I was really very pleased with both of the main stage presos this go round for iMedia.
First up was Jeff Glueck, CMO for Travelocity. I loved his presentation because here is a guy that believes in the medium and tries new things constantly, but also has that old school approach to business - making money good, losing money bad. It was great to hear from the guy that brought us the travelling gnome.
The gnome campaign is one I have always liked but was always mystified about. How ON EARTH did this get approved? Well, after seeing Jeff on stage, I get it.
He gave one great answer today about this bucketizing we do online -- DR versus branding -- as if DR is all about sales and branding is all about self indulgence. He correctly and courageously pointed out that it's ALL about sales. He also had some fascinating data about the relative effectiveness of analog versus digital media in driving sales -- several analog forms are the most efficient available, underscoring the need for digital to continue to innovate to improve results.
Travel is one of the strongest online categories -- and the result is that CPCs have been driven rather high -- so high in fact that media like DR TV can more than compete. He also showed a chart that indicated that for his company, a view through is relevant, but only for about 2 hours, not the 30 days digital companies like to use.
Great, thought provoking stuff, and delivered in a clear and entertaining way. Bravo.
Next up was a sort of presidential debate between Nick Denton at Gawker and Geoff Ramsey at eMarketer, essentially focused on how bad things are in our business. Ramsey the optimist, Denton the pessimist. I loved the energy that Brad Berens created as moderator for this event, and got a great deal of good info out of these wonderful speakers. And Ramsey was right, a lot of it is how you look at it -- half empty or half full, but I share Denton's views more than Ramsey's about the next two years.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
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