September 20, 2008
MIXX-ing it up with the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada
This week, HONEY attended MIXX Canada, a full day conference featuring digital marketing topics ranging from how L’Oreal has created original content specifically for iPhone to developments in search from Google insiders and mobile marketing for the masses. There were several insightful and entertaining presenters throughout the day, each with examples of originality, experimentation and innovation in the interactive realm.
One great example came from General Motors manager of social media, Natalie Johnson, and agency partner Digitas’ (US) senior vice president, Monik Sanghvi. Their sample campaigns, like igotshotgun.com and gmnext.com, demonstrated how General Motors has embraced Social Media through a trial and error approach, showing how even a large organization can let go of the instinct for rigid control. GM demonstrates the value in free flowing user generated content and how it can be leveraged for research, branding and innovation.
Insights from the big brains at Google always made for a mind-boggling afternoon. Marc Donner, engineering director with Google, introduced the huge opportunity for mobile search: the concept of localization. He also suggested that existing online search tools are relatively underdeveloped and that we are just now starting to get to the really cool stuff. He suggested, without of course giving away any true Google secrets, the idea of using visuals to search for content (as opposed to searching content to find images). Imagine using your cell phone to take a picture of a city intersection and by sending Google the query “Where am I?” getting a map and even directions to where you need to go.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada is the national voice and de facto thought leader of the Canadian Interactive marketing and advertising industry. It is a not-for-profit association representing a membership composed of advertisers, agencies, publishers and Interactive service associates.