Digital Marketing Expo: Day 1 – Part 2

The second half of my day went much quicker. The first afternoon session was called “The Consumer is the DJ” and focused on music. The presenters from Heineken, Scion and Filter magazine talked about everything from sponsorships of propietary services to free downloads to podcasts. Notably absent was any kind of viral seeding featuring BitTorrent, but I doubt any advertiser/brand wants to be associated with filesharing just yet.

The second session was a case study on mobile media. The presenter, Boomerang Mobile Media, had a fabulous story to tell. Perfect mobile content that auto-recognizes the specific cellphone, degrades dynamically, is provider-independent and monitized for each business. I’d have thought it was pure snake oil had I not seen it myself. The future of mobile is going to be ease of use (dialing versus typing URLs) and platform independence/interoperability.

Lastly, David Rooney, the Director of Media Operations and Marketing for Daimler Chrysler delivered the evening keynote. He was funny, knowledgable and very persuasive. His case against mass marketing was a fabulous illustration of the tenets of this conference and the power of digital marketing. He chooses to see the new and emerging technologies as an opportunity as oppossed to a threat and this is crucial. His personal “10 Commandments” are brilliant and I hate to exclude them, but I didn’t write quickly enough. My faves:

5) Technology is an enabler
8) Be proud of your products … love your customers
10) I don’t have a clue … ??? (This was his self-effacing acknowledgement that he didn’t have all the answers – a must if you want to engage in transparent, honest conversations with your customers).

Overall a fabulous afternoon. I wasn’t quite as vocal in the later sessions. I only asked one question – about McDonald’s “Big Mac bounty” – to the the digital music panel. Roundly dissed by everyone. I think it’s icky too.

I hope tomorrow is just as eventful. But now there is beer to drink, elbows to rub and ideas to hatch. 😉

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