Unicast

On May 6th Caleb Hill, SVP of International Business, was a featured panelist at this year’s Digital Hollywood Spring to discuss Advertising Innovation around Broadband, Mobile, In-Video, In-Game, Social Networks, Blogs and Podcasts. Caleb had this to say about the experience:

“There was great panel energy with a broad spectrum of expertise and insights. The moderator, Rick Mathieson, did a great job preparing the subject matter and organizing a lively debate that the panel participants and audience alike enjoyed. Between all of the discussions we had around how technologies are evolving and where they are heading it seems like Mobile, In-game, i-anything, and dynamic content still lack scalability, standards protocol, and reliable platform support. As a result, I see in-video advertising as the only model with the ability to scale during 2010. I am looking forward to following all of the great contributions from the folks I met at the panel and at the conference in general.”

Check out Rick Mathieson's blog to read about his experience as the moderator and his thoughts on the All-Star panel: Rick Mathieson GENWOW

Click here to learn more about Digital Hollywood Spring and other events coming soon: http://www.digitalhollywood.com/

On March 7, 2010, James Dillon and James Egan, who lead our global and publisher solution initiatives, had the opportunity to attend the AdMonsters Publisher Forum XXII where they met and dined with some of our industry’s biggest publishers. The event was held at the Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center in Morristown, New Jersey and drew in over a hundred leaders in the online advertising space whose roles focus on online advertising operations and advertising technology. Unicast was a proud silver sponsor of the event along side several companies such as Collective, Operative, and Adsoftware.

Jim Egan had this to say about the event "this was definitely a solid networking event with Publisher Ad Ops professionals, who are often times in the driver seat for making vendor decisions on the publisher side. I definitely felt it was a worthwhile investment and I'm looking forward to attending the next Publisher forum in August."

The majority of the agenda for this event is comprised of member-led sessions, workshops, and breakouts covering a wide variety of relevant topics; some examples include ad serving technology, inventory management, organizational structure, business process automation, ad operations policies, rich/streaming media, and case studies.

For more information on this event or to learn about other AdMonsters events coming soon please visit http://www.admonsters.com/events

I've heard whispers about SXSW since the day I moved to Austin. It's coming; it's going to be HUGE! But what the heck is it? Is it a music festival, a film festival or an interactive conference? Like some multiple choice answers, it's D, All of the Above. SXSW is a three headed monster, bringing live music from around the world, showcasing innovation in film and delivering the latest in interactive media (not to mention all the parties), overtaking Austin for nine days in March.

The organizers of SXSW have honestly thought of everything to help anyone from the seasoned SXSW attendee to the SXSW virgin to make the most of the event. There are smart phone apps to help build out your own personal schedule, Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) to create real life "follow me" buttons on every badge or you could even get yourself a SXSW friend to guide you through the event.

The SXSW website is brimming with information which is a little overwhelming. Best thing to do is to start in your area of interest: Music, Film or Interactive, and then go to News > FAQs.

Now if only you could get your Boss to send you. Yes, they've thought of that too!

Top 10 Reasons For Your Boss To Send You To SXSW Interactive

Last Thursday, 11/5, Unicast had the opportunity to facilitate a great conversation at the ad:tech conference in NYC.

The conference is focused on digital marketing and it is HUGE. It was held in the Javits Convention Center on the upper West side of Manhattan and attracted the who’s who of digital marketers from around the world.

As a sponsor of the conference, Unicast was able to host a panel discussion during the schedule of speaking sessions. We selected a topic that we knew to be very relevant to both our business as well as the advertising industry as a whole: the future of video advertising.

The title of our panel was “Video Advertising: It’s All Digital, So Now What?” and dealt with a variety of topics surrounding how the conversion of broadcast based video into digital would cause the industry to evolve.

We had a great panel of speakers that are subject matter experts on this topic, and I was there to moderate and encourage a lively discussion on a topic that was front and center at ad:tech NYC this year.

A Video Advertising Revolution?
The members of the panel had a lively discussion about the video advertising world as we know it, one with two distinct structures and organizations around broadcast video and online video. One major theme of the panel was trying to determine what it might take for agency, advertiser and publisher structures to follow the advance in video technology and be positioned for integration into one combined entity and workflow/process. Everyone agreed that it was a foregone conclusion that at some point in the future, the worlds of broadcast and online video advertising would have to converge. It’s more efficient, it’s more scalable and the two mediums are starting to behave more and more like each other every day.

