ad:tech Keynote with P&G & Chrysler

This morning’s keynote included Ted McConnell, Manager Interactive Marketing Innovation for P&G and Jeff Bell VP Chrysler & Jeep.

First up was Ted McConnell from Procter & Gamble. He started out discussing the state of interactive: what’s working and what’s not working. He offers big kudos to the interactive industry for being so innovative and creative.

Last year there was a $9.6 billion spend on interactive out of $264 billion overall. That means only a 3.7% of total ad spend and interactive has been around 10 years. Why?

The underlying problem with interactive is acceptance. Interactive needs reliable, historical data to improve confidence for increased ad budgets. Engagement is the measure that can differentiate interactive. “If we don’t change we’ll never “break out” from the current level of spending.

“You used to be able to put media in the marketplace and see a correlation to sales. but now there are multiple media involved.” Example: How many commercials to reach women 18 – 35. 1965 – 3. Today, 97. So how do we respond? Crank up frequency – but then consumer trust is eroded and people avoid advertising.

What’s important is to figure out for your medium how you’re taking consumers through the chain of communications.

World Federation of Advertisiers Media Committee is working with some of the top advertisers to create a manifesto for measurement as an unequivocal standard.

The fundamental message I got out of the session was that interactive needs to create standards for measurement in order to create more confidence in ad spending before ad spend budgets will make significant increases.

Jeff Bell VP Chrysler was next up. He renamed his presentation as, “Renaissance Marketing – the new age of enlightenment.”

He then proceeded to discuss the history of branding and a time when products captivated audiences. Tools for building brands were limited (media options) and brands were interesting. Targeting focused mostly on demographics as people were “filling up” buying products.

Today branding isssues include greater competition, capacity, marketing saturation, fragmentation of message, speed to market and speed of obsolescence.

A new approach might be to shift from:

• demographics to lifestyle (psychographics)
• from blind trust to 3rd party recommendation
• from impersonal to concierge and customized
• from broadcast to opt-in

The old model must be modified. The traditional approach was sequential, linear:
Awareness > consideration > shopping > purchase > loyalty.
New model:
Trial – brand building – recommendation – use/repeat – buy/lease.

Brand promotion must exist in all media, not in a linear fashion. “It’s more like fly fishing than casing a net.”

• Be everywhere the customer wants you to be
• Be relevant and if you don’t know, ask
• Don’t be intrusive, be present
• Great product wins
• Spend where you make the $

Bell had great things to say about search marketing. “Search has revolutionized the internet. They don’t surf, they go.” Impressions have halved for Chrysler, but actions have increased on the web sites.

Companies want behavioral targeting, ROI, to sell and serve. Customers desire personal relationship, accountability, to buy and be served.

Essential message: Your brand is the one thing that cannot be copied if you protect it. Be where your consumer wants you to be. Measure and modify.

Accountability was a strong message in both presentations and interactive needs to advance with measures and standards.

David Berkowitz also covered this keynote session on the ad:tech blog.