This was our second Boards Creative Workshop that Wiredrive has sponsored, held at the swanky Bimbo’s in SF. The event itself was a great experience, from the Speaker’s dinner Wiredrive sponsored to the event itself.

The Event

The day started off well, slowed in the middle and finished off great. David Lawee, VP of Marketing from Google really spoke to me, even if he possibly freaked out the traditional advertising thinkers in the crowd. He had a simple message, which is “We think our customers are smart.” Google has built their entire business model on this premise, which on the surface is contrary to the way many advertisers think about business. You cannot do a media buy and spam 100 million Google customers - they would consider that against the credo “Do no harm”. You as an advertiser need to BE relevant for the end user and let THEM choose to find you. But that’s the beauty of the model - when ads are relevant, everyone wins.

Google believes that soon 85% of all media will be completely trackable. As TV and radio delivery becomes digital, it will start following the rules of relevance that Google has helped establish. People asked about Google’s acquisition of YouTube, wondering how it made business sense. Lawee mentioned that Google focused more on the end user’s interests and not on the direct short term revenue. David said that in 10 years, people will still be using the system (which will be its own collection of networks) and they will have figured out how to monitize it by then.
David had 2 great ideas to immediately benefit the production community. First, he recommended virally testing your ad campaign ideas first, creating low budget versions of the ad, seeding them on YouTube and tracking which one gets the most viral play. Then you will have a real world feedback to put into your planning for TV media buys. Second, run a new commercial and see how many times people Google for the product after it airs. Many brands have been able to track brand awareness uplift this way.

David presented a really interesting insight into the social awareness of Google. He described how Google Earth (an insane untapped advertising platform)t can become an amazing research tool to map hunger or Carbon Emissions throughout the world. And anyone can do it - ie. make their own maps of data previously not visualized on a global scale - in order to support their cause. It was very cool to hear such a powerful company still committed to a strong sense of community purpose. I believe that their underlying beliefs have helped Google outperform the competition, which lacks the similar insight into human nature.

BUD.TV

The switch to the Bud TV presentation was a huge swing in the opposite direction. I did not know the backstory to the Bud TV experiment, so I needed to piece together the context of how well the project was working as the presentation went along. The jawdropping information came from an audience question asking about end user registration. Due to a legal ruling, Bud.TV needed to install a 2 page questionnaire that all visitors needed to fill out including your driver’s license number in order to gain access. Only 20% of visitors who wanted to see what is inside Bud.tv actually get past this registration! 80% bail! It’s 10 times easier for a kid to visit a porn site than Bud.tv. It goes to show that in this new online world, a simple planning mistake like registration can completely change the nature of the project.
So, what’s the “brand promise” or payoff? We were shown 2 sample episodes (after the AV guy finally figured out how to make the DVD work) that showed the limits of what you can produce with one day of shooting. They felt like low budget SNL skits with some mildly un-PC humor thrown in, because “it’s the internet” and they can be crazy like that. Anal sex advice from an old geyser to a flumoxed house-wife… yeah, it’s that funny. I saw the Ask a Ninja guys present 3 weeks earlier and the work they shoot in 2 hours is infinitely more clever, funny and original. Maybe that’s why they are doing so well. And Ask A Ninja is exactly their competition - funny, compelling online content that is vying for my short attention span.

THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING

The end of the day was amazing. Conversation was lively, insightful, irreverant and funny. Rob Bagot, ECD of McCann Erickson, showed a funny parody clip called “Futuretrends” envisioned new targeted marketing technologies like GPS-enabled arrows that REALLY delivered an impact! Jen Golub from Cutwater explained how a socially conscious message could connect brands and their customers in really meaningful ways. Her un-aired Adidas spot showed a Palestinian and Isreali making their own tennis court with the Palestinian Wall as “the net”. It was beautifully and sensitively presented and Adidas should air it some day. Rich Silverstein (of Goodby, Silverstein) presented seven classic film scenes to help underscore that great storytelling is and always will be the future of advertising. Liz Ross (President of Tribal DDB) showed the amazing impact of online marketing with the slightly risque product for men’s grooming. Apparently, they helped move a year’s supply of body grooming razors in a month. She reported back that forward thinking brands see their new online websites as a products in their own right that generate connections with customers. Jae Goodman (CAA) helped put a fine point on that message - The upcoming Transformers Movie actually PAID Hasbro to essentially build them a $150 million advertisement! A great message that came out is that when brands want something special and are brave enough to trust their creative teams, they can truly receive amazing new ways of communicating their message.

Chad Hurley, founder of YouTube, answered questions from the panel and audience. I was really impressed with how he came across, smart, humble and friendly. It reminded me of first meeting with Marc Andreesen (brains behind Netscape), an equally successful and humble fellow.

All in all, the Boards Creative Workshop was a great way to spend an afternoon. Half of the fun was just saying hi to people in the room, which represented the top companies in the industry. We look forward to the next one!