Interact Congress 2010: Get set for a hot debate on online branding

Brussels 20th April 2010: There’s likely to be a lot of lively debate when Interact 2010 kicks off in Barcelona on 2nd June. With an impressive line-up of some of the savviest players in the digital advertising industry set to throw their radical ideas into the arena, we expect debate to be fierce!

You might think that European online advertisers could sit back and congratulate themselves on last year’s achievements when they notched up a 20% increase on the previous year, but not a bit of it. Take Jef Vandecruys Global Project Leader Digital Connection of Anheuser-Busch who will contend that the industry is capable of delivering triple digit growth and setting out to prove it. More preconceptions are set to be dispelled when Darin Brown, President of Global Accounts at Razorfish, will use his keynote presentation to point out that the ad agency business model was developed as long ago as the 1960s and that digital is the driving force behind a much-needed reinvention. He calls for Digital Darwinism, where the good ideas will survive and the bad ones become extinct. Discussion is likely to centre around what constitutes good, and what is so bad that it has to be jettisoned.

Tom Bowman VP, Strategy and Operations for Global Advertising Sales at BBC Worldwide, has strong views on online brand advertising and he’ll be sharing them on the main conference day, 3rd June. A famed digital advertising specialist who has worked with some of the biggest names in the business like MSN and Yahoo!, Tom thinks that basic marketing rules apply to campaigns online as well as offline. He contends, “We must craft the message to win attention. The key to successful online brand campaigns, as in every other medium, is understanding your audience and matching the advertiser, the brand and the message to it.”

Another digital leading light who says the traditional rules still apply is Gian Fulgoni, Chairman and Co- Founder of comScore. He will use data unique to the Interact Congress to show where branding online can be effective. Measurement is his business and the subject of the third panel session on day two entitled ‘The proof for branding online: How are we measuring it? What are we measuring?’ He challenges the weight given to the click through rates notched up by display advertising campaigns. He takes the view that it’s the last thing an advertiser should be using to measure effectiveness. He will also present his strong views about the design of websites that work and the huge impact of video, with, of course, the stats to prove it.

If you want to be part of the rapid evolution that is shaping the future of digital advertising, you need to be at Interact Congress 2010. There still time to catch the early bird rate discount before it runs out on May 1st. Register at http://www.interactcongress.eu/registration_2.php

Follow us on Twitter for regular updates of speakers and their topics: http://twitter.com/IABEU_Interact

Ends.

Media please contact:

Lucy Green, (English) Tel: +44 (0) 7817 698366
Geraldine Gitel, (French/English) Tel: +44 (0) 7917 885380/00 33 6772 5050
pressrelations@iabeurope.eu

About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is a federation of national Interactive Advertising Bureaux (IAB) across Europe. Its mission is to promote the growth of the interactive advertising markets on behalf of its clients and national members. Supported by every major media group, advertisers, agency, portal, technology and service provider, its voice represents the interest of more than 5000 company members. IAB Europe coordinates activities across the region including public affairs, benchmarking, research, setting standards and best practices.

The member countries are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Our corporate members include Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, BBC.com, CNN, comScore Europe, Ernst & Young, Fox Interactive Media, Goldbach Media Group, Google, Hi-Media-AdLink, InSites Consulting, Koan, Microsoft Europe, Netlog, News Corporation, Nugg.ad, Nielsen Online, Orange Advertising Network, Publicitas Europe, Truvo, United Internet Media, Yahoo! and Zanox.