#Trending in Advertising - Michael Kassan

This week, we practiced what we preach and did some social listening. We analyzed the Twittersphere chatter from two conferences featuring all-star lineups of marketing thought leaders—the CSE Sports Marketing Symposium in New York City and the ANA Masters of Marketing annual conference in Phoenix.

When you aggregate what was posted about the presentations—or "knowledge bombs," as one Tweeter described Salesfore.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff's speech at the ANA—three core themes emerged:

• Technology is content and content is technology
• You have to do right to do well
• Think fast, act faster

The first truth should, by now, be self-evident. Technology has transformed the creation and distribution of content, but the outcome of any effort still depends on the strength of the story. Even the agendas of the two conferences, in which creatives and technologists and media specialists comfortably shared billing, bore witness to that truth.

My description of this trend during my session at the Symposium, in which I talked about the "the mash up of those wearing pocket protectors and pocket squares," shared space on Twitter with many related observations. ANA attendees cited Google President, Americas Margo Georgiadias saying "the most popular content is made for the web, not just put on the web." And in a presentation of the hugely successful Snickers "you're not you when you're hungry" global campaign, they shared the contention by David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America, that "if you can't tell it in a tweet you don't have a compelling story."

Arguably the biggest acknowledgment of technology-driven transformation was the reaction to Benioff's speech, where he discussed how the CMO position has expanded to be all but essential within an organization and his philosophy of turning "consumers into customers." Tweets shared such nuggets as "behind every app is a customer" and the Bill Gates paraphrase, "in our industry, people overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what you can do in a decade."

Taking this a step further was Yusuf Mehdi of Xbox who made a point echoed across the Twittersphere, "You have to be a user of technology to understand it."

The importance of authenticity continued, particularly in regards to social responsibility, not as marketing tactics but as business necessities. Tweeters were impressed by Walmart US Executive Vice President and CMO Stephen Quinn's declaration at the ANA that "the addition of a social cause and purpose allows a brand to become integrated into the lives of consumers."

Coca-Cola Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Commerce Officer Joe Tripodi was retweeted enthusiastically when he admonished the audience "don't seek to be the best in the world; do the best for the world."

At the CSE Symposium, his colleague, Coca-Cola Senior Vice President, Global Sparkling Brand Center Wendy Clark's advice to cultivate "authenticity" was retweeted. So was General Electric Senior Vice President and CMO Beth Comstock's take on native advertising at the ANA: "it doesn't matter who produces it as long as it's good."

Finally, Tweeters' choices demonstrated how technology's effect of creating change at warp speed has created an almost organic need for innovation and experimentation. Time and again at both conferences, social sharing revolved around ideas relating to how advertisers can stay ahead, not merely keep up.

One tweet shared Tripodi's advice to "adapt, participate and lead." Another quoted Comstock when she said "good marketers are okay with ambiguity." Several shared Quinn's urging to the ANA audience to "protect mavericks" and "put innovators" and their next big project.

And you couldn't help but smile in bemused agreement at the tweet that shared what Daryl Evans, senior vice president of consumer advertising and marketing at AT&T, had to say at the New York symposium: "(Bite-sized video sharing app) Vine is in every digital program we've done and we didn't even begin with it in our 2013 budget."

So that's our social study of what's happening right now in advertising. We all wrestle with these new truths. But you know what? If we conduct the same social listening exercise next year, I wager we'll discover a whole new set of truths to talk about.

Which we will of course be happy to share.

Michael E. Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink, LLC, a leading Los Angeles and New York City-based advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction onissues of marketing, advertising, media, entertainment and digital technology. Michael can be reached at michael@medialinkllc.com

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