NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> P&G's FAST Summit Coverage by ClickZ - Day One
ONLINE-ADS>> P&G's FAST Summit Coverage by ClickZ - Day One
richard_at_tenagra.com
Mon, 24 Aug 1998 15:47:50 -0500 (CDT)
Below is a special mailing to The Online Advertising Discussion
List about P&G's FAST Summit, written by Ann Handley, editor-in-chief
of The ClickZ Network. You will receive these reports in addition
to your normal Online Ads posts/digests.
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P&G's Fast Summit
Day One
Ann Handley
Editor in Chief
The ClickZ Network
http://www.clickz.com/
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P&G's much-anticipated FAST Summit finally kicked off yesterday.
The build-up to the big day was palpable even if you weren't
invited to P&G's headquarters to hear how ad agencies and the
biggest advertisers could figure a way to accelerate the growth of
online advertising.
For the past few weeks, it seems, Procter & Gamble's affable Denis
Beausejour has been beckoning from the pages of every business
publication that'll have him. He's become, in effect, the poster
boy of new media advertising for the biggest Fortune 500 companies.
How can we further the ad vehicles and technology to entice
advertisers into the online arena? How can we wire up more
consumers, producing an audience sizable enough to make them want
to come? These are the kind of questions Beausejour has floated in
his interviews and speeches in recent history -- including his
seminal talk at _at_d:tech in May, when he first spiked this concept
into the court.
It was a smart move for Beausejour, who thrust himself and P&G into
a leadership role on the ad issue at a time when most other
corporate giants are still slumbering peacefully, sleepily unaware
of the opportunities online.
Roughly 170 agencies, advertisers, technology companies and web
publishers convened for the start of a two-day conference at P&G's
headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. Day one of FAST (which stands
for Future of Advertising Stakeholders) was by invitation only. For
the most part, P&G seemed to limit their advertiser guest list to
established brands which might really have something to gain in the
online arena: L'Oreal, Nestle, Pillsbury, Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss,
and the like. There in force were all the usual online ad players,
too: Thinking Media, Millward Brown Interactive, Modem Media-Poppe
Tyson, and MatchLogic, to name a few.
P&G's vision "is to bring together major stakeholders in the future
of online advertising," Beausejour said at the top of the day.
Furthering the business of online advertising holds exciting
promise for consumers, advertisers and agencies alike, he said,
adding, "Our mission is to get there faster and better."
So did the FAST Summit hit its projected mark? Well, yes and no.
In a big way, it was indeed a seminal moment. Yesterday, the top
advertising people from all the biggest companies gathered in the
same room to talk about the work that really needs to be done
before online advertising can be a serious contender for a fatter
slice of the budget. To have the likes of Hallmark and Johnson &
Johnson present and ready to roll up their sleeves spoke volumes
about the ability of P&G to build a consensus among all the various
players.
But at the same time, it wasn't clear at the close of yesterday's
sessions whether any advancement would come of the day's events.
Sure advertisers, agencies and publishers alike were active
participants in the first-day sessions. But much depends on P&G's
ability to carry the momentum forward.
Granted, P&G has some ambitious and defined plans. This summer's
FAST Summit actually set the cornerstone for FAST Forward, a new
industry trade group which, in concert with the Internet
Advertising Bureau (IAB), hopes to evolve many of the issues
discussed yesterday.
At the heart of FAST Forward will be several industry task forces
that aim to craft solutions to issues new media advertising deals
with daily: consumer acceptance, effective ad models, acceptable
measurement standards, and simpler online media buys. Plans are
also already in the works for FAST Summit 1999 to be held next
September. The goal of all this, as defined by P&G, is to "capture
and evolve the spirit of FAST Summit."
Can those lofty goals be met? Let's give FAST a definite maybe.
What Next?
Yesterday's morning speakers laid the groundwork for the lengthy
and involved afternoon break-out sessions by offering a context for
discussion. Jupiter's Evan Neufeld, for example, laid out the facts
and figures of current and future online usage. (See below.)
Later, McKinsey & Company's Michael Zeisser and David Court traced
the evolution of online advertising from babyhood, to the age of
innocence, to its current formative years and asked the pivotal
question: What next?
