The Future of TV Advertising is here, but the panelists speaking on it at AWNY seemed to despair that anyone really knew how to take the reins to make it useful. Television is consumed more than ever, but TV is also redefined. “It’s about talking about TV holistically,” said Martin Blich, Managing Partner, Director of Implementation for MediaCom, who sat down with Todd Gordon, Director, Adobe Advertising Cloud TV, Adobe; Peter Naylor, SVO, Head of Advertising Sales, Hulu; and David Cohen, President, North America, Magna. Naylor noted that at Hulu they have multiple options for potential ways for advertisers to provide sponsorship, but keep getting traditional :15 and :30-second ads. “We don’t see people taking advantage of it,” he noted. “That, plus the new way of understanding data, are sleeping giants.” Gordon emphasized the need to rethink the digital currency – which is primarily still Nielsen data – used to determine who was watching a show in order to better target them. “There are way too many advertisers on the sidelines doing nothing. You gotta start doing something – doing nothing is going backward.”
On Monday, Carolyn Everson, Facebook VP of Global Marketing Solutions spoke about the “very sophisticated” hack into over 50 million accounts, and a “crisis of trust” on the behalf of the social media giant’s consumers and stakeholders while discussing security breaches, the exit of Instagram‘s co-founders, tensions between WhatsApp and Facebook, and how the site is preparing for the midterm elections in November.
“When I make shoes, I stir the pot, get inspired, throw Gucci in the pot, stir it up and call it Steve Madden.” The shoe making mogul was also on hand for AWNY Monday, commenting on topics ranging from the government’s trade stance to his love for former President Barack Obama and Popeye’s fried chicken. Madden noted that he doesn’t feel sustainable fashion isn’t really a priority for his brand, and noted that his portrayal by Jake Hoffman in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street “was mostly accurate.”
The title of Fernando Machado‘s Monday panel was “Be afraid. Be very afraid. But do it,” and the global CMO of Burger King explained why, noting that marketers should take a page from his team’s book to create buzz-worthy campaigns that resonate with consumers and have the potential to go viral. “When I arrived, the brand was not in the greatest state,” he said, adding that he knew he’d need to push the envelope. Marketers need to understand their brand and create short briefs from which all marketing ideas should grow, he said.
Also on Monday, the inaugural Madison Avenue Walk of Fame: Icon Awards were held, celebrating the legendary walk of fame and advertising brand mascots over the years. Icon mascots flooded the Icon Red Carpet in Times Square, and winners included: Michelin Man (Icon Millennium Award); Fudgie the Whale (Comeback Icon of the Year), Sprout (Rookie of the Year); Trix Rabbit (Throwback Icon Award), Geoffrey the Giraffe (Icon Retirement Award); McGruff the Crime Dog (Icon for Good/Social Good Impact Award); QQ Penguin (International Icon Award); Smokey Bear (Icon of the Year); and The King from Burger King and Chiquita from Chiquita Banana were inducted into the Class of ’18 Icons.
ELSEWHERE….
Recharging was easy if you were a human, with all the snack and caffeine booths on hand, but locating a plug for your digital device was a bit more … chancy. Not so for Nicole Randall, Senior Communications Director at the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, who was plugged in in more ways than one. Additionally, she was complimentary about AWNY’s new digs: “It’s very warm and welcoming,” she said. “Having it all in one venue makes it really easy to find where you’re going.” The OAAA came to Advertising Week to launch a new campaign promoting the value of outdoor advertising in a digital world, she said:. “The two complement each other very well. Large screens drive people to small screens.”
There’s always a risk when engaging with consumers on Twitter – not every user is going to play along with whatever viral situation marketers are hoping to tee up – but brand reps from Samsung (Kathleen Braine, Sr. Marketing Manager), Anheuser-Busch (Spencer Gordon) and Toyota Motor North America (Pam Park, Media Manager) were more than willing to take that risk. On Tuesday they sat down with Twitter VP of US Client Services JP Maheu in a session that focused on how to best integrate the social media platform with a brand’s advertising needs, including hashtag-associated discussion or livestreams. Park said Toyota was astounded by the nearly 8 million consumers who tuned in (and in many cases commented) when the company’s live CES event was streamed through the Twitter app. “Everybody’s on board at our company that we have to be organic to the consumer, so it makes sense to leverage these types of platforms,” she said. “The risk is minimal.”
