Worldwide Biggies, blip.tv, Aegis and Colgate Palmolive Execs on Digital Advertising

The challenges of dealing with the changing media marketplace were the theme of yesterday’s JackMyers Networking Breakfast:The Future of Media and Entertainment. One of the most interesting topics at hand was advertising in the digital space- how digital advertising is targeted, delivered and received.

“I think we need to respect consumers. A long time ago, someone said about television advertising, you have to remember you’re invited into their living rooms,” said Jack Haber, VP Global Advertising and eBusiness, Colgate Palmolive Company. Haber went on to say that digital advertising provides new ways for brands to connect with and advertise to consumers.

Not all brands are doing so effectively, as Albie Hecht,CEOof Worldwide Biggies pointed out. “I love Hulu. You watch the 15-second spots and there’s only a few of them. That’s great too but it’s the same Priceline spot on TV and it’s the same one you also saw at the movies. I don’ think that’s the way to engage me as a consumer,” he said.

Dina Kaplan,COOof blip.tv shared some innovative ways in which content creators are teaming up with advertisers in order to engage consumers. In an exclusive interview with JackMyers.com prior to the panel discussion, she shared several examples of how sponsors were integrating content into several of blip.tv’s popular Web shows.

Political Lunch hosts, Rob Millis and Will Coghlan, featured John Adams (HBO) mugs on their desk. At the end of the episode, they held up their mugs, thanked their sponsor and mentioned that they’d be featuring a sneak peak of the mini-series at the end of the episode. zefrankhost, Ze, thanked Dewar’s for sponsoring the show and mentioned that the sponsorship paid for a proper archiving of this show so that fans could watch episodes after the show ended.

When asked how advertisers and content creators felt about the integration, Kaplan said advertisers love input from content creators on how they can reach their desired audience. And content creators are usually flattered when given artistic freedom to design advertising messages, especially when they know that a sponsor wishes to speak specifically to the content creator’s audience.

Jack Haber mentioned the early days of advertising integration on television when Colgate sponsored NBC’s Colgate Comedy Hour. “We decided it was ultimately not in our interest to be producing television programs” he said. “I don’t mean for us to be in the content business, which is more risky. I’d rather let other people take that risk and then we can advertise where the consumers are.”

Albie Hecht responded that he felt that the Colgate Comedy Hour was very innovative. He said “I would invite you [Jack Haber] to get back to the roots of what you did in the new media which is now the place on the web to get back into that kind of content participation to engage your audience.”

Sarah Fay,CEOAegis North America, added that she felt there was a large opportunity in using offline media to drive toward a more engaged experience and to ultimately try to find the voice of the consumer. “If you can drive toward something and kick-start a community to get involved with a brand, you can get your media dollars to carry a lot farther” she said. She used a Reebok’s social network campaign, GoRunEasy, as an example. Users post runs using Google Maps, share playlists via iTunes and post photos using Flickr. The TV and print ads ran from April through June 2007 but the site continues on strong and has even moved into cities and countries that didn’t even run advertising.

When asked about how agencies were responding to the changing digital landscape, Dina Kaplan said it was tempting to say that agencies don’t get it. She said “The digital side is used to buying display ads which everyone’s eyes just gloss over. TV arms are just so locked into making those 30-second ads because they make money from making them and then wanting to stick them before or after a video. The infrastructure to support web video advertising isn’t there yet. We need metrics. We need a way to tell advertisers what they need to know.”

Shane Steele, a consultant and former director of interactive marketing for Coca-Colasaid that advertisers recently began noticing advertising was becoming participatory. “It wasn’t just about creating an ad and putting it out there and people leaning back and watching it. You could lean forward. You could interact. And then at the other end of the spectrum, people could actually start to participate and create or extend the campaign.”

Branded media experiences and interactive ad campaigns protect consumers from being pushed too hard with advertising messages. The new and evolving experience of advertising should not only be exciting for content creators and advertisers. Consumers also have much to look forward to.

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Sarah Fay, Shane Steele, Jack Haber, Dina Kaplan and Albie Hecht on the Future of Media and Advertising