Will the web clean up, becoming the richest, most interactive and
most cost-effective forum for advertising we've ever experienced?
Or will it merely plod along, offering nothing very special to
consumers and advertisers alike?
"The million-dollar question is what's next," Court said, after he
showed a videotape of a staged news report that reflected both
extremes of the ad spectrum future. "There's no sure bet."
In their view, the web could indeed become a "really big deal" on
the ad front if it successfully exploits its unique interactive
qualities. Of course, a big part of that depends on how well
marketers tap that new creative dimension, bring personalization,
interactivity, community and the richness of the medium to
consumers, Court and Zeisser said.
Breakout Sessions
The afternoon sessions built on that tenor of discussion. Breaking
into four groups (tackling usage, ad models, measurement, and
buying), attendees laid out the issues and problems in detail with
the help of panelists. The moderators then attempted to synthesize
the issues into actionable items, which FAST committees will
tackle. (Course, those committees have yet to really form. But the
IAB's LeFurgy reportedly was keeping one eye out for good committee
candidates.)
In a session deliberating the consumer acceptance of online
advertising, the nearly 50 people in the room spent close to 3
hours asking and answering the fundamental question of how to bring
consumers online. I'd tell you specifics of what they said, but the
forum organizers requested that no names be named here to allow
those involved in the discussion the freedom to speak well, freely.
I can tell you this, however. The upshot is that web marketers need
to focus on three major areas: supporting privacy initiatives and
communicating them to consumers; promoting the web to consumers
not unlike the Dairy Council's effective Got Milk? ads; and working
within the framework of targeted marketing and permission marketing
to give consumers more and not less control over what ads
appear on their screen.
Getting to that point was sometimes frustrating as more than one
participant advanced a new point that didn't necessarily build on
the previous issue at hand. Several times, the conversation
threatened to veer off into a tangent or two. But more often, the
discussion seemed genuinely exciting for participants.
Larry Lozon of General Motors Cyberworks moderated the usage
discussion, maintaining order and helping to further the topic at
hand. Said an invigorated Lozon following the discussion: "Have you
ever seen a group of people like this come together? What an
opportunity."
Evan's E-facts
Evan Neufeld, practice director of Jupiter Communications, offered
up some interesting factoids on electronic media and its use at the
P&G Summit.
* Percentage of US households online today: 31%
* Percentage of US households predicted to be online in 2002: 60 %
* Online marketing sweet spot: Young adults
* Size of that market: 26 million
* Mean income of online vs. offline households: $63,100 (online)
vs. $35,500 (offline)
* The top reason why individuals are online: Information (not
entertainment)
* What type of advertising is noticed most frequently (in
descending order): banners, sponsorships, "intermercials."
Quotes of the Day
"We have a great consumer base. We're not talking [whether] this
is CB radio or not." - Rich LeFurgy, IAB
"The days of the pocket-protector white guy as the one online is
changing." - Evan Neufeld, Jupiter Communications
"The internet operates on a dog-year clock, different from anything
we've seen before." - Michael Zeisser, McKinsey & Company.
"The cable industry learned this long ago. The more assembly
required, the less money you are going to get." - Rich LeFurgy
"The banner may well be the dancing Lucky Strike carton of our
industry. We don't know." - Linda McCutcheon, Time-Warner New Media
"At whose expense is internet use coming from? Whose ox is being
gored? Everyone's ox is being gored a little bit but [users] are
mostly taking the time from TV." - Evan Neufeld
"The average consumer sees 260 ads a day." - Michael Zeisser
Most Subliminal Plug For A P&G Product
"The tide had shifted rather dramatically." - Tim Smith, CEO, Red
Sky Interactive
Best Site for Sore Eyes
....for bleary travelers: A storefront called Laptop Lane, offering
"Peace, Quiet, and a T1 line." Heaven on earth? Quite possibly in a
little corner in the Cincinnati airport.
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Copyright (C) 1998 ClickZ Corporation. All rights reserved. May
be reproduced in any medium for noncommercial purposes as long as
attribution is given.
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