Commentary

Eric Clapton & the Montgomery Tech Conference

I was in Santa Monica last week for the Montgomery Technology Conference -- top-notch, and I'll return to it in a moment -- and on Tuesday, just as I was about to call it a day, my college buddy rang. Eric Clapton was in town, and he'd just managed to score two tenth-row seats.

I've been a devoted Clapton fan since college, and I'd never seen him solo, only with the Allman Brothers and Stevie Winwood. I jumped on it.

The show was incredible. The songs ("Layla," "I Shot the Sheriff") had endured, the riffs were excellent, and whether he was playing electric or unplugged, Clapton demonstrated total and complete mastery of his art. I mean, here was this guy, age 66, and he still had it. ("Layla" unplugged is a completely different song than the electric version, for instance.) As someone had scrawled on a wall in London over 40 years ago, "EC is [still] God."

In fact, it seemed like little had changed about Clapton since 1965, when he entered the scene. I couldn't help but consider how much has changed about the rest of the world -- not just in the music business, but across the entire media landscape, and especially in the world of media measurement.

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The TV ratings business began to take its present form right around Clapton's Yardbird days, with 1,000-household panels tracking the three channels available on American television (most of which were tuned to "Ozzie & Harriet," as Jon Mandel recently jibed). Considering the archaic Nielsen model, incredibly still in practice, I was struck by how much work and innovation it takes to stay at the top of your game over four decades, as Clapton has.

Back, for now, to the aforementioned Montgomery Technology Conference, at which I was honored to be presenting on behalf of my company. Having attended dozens of such events over the past 20 or so years, I can say it was hands-down one of the best I've seen. Attendees (there were almost 1,000) and presenters were high-quality, there was lots of time for meaningful interaction, and discussions were genuinely thought-provoking both on the panels and in the corridors where many deals were being discussed.  Clearly, technology innovation is unprecedented, with investors fueling the pace.

I particularly enjoyed the Analytics Breakfast Salon I was invited to join, with Jon Vein from our partner Marketshare,  Dave Morgan from Simulmedia, and others. It launched an excellent conversation about the importance of advanced analytics and business intelligence in all industries -- not just media. Despite our longtime focus on analytics and ROI, media is actually behind other sectors -- managing inventory management for the manufacturing industry, for one -- in applying the measurement discipline to business practices. With the digital infrastructure burgeoning and technology providing new tools every day, there's an opportunity to bring more and better analytical data and software tools to the media industry.

Which brings me back to Clapton and Nielsen. He's an analog (acoustic) master, but he's continued to innovate in his domain as technology (electric) has evolved. Operating within a transforming industry, Nielsen needs to do the same. It's one thing, and a good thing, to own the space, but if you don't adapt and evolve to leverage new technology, customers (other than investors in an IPO) are not going to cough up the dough for front-row tickets to your show. Just ask EC.

(Note: Some of us fancy ourselves the Derek Trucks of the industry, leading innovation. And if you're not sure who that is, see here.)

1 comment about "Eric Clapton & the Montgomery Tech Conference ".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, March 14, 2011 at 5:31 p.m.

    Interesting post Mark.

    However, what is odd is that down here in Australia our OzTAM (metropolitan television and subscription television) and RegTAM (regional television) TV ratings are contracted to Nielsen to conduct, and our panels are around 90% digital with the remaining analogue homes probably being switched to digital metering before the homes actually switch to digital receivers.

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