• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 6, 2011

Kicking things off with the morning keynote is Chris Needham, VP of Interactive, Fidelity Investments, which has been among the earliest brands advertising on the tablet platform. By way of context, Needham explains that apps and digital generally are key elements of Fidelity’s marketing and advertising efforts. Digital accounts for about 40% of the total marketing budget, with amount of online spending increasing each year.

He also stresses that the digital medium is all about driving action and efficiency. “At the end of the day, its about clicks, swipes, whatever you want to call it,” he said. When it came to tablet advertising, Fidelity’s overall goal last year was “leap and learn.” More specific objectives included advertising out of category, gaining PR, using the tablet to tell “bigger stories” take advantage of differences in the device from the PC, TV or smartphones.

Fidelity wasn’t so happy with its first effort on the Time iPad app, which didn’t generate much interaction, in part because it required people to swipe vertically on the personal finance “green line” that has been the focus of recent campaigns. Fidelity was happier with its second ad in the Wired app, which focused on the top 10 financial innovations in the company’s history and resulted in good PR and all-important plaudits from the C-Suite.

Needham said the goal for 2011 was to be more about actually driving revenue, not just strong PR, through its tablet initiatives. And while its tablet ads have driven high user engagement, he said it hasn't met revenue goals in that they're not actually drive new accounts. As a result, Fidelity is scaling back its revenue ambitions for this year to continue focusing on general messaging rather than ROI.