell about their experience staying the night.  So, Sarah said she would go in and stay the night and tell her community about it (Crisis Overnight).  This was the first time she asked her community for anything.  $161,000 raised over 3 weeks and the doors remain open.

Question – Tips on how to build relationships w/ journalists online.  What works the best is real, engaging conversation online.  If you find something that they’ve written that you like, tell them about it.

Question – smaller groups/non-profits workflow re: social media.  Should we hire an intern to run social media?  Think of dividing responsibilities with current staff.  And change as regularly as needs to change.  Sometimes, unions can change what people can/can’t do.  But if you can adjust job descriptions, you should explore.

Panel 3 – Digital PR Summit – Measuring ROI for Digital PR Efforts

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Panel 3 here.  Best panel of the day.  This is from the mind’s of “doers,” not “talkers.”  It’s good.

How to Measure ROI for Your Digital PR Efforts – Tim Markein (Weber Shandwick), Johna Burke (BurrellesLuce), Danielle Brigida (National Wildlife Federation)

Tim up first –

Step 1 – Define the Outcome.  Start by defining clear, precise, measurable goals.  Even if you don’t know HOW you can do it, you know WHAT needs to be done.  If it’s to sell X product, that’s your goal.  It’s the best place to start.  Then, it’s about getting the right type of data to measure it.  (Easier said than done.)

Step 2 – Assess channels and audience.  There are not many tools that effectively look across various channels.  Need to look channel by channel and see how we’re doing in this particular channel and how we’re engaging specific audience in this channel.

Step 3 – ID your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).  There are number of things you can measure like traditional PR – impressions, sentiment, etc…  It’s about measuring content and how content is accessed and shared and amplified.  Traditionally, people measure traffic on website.  Search is important.  Syndication is often overlooked.  Are people seeing your brand/messages someplace else?  That’s equally as important to how much traffic you drive to your site.

Content measures, Conversation measures, Community measures, Outcome measures.

Step 4 – Build your dashboard.  There are way too many metrics.  There’s no single metric.  So, which are the 5-10-15 metrics that are important to you and how do they fit together?

Step 5 – Get “inline” with your analytics.  Integration of traditional, digital, and social media, WOM and other new influence patterns, too.  Measurement – meet Strategy.

He showed example of the wedding dance on YouTube, then how it was used on The Office.  Online and offline worlds are very integrated in the way they work together.

Takeaway – There are a lot of challenges ahead.  We need to be open minded.  We need to challenge traditional assumptions around these metrics.  Ultimately shift from impressions to engagement.  What are the business outcomes?

Danielle – they don’t measure Facebook fans b/c they see organic growth.  OK, that doesn’t do us any good.  We know we’ve got that.  What now?  How do we need to measure now?

This is a process.  You have to be invested in it.  The more you invest, the more progress you’ll see.

What she usually does – compare traditional metrics with social metrics.  You can measure friends, fans – they’re good to track and to a point, helpful.  Another focus is how many people are seeing it?  Impressions are OK.  But most important – what are people doing with your content and how are they sharing?

Check this tool out – PostRank Analytics – rate blog posts and content based on ENGAGEMENT.  Looks pretty useful for blogs, not any other channels.

It is about building relationships.  When you invest in people, they’ll invest right back into you.  Investing takes time.  Just like friendships.

Now up Johna – re: URL shortners – highly encourage brands to go out and pay for own account because otherwise, competitors/anyone can see results.

Most effective people are those who can explain in simple terms how this social media activity is impacting their business.  C-suite might not talk our language.  Need to talk theirs.

The one drawback to social – there’s a reason why corporations have offices and everyone doesn’t sit in cubes – there are decisions that need to be made by the right people, not by everyone.  Be careful about opening things up to everyone – “social.”

Personnel are one of the biggest groups of any brand’s influencers.

Listening is a very active sport.  Just because your monitoring doesn’t mean your listening.

Lead generation is something that C-suite absolutely understands.  Yes.

Questions – How do you determine what success looks like?  Johna – first need to understand where your audience is and how you’re affecting them.  It’s no good if you’re not affecting them.

Danielle – it’s all about the small victories.  It’s good to have goals and goals change.  That’s OK.  You’re never “done” with social media.

