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ILM East 2012 took place last week in Boston and is now one for the history books. It was definitely a fun show that really showcased the fast moving local innovations that BIA/Kelsey focuses on.

There are many learnings we can focus on as takeaways, but in the interest of good reading, how about a top 10 list?

1- The new currencies are time, attention and clickstreams. Payments can be in pixels, Facebook mentions or points and rewards (Ted Leonsis, vice chair, Groupon).

2- Email is for e-commerce push; phones are for texting (Ted Leonsis, vice chair, Groupon).

3- Local is all about scale. And the only way to achieve scale in local is by aggregation (Jay Herratti, outgoing CEO, CityGrid Media).

4- Creating a closed loop is the path to a seamless user experience. American Express is … the acquirer, the issuer and the network (Leslie Berland, SVP, American Express).

5- Daily deals are fun, but Big Data that combines different databases is critical for targeting users and winning loyalty (various).

6- Focus on engagement, not new customer acquisition. Loyal customers are worth 24 times more than new customers (Charlie Kim, CEO, NextJump).

7- Email fatigue is probably out there, but social media complements email, rather than kills it. They are both forms of permission marketing (Mark Schmulen, GM, Constant Contact).

8- Video is a great local medium, but offers limited inventory opportunities, and really can’t compete as a standalone with a major metro newspaper for advertising (Lisa DeSisto, VP, advertising, The Boston Globe).

9- National brands can’t go local without a platform. Otherwise, you can’t get engagement and you’ll see high churn (Pete Gombert, founder and CEO, Ballihoo).

10- You can’t herd 6,000 cats and come up with a digital strategy (Adam Epstein, president, Ad Marketplace).

ILM East 2012 Day 2 152

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. I was just coming to comment but Matt beat me to it almost word for word 🙂

    Actually I don’t understand some of these points

    9- National brands can’t go local without a platform.
    Aren’t the platforms there in the form of so many social networks and sites serving specific geographic areas?

    10- You can’t herd 6,000 cats and come up with a digital strategy
    :-/

  2. Matt and Sean: Thanks for your comments. As you suggest, there is some hype that goes on at these events….luckily, we have a great analyst team to poke at any lurid claims!

    Sean: Social is important, but the platform that is mentioned is more about having one simple place for national brands to go out on, instead of hundreds of individual local sites.

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