• by September 28, 2005

Is anyone else out there absolutely flabbergasted by how much is going on this week?

For starters, we are in Day Two of OMMA East, MediaPost's kickass online marketing, media and advertising conference which has, so far, provided a really diverse group of speakers, lively debate, and interesting vendors. We have reconnected with old friends and professional acquaintances, met some new folks, and stopped in at some of the many parties going on around town, like Yahoo! 's presentation of emerging musical artists last night at B.B. King's Blues Club. Unfortunately, this here Minute has only been able to scratch the surface of all the activities -- speeches, panels, conferences, and parties -- since we are throwing our own events.

We're thinking today about some of the more illuminating bits from OMMA. Yesterday, Peter Weedfald, the head of marketing for Samsung Electronics in North America and a keynote speaker, spoke of the "ADD economy." (That's Attention Deficit Disorder economy). We were struck by this observation. Everyone is marketing in such a relentless, pervasive manner that many consumers are simply turned off or numb to any messages.

Peter went on to describe the phenomenon as the "ADHD economy," or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which means that time deprivation is the standard bill of fare for most consumers. So how do you break through to them? Peter's response has been to make the Web central to everything, from supply chain to marketing. He is fanatical in his integration of wireless and Internet marketing to build relationships with consumers.

This morning's keynoter, Cammie Dunaway, chief marketing officer of Yahoo!, presented a host of best practices for Internet marketing that were dazzling and specific. This is a woman who arrived on the scene at Yahoo! two years ago, after having spent more than a dozen years marketing chips and snacks at Frito-Lay. She says she became the poster girl for Internet marketing among consumer packaged goods companies in 2001, when she shifted media dollars from the snack marketer's budget for Super Bowl advertising, (heaven forbid), to the Web. Little did she know then that she would get to reinvent the marketing practices of the world's largest Internet company.

Cammie's efforts have begun to pay dividends. She showed OMMA attendees Yahoo!'s latest campaign for Yahoo! Music Unlimited, the music subscription service that allows music fans to choose from among one million tracks for $5 a month. She showed specific examples of best practices that marketers and media people can employ to enliven their Web efforts. The examples were whimsical and fun, which is entirely the point: Cammie urged marketers to experiment with meaningful interactivity, make emotional connections, create creative templates that enable quick swap-outs and customization, and above all, to have fun.

And here's something else: By some estimates, by 2008, 1.5 billion people will be online. Today, according to TNS Media Intelligence, the Internet represents only 6 percent of the total media spend, but the Web constitutes 15 percent of all media consumption among consumers.

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Finally, tonight at the conclusion of OMMA, MediaPost honors its Online All Stars, nine individuals who have done amazing things with the online medium and who need no convincing of its value. We'll be toasting them at 5:30 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis. See you there.