• by Joe Mandese , March 5, 2009

Hi everybody. It’s been five years since we’ve been in New Orleans, and it’s great to be back in this great city…

Given the scary, uncertain state of our economy, and the fact that so many companies have cut back on travel and training budgets, I want to say a heartfelt thanks to all of YOU for coming to this year’s 4A’s Media Conference & Tradeshow at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.

Our attendance numbers may be down this year … and really, that’s probably the new reality of what organizations like the 4A’s can expect for meetings of this kind for the foreseeable future. So, I’m thrilled that all of you went out of your wayâ€"and perhaps out of your budgetsâ€"to come to our conference.

Wow … This time last year, I had the great privilege of addressing the 4A’s community for the first time as president and CEO of the Association.

And although it’s only been a year since we convened for this meeting, so much in our world has dramatically changed.

If the shifting sands of the current socio-economic-political landscape have shown us anything, it’s that change happens, change is inevitable, and, to me, change is exactly what we need to move forward.

As Irwin Gotlieb said yesterday, no more excuses. This is about our survival as an industry.

But before I move on, I’d like to address a handful of issues that seem to recur each year during the 4A’s Media Conference.

First, the discussion about ownership, retention and usage of consumer data must take place openly among agencies, marketers and publishers, if we have any hope of coming to a consensus as an industry.

Second, let’s agree to disagree about the unbundling or rebundling of media services in agencies. Again, that ship has sailed and it’s time that we accept the fact that there’s no going back.

And last, let’s end the great debate about “digital.”

As I said in my remarks at last year’s Media Conference: Yes, digital changes everything, and yes, everything changes digital.

I think, however, that the construct of “traditional” versus “digital” is a false oneâ€"or at least it’s a construct that has become increasingly outmoded.

The line that once delineated so-called traditional work and digital work has blurred to such as extent that it’s now practically been erased …

And as VivaKi’s David Kenny said last year at this meeting, “It’s all about ‘navigating the blur.’ ”

It was interesting to see the traditional versus digital debate played out when Adweek named its 2009 interactive agency of the year.

While few would bet against the winning agency, R/GA, Brian Morrissey, Adweek’s digital editor and author of the R/GA profile, asked in a thoughtful post on his blog, “Should there be a digital agency of the year?”

It was a provocative question that begged even more questions, not the least of which is whether or not an industry trade publication needs a digital editor anymore, if everythingâ€"after allâ€"is now digital? I’m just asking, Brian…

Still, I agree with some of the blog commentators and industry leadersâ€"particularly those who run digital agenciesâ€"that the business issues they face are unique … at least for the time being.

A few weeks ago, IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg posted on his “clog” an insightful “Manifesto on Interactive Advertising Creativity.” Randy opened his article by challenging his readers to quickly name “four fantastic, emotionally resonant, culturally significant and successful interactive advertising campaigns from the past year.”

I’ll give you a few seconds right now…

I did the mental exercise, and realized thatâ€"as Randy predicted I wouldâ€"I came up empty. The trickâ€"and the challengeâ€"was to limit my recall to interactive advertising campaigns from the past year.

I consider myself to be a fairly savvy consumer, and definitely an engaged and active participant in the world of online media and advertising. So I was surprised that Randy’s challenge stumped me.

Like many of Randy’s readersâ€"I’m sureâ€"what tripped me up were my own internal biases about what constitutes “advertising,” even in an online environment.

Truth is: I grew up watching television, listening to the radio, reading magazines and newspapers. For me, these experiences had resulted in deeply ingrained biases about media, which I’m sure aren’t much different from many of yours.

However, I doubt the same is true for anyone under the age of 30…

Today, I find myself consuming the majority of content in digital formatsâ€"whether it’s watching “television” via DVR, AppleTV, HULU or on my iPhone; listening to Internet or satellite radio; or reading blogs and tweets instead of printed publications.

But I’ll also admit, and those of you who were on the same flight that I was know this: There are two publications that I still need to read in all of their old-school printed glory: Vanity Fair and Vogue. Somehow, an Oscar recap or a preview of Thakoon’s fall line doesn’t quite translate in the same way from printed page to screen…

One of my Oprah “A-ha!” moments came when I bought an iPhone last year.

Keep in mind: I have a Best Buy’s worth of tech gadgets at home, including a closetful of virtually every iteration of the iPod.

But it wasn’t until I got my iPhone that the possibilities of a true mobile Web became clear to me as a consumer and advertising professional.

