Four Insights From Philly Interactive Event

First of all, thanks Philadelphia Interactive Marketing Association (http://www.phillyinteractive.org/) for putting on such a fabulous and informative event called "Monetizing Video Online: Transforming Digital Pennies Into Dollars."

1. "Trust Your Agency." This pertinent quote and opinion was shared by two of the Panelists, Kevin McGurn from Hulu.com and Brendan Gallagher from Digitas Health. What they seemed to mean by this was that clients need to trust their advertising agencies to place ads and come up with a game plan to achieve the company's specific goals. The internet especially has a lot of under-researched possibilities and sometimes immeasurable ROIs. However, the medium has been around long enough that a good agency will know how to incorporate a New Media game plan as part of an over all campaign.

2. "Trained Viewer." This was an extremely interesting point made by all of the panelists. Regarding shows and movies, the consumer or viewer accepts and understands commercial interruptions. However, people are not willing to accept YouTube interruptions. Nor are they willing to accept having their internet content interrupted. The consumer gets "used to" or "trained" participating with content in a certain way particular to the medium. The trick is getting people to the point where they accept certain interruptive aspects of the internet and learning what their limits are.

3. "Capturing Lightning In A Bottle." This was the pet phrase for discussing utilizing YouTube to make clients money. I suppose agencies like to make promises that they can deliver. Obviously. But I refuse to believe monetizing YouTube is impossible and the charms are not as fleeting as every one seems to believe. Blendtec is the classic example. Susan Boyle is another. Let's get a true understanding of what makes a video truly viral or "sharable."

4. "Sharability." Not to be confused with Budweiser's "Drinkability." This is my new favorite word and will be applied to every thing I produce on the internet. The best quality of this word is that it focuses the content on the consumer. It forces the producer to ask herself, "if I am the viewer, will I share this with my friends or will I be bored out of my mind?" It forces creators to be a little more viewer-centric rather than company-centric.