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Our Trek to NY: ad:tech 2009 and Google Meeting

Here’s the lowdown on our jam-packed trip to ad:tech NY this year: Google, Affiliate Marketing & Social Networking Trends, Facebook…and more Google. 

ad:tech is one of the top advertising and technology conferences, with worldwide shows and a mix of talented keynote speakers, informative panel discussions and workshops.

The ad:tech 2009 conference in New York had more than 250 exhibitors, 200 speakers and 60 panel discussions, each one loaded with information to help organizations to not only improve their marketing and advertising techniques but to also get the latest on up-and-coming products and services.

Sessions we loved

Two conference topics I was eager to learn more on were “Affiliate Marketing:  A better Alternative” and “Social Media Strategies:  How to Take Advantage of a Huge Opportunity.”  Here are some highlights from these phenomenal panel discussions.

The Affiliate Marketing panel discussed how billions of dollars are paid out to affiliates globally, yet there are still a lot of growth and opportunity for affiliate marketing whether you’re an advertiser or publisher.  With companies tightening budgets while individuals are spending more and more time online, it is important that both parties know the benefits of advertising or publishing on Affiliate Networks.  Quality control is set for the market when performance-based models are provided for both publishers and marketers (better ads get better payouts).  If you’re an Advertiser, make sure that you’re providing the right commission to your publisher.  When you are fair with your commissions, you can then leverage quality publishers to carry your ads. They’ll have better sites, more relevant content and can be trusted.  Advice for publishers: when you have relevant sites that don’t spam the system, you’re more likely to make more money and acquire better advertisers on your site.

To learn more about Affiliate Marketing:  Check out Shawn Collin’s “Affiliate (Tip)” at:  http://blog.affiliatetip.com/

The social media panel discussion was also very interesting.  There are billions of page views monthly for social networks, yet a lot of companies don’t advertise on them.  Here are some hot topics on whether Social Network Advertising is right for you:

First, let’s talk about volume and connections.  Social network usage continues to grow, and more and more pages are being viewed.  It’s all about the getting a slice of social network “Pie.” By connecting people online, service/product reviews, advice and information can now be dispersed instantly.  The beauty of instant connectivity is that consumers can network prior to making any decision to buy. Take a new video game, for example. One good mention on a well-connected user’s Facebook page can entice dozens of friends to purchase the game. 

Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue and Rich, remarked that that before the internet, advertising was more promotional. Today it’s about creating a story and letting end users decide for themselves.

Face to Facebook

We spoke with the Facebook folks at ad:tech and will be following up with more discussions on how we can use Facebook to our clients’ advantage.  With Facebook advertising, we can create targeted ads to promote products, sites, events and more – tapping into the more than 300,000,000 active Facebook users. 

Dinner with Google

Before we left New York, we had one more stop, a dinner meeting with Meg and Joe from Google to discuss cool new features for our AdWords management at Silverback Strategies.

The Google team was kind enough to share some info about one of the latest services, “Google AdWords: Display”, a new image-based feature to drive visibility for your business using Flash, video and other rich media graphics. Call us, and we’ll tell you more.

This conference was a great place to learn new techniques and ideas from the best minds in the industry.  If you’re a business professional or even a student, definitely check out upcoming ad:tech conferences at www.ad-tech.com.