The words “revolution”, “collapse”, “people will have to lose their jobs” were thrown around, as a feeling that some pretty major structural changes would need to happen to facilitate a true change in the way things work today. Technology advancements, reporting and measurement shifts, more premium inventory from online publishers, economic conditions... these will all be factors in future of the combined world of digital advertising across three screens.

5 years ago... YouTube didn’t exist. 5 years ago, online video did not exist. Where will we be 5 years from now? Rest assured that Unicast, along with DG FastChannel are working hard to be one step ahead of the game. For more on what solutions we’re developing to get us there, read more here.

-----------------------

Congrats to Guy Mastrion, Chief Global Creative Officer at Palio for winning our drawing for the MinioHD Flip camera. Go take some digital video and help push forth the revolution!

Sponsored Workshop Details:
Topic:
Video Advertising—It’s All Digital, So Now What?

Summary:
As we move fully into the era of digital television, will marketers and agencies shift towards a truly unified solution to manage their video-based advertising campaigns? Will we see a convergence of the planning,

operations and reporting functions for video across traditional and online disciplines? Join leading marketer, technology and agency executives as they discuss the future of ad operations and how digital video content will force the advertising industry to challenge legacy perceptions, workflows and staffing models.

Moderator:
Bryan Hjelm, VP, Marketing, Unicast

Panelists:
- Dan Berra, VP, Business Intelligence, Unicast
- Amy Auerbach, Media and Marketing Consultant, Professor, Online Media Baruch College
- Mike Leo, CEO and President, Operative
- Amy Stettler, Global Media Director, OMD

The annual IAB MIXX Conference & Expo is the official interactive event of Advertising Week. The sold out conference focused on the creative revolution transforming the interactive space and advertising culture. The powerful speaker line-up included Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL; Yusuf Mehdi SVP, Online Audience Business Group, Microsoft; Nikesh Arora, President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development of Google; and Ashton Kuthcher of Katalyst Media. Some of my favorite tracks were metaio and Popular Science’s session, Augmented Reality – From Big Screen to Mainstream where they displayed how metaio’s technology brings together the real and virtual worlds providing a unique user experience. The End of “Digital” Marketing? by Nikesh Arora was another must see where he discussed the revolution happening in the online space and the fusion of traditional and digital marketing. The Future of Television and Online Video debate shared interesting perspectives on how consumers are impacting the model and how content owners will have to adapt.

To view more headlines from this year’s event:

http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2009/09/24/live-at-mixx-ashton-kutcher-media-mogul/

http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab/recent_press_releases/press_release_archive/press_release/955665

Our deep thanks to Nick Johnson, Glen Sheehan and David Card for participating.
 
The entertainment industry is leading the innovation of rich media, and there are so many hot topics to handle: metrics, creative coordinating with tech, audience segmentation, how to make money with Hulu.
 
What’s the next big thing? Our panelists said:
 
Glen Sheehan, T3- Maybe we’ll get a return to common sense soon. There’s still a human being at the end of campaigns. Remember the first click is in the head. Advertisers are looking for new ways to segment around media distribution and reach audiences wherever they are on the Web.
 
Nick Johnson, NBC – The proposition of distribution is turning on its head. Publishers are also still sorting out how to monetize content, provide smarter ad serving and utilize campaign data.
 
David Card, Forrester – Right now everyone is trying to find a way to use social networks effectively to deliver rich media. The solution that effectively harnesses the “pass along to friends” features in social networks, without freaking audiences out, will push the needle.

You can view David Card's presentation on Interactive Marketing Trends and Forecasts by clicking here: OMMA.ppt (1.48 mb)

To view the full press release please visit: http://unicast.com/about/press.aspx?id=70

Unicast will be sponsoring a workshop panel at OMMA Global New York 
 
We hope you’ll check it out! Details below:
 
Title: ‘Entertainment and Rich Media: Partners in ROI,’
When: September 22nd at 11am ET
Where: Expo Hall, Imperial/Julliard rooms.
Who: Nick Johnson, VP, Digital Media Sales, NBC Universal
Glen Sheehan, VP, Group Creative Director, T3
David Card, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester
* moderated by Caleb Hill, Unicast SVP, Product
 
One lucky attendee will win a Flip video MinioHD camera!