Aug 2010 IPG Media Lab – Walking the Talk?
Interesting to see this article on IPG’s Media Lab. We’ve been pitching dynamic advertising and targeted communications for years. As Brian Monahan points out later in the article, it isn’t the technology that holds up implementing these ideas, it is how Madison Avenue (and clients) are organized.
All agencies across the spectrum from advertising to DM and PR will need to understand dynamic data elements being fed into interactive creative pieces. Whether a banner ad (as described here), an e-mail or an side-bar given to the NY Times for the tablet version of an article — it is dynamic data that will get people’s attention and thus deliver the message.
Interpublic Takes Media Lab From Theory To Application: Initial Foray Focuses On, Well, Applications
by Joe Mandese, Friday, August 6, 2010, 9:11 AM
After years of studying the theory of how
emerging media are impacting the consumer advertising marketplace,
Interpublic’s renowned media lab is restructuring and shifting its focus
to practical , real-world application. Not surprisingly, one of its
first applications is, well, an application. Specifically, it will test
and deploy new forms of online advertising that dynamically connect with
other software or databases. The new format, which Interpublic
executives believe could be the next big breakthrough in advertising,
exploits so-called APIs, which in tech industry parlance means
“applications based interface,” but which from a marketer’s or agency’s
point-of-view means advertising will simply become a pathway to any kind
of programming a creative thinker, media strategist or programmer can
think of to connect with a consumer.“We believe the next generation of storytelling will be fueled by
dynamic data elements,” asserts Brian Monahan, the head of social media
at Interpublic’s Universal McCann unit, who recently took over as
day-to-day director of Interpublic’s Emerging Media Lab, when former
chief John Ross stepped down to launch Shopper Sciences, a promising new
shopper marketing agency that will draw from many of the innovations
developed by the lab.