Tim – invest the time to figure out what this data means to who you’re showing it to.  Translate them into business terms, appropriate for brands, as much as you can.

Question – you say social media is not free.  What are the costs involved?  Tim – social media is about relationships.  Relationships require people.

Panel 2 – Digital PR Summit – The Next Generation of SM Tools

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Panel 2 of the day – this should be interesting.  Again – best part is the questions at the end!  Maybe I’ll start just recapping questions?

Panelist – Jason Winocour (Hunter PR)

He’s going to talk about geo-location apps today.  Not going to get into privacy today.  Show of hands in the room – who’s on FourSquare, Gowalla, FB Places – only 50-75 raised their hands, out of a room of 400+.  Giving 101 overview of FourSquare, Gowalla and FB Places.  The thing about FourSquare that’s problematic is that their BD team is overwhelmed right now.  It’s difficult to work with them.  (AMEN!)

He’s geting into case studies, starting with Starbucks/FourSquare.  Another case study – Market Fair Mall in New Jersey – mayors got special parking spots (primo) at the mall parking lot.  Nice.

Gowalla – he’s focusing on our Chevrolet/SXSW case study!  Specifically, talking about our free rides to/from the airport when people checked into the airport on Gowalla.  Very nice.

FB Places – Are they going to become the Walmart of geo-location?  No rewards, incentives, gaming element YET.

Scvngr – involves skill along with just basic checking in b/c it’s a real-life scavenger hunt.

Now, out of geo-location, he’s going to talk about blogging platforms.  Alot of people are blogging.  Alot of people are reading blogs.  What’s the new way to blog?  Introducing Tumblr and Posterous.  Both are good platforms.  Stronger social aspect – allows re-blogging and “liking.”  Bloggers can post from email/SMS.

Another panelist – Nick Mendoza (Zeno)

The tools he’s going to focus on: video, social media management, group buying.

Video – users watch an average of 15 hours/month of online video.  Ooh – learned something new – you can edit YouTube videos with Tube Chop.  Where have I been?!

Alot of people haven’t developed a social video strategy, much less a live video strategy (using tools like UStream).

Effective videos sell and entertain.

Show of hands again – how many people use social media management tools to listen?  About 50% of the room raised hands.  I want to look into Sprout Social.  Tools like this are important to understand what’s being said about you/your brand, and gives you better insight as to how to respond/engage.  Also allows for syndication of content.

Group buying now – he’s talking Groupon and the like.  Yipit – look into this.  This company aggregates all of these deals into 1 place.  Group buying is all about the DEAL (D = daily, E = experience, A = awareness, L = local).  One of the unique benefits of group buying is that it enables conversation to extend into people’s own social communities.

Questions – what do you think is going to be the next Twitter or Facebook?  Nick – 3 pillars right now – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter.  What’s next – Scvngr, FourSquare – something related to mobile because people have their mobile phone in their pocket every day, all the time.  He talked about Facetime on iPhone 4 and the power of using video, real-time services.

Jason – agree with everything Nick said, but he extends it into Augmented Reality.  Walking down the street, you can see deals, information on businesses you’re passing (nice that he mentioned this, although he didn’t specifically say Out-of-Home or Interactive Out-of-Home).  Also mentioned gaming.

Question – people are just starting to come around to social media, much less these “new” tools.  What can you say about that?  Jason – in terms of getting buy-in, geo-location has to be a natural tie-in with the brand and what they’re trying to accomplish.  Does it make sense?  Don’t try to force fit, don’t do it for the sake of doing it.  You don’t want it to seem like you’re buying a new “toy.”

Nick – a big challenge is legal.  A lot of these initiatives haven’t ever been done before so that might cause trepidation.

Question – hard time convincing marketing executives that when consumers are engaged in these types of engagements, they’re skeptical that the brand should be “involved” in the space.  What’s the opportunity?  Nick – any social network out there is NOT a marketing platform.  We’re there to talk to our friends/communities.  He offered up some research, but didn’t really answer the question.

Jason – people are receptive to hearing from brands.  There’s a balance between commercial content and user-generated content.  It’s about having the right metrics to show how far you can push this.