DR vs. Branding, Again.

The theme of this years ad:tech San Francisco was "Brand Strategy and the Expanding World of Digital Marketing," which served as somewhat of a guidepost for the content of the talks, but also to highlight the spreading divide that's happening across the digital advertising industry. A quick stroll through exhibitors alley will give you booth after booth of lead generation, affiliate and CPA technology services looking to fulfill your direct response needs, but far less products to make your branding efforts really sing.

On the other side of the floor, there were still plenty of conversations dealing with the a direct response, heavily metrics driven world that is the most pervasive method on the web, but also more clearly showed the shift that's happening now. As I said in this post, the internet really began as a beacon for advanced metrics, a fantasy world for brands who thought they could know the exact return for every dollar spent.

But finally, as more brands and agencies begin to understand that the web is also a marketplace for interaction and attention, we've seen marketers move beyond just the final step at the end of a purchase funnel. And as director of marketing for ask.com, Sean X, said (at least roughly), ignore the top of the funnel at your peril.

So you won't see some long winded post summarizing each panel or speaker on the event, mainly because Cam and Ryan have done it better than I can. But there's clearly change happening in the industry. It reflects not only a new sense of realism about what the net provides, but also the possibilities of what it could provide.

That said, the highlight was the time spent with my blogger social and madison avenue journal cohorts Cam, Ryan, Sean and Katie. I get the feeling we all need more conversations (or an arguments) about change in the industry because most people out there are struggling enough to just do what they do every day. It's more than a little humbling to spend that much time with that much brain power. Truly a pleasure boys and girls.

photo by stebbi