CONFERENCE RECAPS

In the spring, I went to a day long conference on Native Advertising organized by the BIC program and the CUNY J School. Much was made of the recently released Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guidelines on Native Advertising , seen as a major step forward in clarifying a complicated issue in the marketing world. But were they? Photo:  Just one of many examples of Native Advertising on sites like Buzzfeed. In this example, the advertiser is Lean Cuisine Native advertising can be traced as far back as Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac  and the FTC has been, in one way or the other, regulating it since 1917. So 2015 seemed like a good year to finally issue some guidance. I read the FTC native advertising guidelines, as well as the meeting transcript from the 2013 workshop that shaped them and thought, "these are great! How helpful! Problem solved!"  And then I came across this quotation:  "For the FTC to continue to really try to put b...

I recently presented to a room filled with communications students, professors and industry folks. And when I brought up "digital asset management," I was met with dozens of blank stares, as if I had asked everyone what they knew about the island nation of Nauru. But digital asset management (DAM) is a key communications tool in the 21st century that everyone show know about - especially brand managers.  Graphic credit: Widen Media Collective At IIE, the non-profit I work for, we have used a digital asset management system run by an awesome company named Widen since about 2008. A few weeks ago, I got to go to a day long conference hosted by Widen on making the most of our digital asset management system. The range of brands and organizations there was impressive: Bulova and the Brooklyn Public Library, the Tyco and Cornell University. No matter what the organization, their mission, or their clientele, digital asset management was key to their operations....

“Mobile is more important than ever because it allows us to deliver at the ‘zero moment of truth.’ For our recipe sites, we see a spike in usage when the consumer is in the grocery store. You can’t get closer than that to the consumer.” B. BONIN BOUGH VP, GLOBAL MEDIA AND CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT MONDELEZ Mobile market experts discuss what it takes to successfully map the mobile customer journey. They identified the moments that result in breakthroughs that could be leveraged by brands and agencies. They also share the measurement solutions that could be used to gauge overall effectiveness. • Ultimately, they spoke on Why physical and digital touch points along the customer journey are vital to mobile advertisers • The five questions advertisers can now answer, thanks to mobile • Recent case studies demonstrating the benefits of a fully formed mobile strategy Consumer behavior has changed and the fundamental basis of competition has changed. Mobile can be used to market to and through ...

Two weekends in April, Scott Elias organized 9 speakers to come talk to us about their careers and experiences in advertising (or marketing). From a partner at a venture capital firm to an R&D lead at Johnson & Johnson, we were lucky enough to hear from a wide variety of perspectives in different categories. The speakers: o    Chris Paik – Partner §   Thrive Capital o    Spencer Rice – CMO §   SoulCycle o    Adrian Chernoff – R&D, Innovation §   Johnson & Johnson o    Stinson Parks – Digital content lead §   Mountain Dew o    Nicole Gill – Director, PR §   Formerly SKD Knickerbocker o    Rachel Tipograph – Founder §   Mik Mak o    Yoni Ben-Yehuda – CMO §   Formerly Blue Mountain Media o    Matt Cynamon – VP community management §   General Assembly o    Scott MacEachern – Founder §   The Wizdom Pro...

Location: General Assembly Date: Monday, February 1, 2016   The brain is a muscle just like all others in our body. You have to continuously work it, feed it, and surprise it with different exercises to reap any growth. Once you start treating it as such, and actively condition it for moments of adversity, you’ll have an improved sense of control, as you’re already primed and ready to handle it. This was highlighted during the General Assembly conference: "Get a Mental Six Pack."    Conference Description: “Anxiety, worry, beating yourself up... These are forms of mental fat -- redundant, unproductive thinking that slows you down. As a start-up entrepreneur operating in an environment of relentless change and uncertainty, mental fat is a luxury you can’t afford." This interactive program was presented by Renita Kalhorn, a mental toughness coach who mentors Navy SEAL candidates.  This conference emphasized three steps to a create a lean, agile mindse...

Location: City College of New York Date: Sat, April 16 th 2016 There were many themes that were brought up during the four sessions of The New New Class by Scott Elias. Hearing these speakers live, and feeling the weight of their words in person brought a meaning to them that simply can’t be captured in writing. Here I analyze Scott MacEachern, and Spencer Rice talk and see how empathy in tandem with business leads to surprising results.                 “Let empathy be your secret weapon.” -   Scott MacEachern Scott was dripping with honesty, and it was very apparent that when he mentioned this, “Let empathy be your secret weapon”, it was more so a plea, then a tool of guidance. He seems very aware that his creative audience as a whole was on the verge of becoming the next generation of important decision makers. With that, and through his experience working at Nike and his tumultuous time trying to get his ideas out, he w...