NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Day Two - P&G's FAST Summit Coverage by ClickZ
ONLINE-ADS>> Day Two - P&G's FAST Summit Coverage by ClickZ
richard_at_tenagra.com
Mon, 24 Aug 1998 15:56:47 -0500 (CDT)
Below is a special mailing to The Online Advertising Discussion
List about P&G's FAST Summit, written by Andy Bourland, publisher
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 Two
Andrew Bourland
Publisher
The ClickZ Network
http://www.clickz.com/
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As I listened to the speakers and spoke to the participants
throughout the second day of P&G's FAST Summit, I found myself
shifting between a feeling of skepticism bordering on cynical and
optimism bordering on evangelical.
On the one hand, I thought back to the day one breakout session on
"Creating Effective Advertising Models." The session began with a
panel discussion that somehow seemed out of place with the
proceedings.
The discussion was lively, but it bounced all over the place. The
conversation got bogged down in irrelevant issues, as several
participants felt the need to hold the agenda hostage as - with
Norma Rae vigilance -- they sought to "Ban CPM!" as a pricing
model. In fact, that issue had no relevance to the topic at hand.
In short, the discussion portion of the breakout session was messy
and unfocused.
But then, no sooner had the discussion portion of the breakout
ended than some sanity entered the process. McKinsey & Company
helped the group reduce its discussion to a set of priorities,
actionable items and timetables. The anti-CPM loonies continued to
press their agenda š and somehow some of their language found its
way into the final presentation. But for the most part, the group
was able to pull together with some half-way decent priorities and
objectives combined with a believable set of deadlines.
That was some improvement. Nevertheless, like many participants, I
came out of day one in something of a haze. What really happened
here? What were the long-term implications? How seminal was this
event? Would all the chaos from day one translate into some
workable plan?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised.
Leaders of the four breakout sessions from the previous day
presented their own sets of objectives and priorities (which
audience members all voted on with electronic clickers - very
cool). They also unveiled timetables for accomplishing their work,
which -- in my mind -- were quite believable.
Time will tell whether the ambitious set of goals assumed by FAST
Summit participants will in fact be accomplished by the time the
FAST Forward Summit rolls around in September of '99. But with
Denis Beausejour's deft handling of the situation - working closely
with IAB and other industry groups, pulling together a "Who's Who"
of online advertising for a day, and forcing everyone to commit to
actionable items linked to deadlines - the FAST Summit agenda has a
pretty fair shot of being accomplished.
So here I am, feeling optimistic!
We'll see whether that optimism has any basis as fall turns to
winter. Much of what needs to be done has to be accomplished then.
Low point of the day
During Rich LeFurgy's Q&A session, a woman stepped up to the
microphone and began to extol the virtues of her company's
technology and products, finally walking away from the mike a long
three minutes later without having asked a question of the speaker.
The fact that her company's technology had nothing whatever to do
with LeFurgy's topic didn't phase her one bit.
There was an embarrassed pause as she went back to her seat. We all
felt as if we had just been Spammed.
Another interesting moment
Bob Pittman, president of America Online, gave the morning keynote
presentation on day two. It was the identical keynote, I might add,
that he delivered at the Jupiter Conference one week earlier to
practically the same audience. But let's not go thereý.
During his Q&A session, an audience member asked whether AOL will
ever graduate from non-animated banners to animated banners.
Although a big part of the P&G conference had focused on how to
deliver rich media ads over the internet, Pittman answered
unequivocally: No, because AOL still has lots of users on 14.4
modems and would never even consider an ad vehicle that might
disturb or slow down their experience.
What followed was an uncomfortable pause while the audience shifted
around in their seats.
Random thought
The two greatest constraints working against the objectives of this
conference are that:
* most consumers don't have (or don't want to spend) the money to
acquire a PC capable of handling the type of rich media advertising
this gathering wants to make commonplace,and
* most consumers don't have high speed/high bandwidth access to the
internet. While the FAST Forward process moves along with new
standards, buying practices and media typesýwill the mass market
they are hoping to reach have the capability of getting the ads
they want to send?
Today the answer is a clear "No."
Perhaps another facet that merits some consideration is how we can
get a rich media-capable internet appliance hooked up via broadband
into the hands of the mass market. That appliance might be backed
by phone companies, cable companies, Intel, Microsoft, PC
manufacturers, and software developers.
Here's my crazy idea: Have the above mentioned industry players get
together to design such an internet appliance. Find a way to GIVE
IT AWAY to consumers, in exchange for demographic and consumer
preference information and instant ordering capability being
hardwired into the system they receive. Marketers could fund the
giveaway by paying to get access to this growing -- but
well-defined -- mass audience.
For all the talk about privacy, I think people would be more than
willing to exchange their demographic and preference information
for a free internet appliance with free internet access and free
media rich email as well.
Is it worth kicking around?
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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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