The fourth annual Advertising Week kicks off Monday, and as the NYT points out, organizers hope attendees notice the emphasis on substance this year. There will be no parade of Tony the Tiger, Mr. Peanut or any other brand warhorses. Instead, there will be panels with academic titles like Build Your Brand Using Sensory Media: How Brands Can Extend Their Reach Through Effective Promotional Products Strategies. The impact of digital media on marketing plans and brand strategies will also be explored with greater focus this year. Both the Interactive Advertising Bureau and MediaPost are running two-day conferences starting Monday that will address those issues in particular detail:
— IAB’s MIXX: In addition to its awards for the best combination of creative and effective interactive ads, the IAB event, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, starts with a keynote address by John Hayes, CMO, American Express, and moves on to a conversation of how ad strategy, content and channel planning have become more integrated, to an discussion of some of the most notable digital acquisitions over the past year with a panel featuring executives who were part of those deals: David Moore, chairman & CEO, 24/7 Real Media; David Rosenblatt, CEO Doubleclick; Karl Siebrecht, president, Atlas; and Michael Walrath, CEO, Right Media. The panel will be moderated by the NYT’s Saul Hansell.
— OMMA: MediaPost’s conference, presented at the Hilton New York, features keynote speech by Eileen Naughton, director, Media Platforms, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), who will explain how everyone stands to benefit from the blurring line between old and new media. After that, George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer, NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), will be interviewed by former CBS (NYSE: CBS) News president Andrew Heyward, now a senior advisor for digital marketing consultancy Marketspace. Naughton and Kliavkoff return for the morning’s last major session, a panel on how Google, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and MSN are facing the same challenges as their old media counterparts in trying to capture consumers’ time and engagement. They’ll be joined by Ron Bloom, CEO, PodShow; Sarah Chubb, president, CondeNet; Shawn Gold, SVP, Marketing & Content, MySpace; and Herb Scannell, CEO, Next New Networks.
I’ll be at both conferences and other events throughout the week and hope to see you there. We’d also like to invite comments from attendees who can offer any additional thoughts or insights about any of the conferences and presentations.
Comments have been disabled for this post