3 Takeaways from the Ad Age Digital Conference:

Last week, I had the opportunity to take part in a panel discussion on technology and the consumer experience at the Ad Age Digital Conference in New York.  As an executive who embraces the idea of the marketing technologist, I very much enjoyed the timely topics, diverse POVs, and range of speakers. I’d like to share my favorite takeaways from the event:

• Attention Metrics – In order to address viewability concerns, the industry is beginning to look toward a new way to measure: “Time Spent.”  I would say it’s about time! As an advertiser, I was losing confidence in a proactive solve from publishers.  Other potential metrics discussed were CPH (Cost per hour) or CP30 (Cost per 30 seconds). Prediction was in the next year, we will start to see a shift across publishers and advertisers.  
• Transforming “Storytelling” into “Story Making" – More and more, brands are tapping into what consumers are creating and sharing with each other vs. pushing the story. Could not agree more. Today’s consumer is seeking active engagement with brands, and the opportunity is ripe for brands to create a much more passion-driven organic narrative instead of simply pushing out brand-centric content. More on this from Ad Age. 
• Building a Culture of Creatives – It is important for companies to foster a culture of creativity to keep up with the speed of our ever-changing content creation and consumption environment.  A good idea can come from anyone within the organization.  I am a firm believer of this approach. Would love to hear POVs on how organizations are accomplishing this.

I think it’s beyond clear that these takeaways don’t simply represent landscape or industry shifts. These are profound changes to the fundamental core of how brands engage and connect with the consumer. From this point on, successful marketing will be determined by how willing organizations are to truly internalize these shifts into their marketing DNA.