Armed with a fully realized mobile Internet experience and Web-based social media platforms, I’ve found myself, in ways big and small, rethinking and reprogramming the ways that I consume content, the ways that I create content and the ways that I communicate with friends and interact with brands.

These somewhat vague ideas about what so many consumers are doing today were crystallized in a Sept. 5, 2008, article in the New York Times magazine by Clive Thompson. The article, titled “I’m so totally, digitally close to you,” articulated this new kind of behavior as “ambient awareness.” The theory being if you’re connected with people through social media platforms, you acquire an awareness of what’s going on with them through the ambient information that flows through these channels.

So whether it’s scanning the news feeds and status updates of my Facebook friends or reading the tweets I follow on Twitter, it seems that my interactions with friends and brands in the virtual world have exploded exponentially in a way that has easily outpaced the interactions I have in the real world. There simply aren’t enough hours in real life to keep track of that much about anyone or anything…

I don’t know about you, but over the past six months or so, I’ve seen a huge increase in the numbers of friends from high school who have connected with me through Facebook. Where once I used Facebook to keep track of current friends and business colleagues, it’s nowâ€"more and moreâ€"become a channel for long-lost friends to reconnect and, say, post photos from way back.

I’m sure you can guess which one is me… I only hope that photos from the 70s have been destroyed…

“Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel.”

That’s Marc Davis, a chief scientist at Yahoo! and former professor of information science at University of California at Berkeley, quoted in the New York Times magazine article.

I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Davis’s assessment. It’s an experience that many of us are increasingly having every day. Now more than ever, consumers are empoweredâ€"largely through technologyâ€"to express their opinions and actually talk back, not only to each other but to brands.

Perhaps the biggest Netroots brand to emerge over the past year was Barack Obama, whose campaign deftly navigated the blur with a potent mix of new and old media.

“Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force…”

That’s from just one of myriad news reports following the election, extolling the savvy of our first wired president.

I think what has been less reported, but perhaps just as important, is the fact that the Obama campaign spent more on so-called traditional mediaâ€"TV, radio, printâ€"than any presidential candidate in history, illustrating the importance of tapping into every media channel available in your arsenal…

So what can marketers and agencies take away from all of this?

I’m reminded of a remark made by Ed Artzt, former chairman and chief executive at Procter & Gamble, during his speech on “The Future of Advertising.”

“What we’ve learned is that people want choice, convenience and control.” That was in 1994.

Fifteen years later, and Mr. Artzt’s call-to-arms for agencies and marketers to embrace the transformative power of technology and the active role of consumers remains as relevant today as it was then. (And interestingly, Mr. Artzt’s speech doesn’t once use the word “Internet” or “Web.”)

Clearly, there’s still so much that marketers and agencies can learn from consumers. And as Mr. Artzt challenged agencies and marketers to do in 1994, once again it’s time for us to do our homework.

Today, it’s not just about dialogue between consumers and brands; it’s also about the ambient dialogue that’s happening between consumers, and brands need to recognize thatâ€"more often than notâ€"it’s consumers who are moderating the conversation, and controlling the terms of the interaction.

As a consumer, I find this to be a thrilling prospect: The empowered, thoughtful consumer taking the reins of the message.

As an advertising professional, I can also see how unnerving it must be for control-minded marketers and their agencies.

But I have faith. Consumers are a smart group. After all, we’ve heard this a thousand times, David Ogilvy famously said in 1948, “The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife.” It’s a touchstone that many advertising professionals return to, even today, more than 60 years later…

I’m excited that our Conference program is taking some of our own advice and focusing on the consumer.

It may seem to some like it was just yesterday when former 4A’s chairman Henry Eckhardt gave a speech titled “The Consumer Catches Up.” That was at the 4A’s annual meeting … in 1938.

Later this morning, you’ll hear from a trio of panelsâ€"comprised of different demographic groupsâ€"who will tell us what marketers and agencies are getting right … and what we’re getting wrong. And they’ll do it live…

This “live” approach is uncharted territory for this conference, but I’m confident that hearing the voices and opinions of these very opinionated New Orleans residents will provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that we’re all facing…

Lastly, I’d like to add a corollary to Mr. Ogilvy’s comment:

“I’m not a category, I’m a person. I like being addressed by people I know, not by a stranger…”

That’s Esther Dyson, a personal hero and an original digerati, and I think her quote neatly sums up the conversations that I hope we’ll elicit over the course of our Conference.

Now, on to the program.