With a brutal heat wave hitting the East Coast over the last few weeks, the best activity has seemed to be cranking the air conditioning and curling up in front of the TV (as long as your power is still on). Or maybe it was watching a couple of flicks online – potentially via your Internet-connected TV, gaming console or your laptop. Or maybe you placed your head directly in front of the AC unit, leaned your tablet device against your raised knees and enjoyed some streaming television.
However, the best way to beat the heat tomorrow, July 11, is hitting AdMonsters’ inaugural OPS TV event in NYC – we promise superb AC – and discussing how the TV and digital worlds are overlapping, something you may have noticed while you were trying to keep cool. What the intersection of these channels means for digital strategists and operations professionals will be high on the minds of hundreds of attendees. We’ve assembled a little preparatory package to get you ready for an intense day – the air may be cool, but the discourse promises to be steamy.
Need a taste now? Check out this clip from Roundarch Isobar Chief Strategy Officer Michael Nicholas’ OPS Mobile keynote regarding the future of screens:
Killer Keynotes
Dish Network has found itself in some legal hot water of late as several broadcasters sued the satellite network over the recently introduced AutoHop function – a DVR setting that basically cuts out the commercials from recorded TV programs. Even satirist Stephen Colbert weighed in on the controversy, subtly suggesting that branded TV content is set to make a big comeback.
However, Warren Schlichting, SVP of Dish Media Sales and Analytics, is focusing his morning keynote on why a traditional media player like Dish (which wasn’t considered traditional so long ago) is transitioning to digital-inspired operations due to consumer and advertisers’ evolved expectations and the proliferation of complex back-end technologies (such as those that brought life to the AutoHop). In effect, Dish is crossing into a middle ground (no man’s land?) that may quickly become the new normal.
Author, author! For his just-published book “Hooked Up: A New Generation’s Surprising Take on Sex, Politics and Saving the World,” Keynote Jack Myers, media ecologist and Chairman of the Media Advisory Group, spent the last two years studying what’s the matter with these kids today – or rather how the younger generation’s digital-infused upbringing is set to turn the world on its head. Myers has singled out those born between 1991 and 1995, labeling them Internet Pioneers because they will build the bridge between the pre- and post- Internet generations.
Myers’ keynote will focus on what lessons business (and marketers in particular) can learn from their habits – for digital media companies, he says, that will mean a complete re-evaluation of how users engage with their platforms and react to messaging. But the guidebook for this switch is out there for those willing to read it, and Myers plans to share some key pages.
(And here are a few juicy interviews with Myers from AdMonsters Content Czar Rob Beeler.)
Media discovery app Shazam most recently partnered with NBC to provide 2012 Olympics viewers with a multiscreen experience – via their mobile devices, Olympics viewers will be able to access athlete information and up-to-the-minute results as well as participate in social activities such as polls. But this isn’t the first time Shazam has injected multiscreen magic into a watching experience – awards shows, TV series and numerous commercials have boosted engagement through Shazam’s technology.
So who better than Evan Krauss, Shazam’s EVP of Advertising Sales, to describe the state of the multiscreen union? In particular, he’ll examine how multiscreen experiences take advantage of the changing way in which users interact with both content and marketing.
Panel Pandemonium
In the afternoon, members of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) from media companies, media buying agencies and large advertisers will detail the testing for proof of concept for the trackable asset cross-platform identification (TAXI) initiative, as well as the industry implications if the open standard for asset identification is widely adopted. But just what kind of stuff is TAXI made of? Get a taste of the standard’s development through this preview piece.
Closing out the day, David Lipkin, Principal and Founder of brand design agency Method, will lead a ponderous exchange on where users are leading the digital marketing industry. Panelists include Mike Sommers from TV-based mobile loyalty platform Viggle, which recently launched on Android devices; and Andrew Kippen, VP of Marketing for Internet TV platform Boxee, which last month released invite-only, beta iPhone app Cloudee enabling users to share personal videos with family and friends.
A Word From Our Sponsors
Like any other AdMonsters event, OPS TV is brought to you by the brightest stars in the digital TV and video tech space – let’s catch up with all of their recent happenings:
- LiveRail CEO Mark Trefgarne recently shared with AdMonsters his thoughts on the advantages of private video marketplaces; the company also unveiled “Checkpoint” pub-side ad blocking.
- James Grant, UK Manager for VINDICO, explained to us in a Q&A that engagement is the holy grail as far as video metrics go.
- Panel sponsor DoubleClick gave its display and video buying system a major overhaul last month.
- Adap.tv cofounder and VP of Product Teg Grenager gave us the inside scoop on the company’s landmark 2012 First Quarter State of the Online Video Industry report.
- Adobe Auditude VP of Video Monetization Jeremy Helfland chatted up Beet.tv about multiscreen monetization.
- Videoplaza CEO Sorosh Tavakoli detailed the future of online video; the company will be releasing a new report on the video industry (look for coverage here).
- Ad-ID is at the center of the transition of the advertising industry’s current analog commercial slate to a digital one (PDF).
- Taboola just closed a $10 million Series C round of financing.
There’s more to gobble up over at the OPS TV page, including a slew of Focus On sessions from the likes of Bloomberg, Comcast, OgilvyOne, Simulmedia and more. So stay cool folks, but get ready for a hot time in NYC on July 11.
 |
Pondering the future of TV and digital video? OPS TV will bring digital advertising leaders and ops professionals together to discuss the intersection of digital video and TV advertising. Register today for OPS TV, which will be held July 11, 2012, in New York. |