AWNY launched on Monday with the WWE Leadership Breakfast: Reimagining Your Brand in a Multiplatform World, but Christine Souchack, Business Development Director at DAC Group, was still enthusing about it yesterday as the “best thing” she’d experienced thus far. Stephanie McMahon Chief Brand Officer, WWE had been featured at the panel, and really left an impression: “You want to talk about a woman in charge, and a force to be reckoned with – she’s taken that brand to a new level,” she said. Still, she was wary of all the concept repetition on panels. “I am a big fan of search [optimization]; that’s what I do, and I don’t hear anyone talking about it,” she noted. “Everyone seems to say the same thing everyone else does.”
TOP OF THE MORNING
Jonah Stillman has packed a lot into his 19 short years: he’s spent a decade as a competitive snowboarder, and now that he’s graduated high school both he and his journalist dad David speak, lecture and research as the “Gen Z Gurus.” With a book deal under his belt (“Gen Z @ Work”) and a consultancy with the Minnesota Vikings, Stillman’s making a hard bid to be the marketing voice of his generation. On Oct. 2, he spoke at his own Advertising Week New York panel about “Gen Z and the Future of Marketing,” and sat down with Cynopsis to share how we should be listening to both him – and his generation.
You’re living as a Generation Z’er. But isn’t trying to be an authority on your in-progress own generation like trying to measure the ocean while swimming in it?
I’m not a focus group of one. All of what I share is based on proprietary data, based on our studies. It’s an advantage to be a member of Gen Z and to analyze it.
Young folks used to have a healthy skepticism about being marketed to; does anything about being “sold,” and helping others to “sell” your peers rankle you?
Generation Z is very open to being marketed to. In today’s world, if you think about how brands reach teens, it’s through paid marketing. My generation doesn’t think a brand would pay to put something in front of me if it wasn’t relevant.
Is that what differentiates Gen Z from other “Gens” and “Millennials” – the willingness to be marketed to?
If you look at how technology has been viewed by every generation, every generation has been a digital pioneer. One generation had the rise of the internet, the other had social media. We’re not pioneers; we’re true digital natives in this generation. That affects how we interact with brands.
What’s the one thing you’d like to have people take away from your talk?
One of the traits we identified in our research is that Generation Z’s live in the “phigital world” – the physical and the digital world – where every physical item has a digital equivalent. In each generation, there are new ideas and outlooks brought into the world and initially there’s disdain for them. I would encourage people to be a little open-minded with the attitudes my generation brings to the marketplaces. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just a little different.
What was your first concert, and what’s the story behind it?
The first concert I ever went to was Justin Timberlake‘s; I won those tickets on the radio. I wasn’t a JT fan before that, but the concert was awesome – and I am now. No shame!
ADVERTISING WEEK NEW YORK BY THE NUMBERS
* 4 days
* 98,000 attendees
* Over 290 events (up from 288 in 2017 and 238 in 2016)
* 1,216 speakers
* 773 registered press members
Source: Advertising Week New York
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We do compete against a formidable competitor, whose name we just don’t say.” (Audience member: “Like Voldemort?”) “Yeah, like Voldemort.” – Kathleen Braine, Senior Marketing Manager, Samsung, at Broadcasting to Break Through: Brands in the Driver’s Seat, referring to one of several possible corporations (but probably Apple).
TOMORROW AT AWNY
The week reaches its midpoint tomorrow with panels including Video Monetization Demystified, The Changing Face of Data and Advertising, and 2018 OTT Experience plus a recap of Tuesday’s D&AD Impact Awards. Also look out for a Cynopsis chat with Kargo CEO/founder Harry Karman, who shares his own personal branding experience, and how #MeToo will fit into the panels. See you then!
