The real-time audience survey results from last week's iMedia Agency Summit held some big surprises.
When it comes to keeping up with friends, a whopping 87 percent of interactive advertising professionals use a social network. But MySpace -- the 800-pound gorilla in the space -- hardly registers with the people who buy and sell ads across the web.
This surprising fact -- and others -- came to light at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, Calif., where CEO Rick Parkhill and Brad Berens, chief content officer and editor at large for ad:tech and iMedia Communications in North America, took the opportunity to poll attendees who represent the lion's share of the industry's ad dollars.
Using real-time audience polling technology that was generously sponsored by ValueClick Media, iMedia learned that the social network of choice for ad industry leaders, it seems, is Facebook.
But the group, which included several hundred senior-level interactive agency executives, online service providers and leading web publishers, slammed Beacon, Facebook's latest advertising program. More than half of those surveyed said Beacon was "doomed." However, 31 percent of the audience reported that Facebook's troubles had been overblown.
Facebook's recent controversy may have prompted this response: 68 percent of those surveyed said they expected only a handful of "cutting edge" clients to run campaigns in social networks and on sites featuring user-generated content. Both mediums -- though potential goldmines in terms of engagement and total eyeballs -- have given advertisers and brands pause because of fears that ads will be matched alongside inappropriate or illegal content.
That audience seemed to drive at the heart of sentiments that agency leaders usually only say out loud during cocktail hours and closed-door meetings -- namely that brands have yet to embrace the full potential of the digital space. Speaking anonymously through the remote-controlled clicker voting system, industry leaders seemed more candid in the assertion that big brands need to embrace experimentation in a world increasing dominated by their customers.
But it's not fear of the user that has ad executives worrying about the interactive industry as a whole. A combined 81 percent of those who participated in the survey said they either "completely agreed," "mostly agreed" or "somewhat agreed" that the lack of an adequate and uniform measurement system, akin to what Nielsen offers for TV, has retarded growth in the sector. However, the group expressed optimism that clients would continue to increase their interactive budgets in 2008, with 38 percent projecting a five to 15 percent bump in digital spending, and 37 percent predicting a 15 to 30 percent spike.
Interestingly, 42 percent of respondents said that most of the growth they saw in 2007 came from new clients.
One area where advertisers saw room for improvement was video. Three quarters of those who responded said the medium would fail to gain traction without a compelling ad format. Similarly, many in the room expressed doubt about the potential of mobile. When asked if 2008 would be the year that mobile marketing finally takes off, 59 percent said no. Perhaps more telling, only two percent of those asked said they were planning to move a "good-sized chunk" of their budget into mobile.
One curious phenomenon revealed by the polling was that buyers and sellers tended to see eye-to-eye on most of the questions -- the audience polling technology segmented the data into responses by buyers and sellers. When Parkhill, and later Berens, revealed how closely in tune buyers and sellers were, an audible chuckle could be heard throughout the room, perhaps signaling a sign of maturation for the industry. "We're breaking out in violent agreement with each other," Berens observed from stage.
A keynote speech made by Peter Horan, CEO of Media and Advertising of IAC, may have shed some light on why the opinions of buyers and sellers have begun to coalesce. Speaking at the Agency Summit, Horan told the crowd that the current media revolution has forced publishers and advertisers to tear down the walls that divide them in the quest to serve consumers who are on a mission for whatever strikes their fancy.
With the evolution of the online ad industry and the maturation of iMedia Summits, Josh Messinger, VP of Online for dmg world media, the parent company of iMedia, says he was encouraged by the polling data.
"Our attendees represent the movers and shakers of interactive," Messinger observed. "I'm always eager to hear their thoughts on issues confronting the ad-supported web, and I look forward to future polls."
Download slides of the iMedia Agency Summit survey questions and results:
Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.