Top 10 Takeaways From ILM East 2012 (and Thank You!)
ILM East 2012 took place last week in Boston and is now one for the history books. It was definitely a fun show that really showcased the fast moving local innovations that BIA/Kelsey focuses on.
There are many learnings we can focus on as takeaways, but in the interest of good reading, how about a top 10 list?
1- The new currencies are time, attention and clickstreams. Payments can be in pixels, Facebook mentions or points and rewards (Ted Leonsis, vice chair, Groupon).
2- Email is for e-commerce push; phones are for texting (Ted Leonsis, vice chair, Groupon).
3- Local is all about scale. And the only way to achieve scale in local is by aggregation (Jay Herratti, outgoing CEO, CityGrid Media).
4- Creating a closed loop is the path to a seamless user experience. American Express is … the acquirer, the issuer and the network (Leslie Berland, SVP, American Express).
5- Daily deals are fun, but Big Data that combines different databases is critical for targeting users and winning loyalty (various).
6- Focus on engagement, not new customer acquisition. Loyal customers are worth 24 times more than new customers (Charlie Kim, CEO, NextJump).
7- Email fatigue is probably out there, but social media complements email, rather than kills it. They are both forms of permission marketing (Mark Schmulen, GM, Constant Contact).
8- Video is a great local medium, but offers limited inventory opportunities, and really can’t compete as a standalone with a major metro newspaper for advertising (Lisa DeSisto, VP, advertising, The Boston Globe).
9- National brands can’t go local without a platform. Otherwise, you can’t get engagement and you’ll see high churn (Pete Gombert, founder and CEO, Ballihoo).
10- You can’t herd 6,000 cats and come up with a digital strategy (Adam Epstein, president, Ad Marketplace).
How about 11- Company executives tend to talk up whatever their company provides?
I was just coming to comment but Matt beat me to it almost word for word
Actually I don’t understand some of these points
9- National brands can’t go local without a platform.
Aren’t the platforms there in the form of so many social networks and sites serving specific geographic areas?
10- You can’t herd 6,000 cats and come up with a digital strategy
:-/
Matt and Sean: Thanks for your comments. As you suggest, there is some hype that goes on at these events….luckily, we have a great analyst team to poke at any lurid claims!
Sean: Social is important, but the platform that is mentioned is more about having one simple place for national brands to go out on, instead of hundreds of individual local sites.