Future of Advertising in Digital Media

The $10 student special price for the $395 ticket wasn't the main attraction to attend today's Stanford-Accel symposium on "The Future of Advertising in Digital Media" - especially having had to miss two class for it.

Although i thought i will be more interested in the panels, i enjoyed Sir Martin Sorrel's key note the most. Key takeaway was that the growth in advertisement will be in nontraditional media in mature markets and traditional media in non-mature market. Another is that the tides are shifting towards the east side of the world, not just in terms of business, but also in terms of technology leadership.

Sir Martin Sorrel had some strong opinions about Google. He described Google as a friend in the short term and a foe in the long term with Google's acquisition of DoubleClick making the short term shorter. He also contrasted Google and Microsoft, where he characterized Google as an integrator and Microsoft as a builder. He also contrasted Google and Yahoo saying that Google is about technology and Yahoo is about people.

As for the panels i attended, I felt they tended to be more promotional and/or politically correct rather than insightful or opinionated. Not much beyond the prevailing belief that digital media is the next big thing. However, two ideas that were emphasized is the value of mood sensitive advertising and high engagement interactions.

Finaly, i didn't do much networking. I guess the mood and the dress code had to do with that.
However, i ran into Tony, my former LDP instructor, and unexpectedly we ended up having a very personal chat.