Twitter Twips from SouthWest Air

If you weren't aware, I'm a complete Twitterholic. It seems, the rest of the crew at Traction is too. So, I was very pleased to be able to check out the session on Twitter at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit in Florida last week. The presentation was from Christi Day, the Online Spokesperson and Emerging Media Specialist from Southwest Airlines and Rodney Rumford (@rumford), the CEO of Gravitational Media and author of "Twitter as a Business Tool." It was a great session and I twittered the whole time.

Thought I'd compile my top 5 tweets here because there were some really great tips:

adamkleinberg: #imediasummit southwest air made sure they learned how to use twitter first... Use twitpic retweet @ msgs to followers

adamkleinberg: #imediasummit sw air says be fun, be real (but don't tweet about ur cat)

adamkleinberg: #imediasummit sw air uses twitter to release news before press release (but admits to twitter filter)

adamkleinberg: #imediasummit headlines help. Report all your good news.

adamkleinberg: #imediasummit sw air uses twiterfon, twitalyzer, 24-7 active, but don't let it control you, don't seek out and respond to gripers, respo ...

Twenjoy these twips.

iMedia keynote: Tim Hanlon on the need for Transparency

Tim Hanlon from Vivaky gave the keynote at the iMedia Agency Summit this morning. Made a very great case for urgent need for change. If you're not measuring and proving value, you're going to be irrelevant and lonely in this economy. Recap at imediaconnection.com later today. Also, someone posted a Twitter search url for tagged comments from the conference here.

Don Epperson from Havas DIgital

On stage at iMedia, the CEO of Havas Digital says budgets are up 15% for interactive their. Told about one client that just shifted huge portion of TV budget to online video. Don's topic is "Evolving toward the agency of the future." A few of the things he's saying"

• branding and strategy are more important than ever
  
• optimization is part of what planning is becoming
  
• large agencies will act like the large sophisticated media networks (my 2 cents: why not? seems like the media nets like Platform-A and NBC are doing creative)
• tech providers will enable this for small agencies. big ones will create their own technology.
• talking about a model where every individual cookie is evaluated and an automated bidding process puts a value on reaching every unique individual
• moving from a placement value (your typical CPM) to an impression value (unique person)

Overall, it seems like no one's eyes are closed about the tough times ahead, but a lot of optimism about the potential for innovative companies to thrive. 

Makes me feel good about prospects for Traction.

iMedia Agency Summit

At the main session for the iMedia Agency Summit today—talking about digital media strategies in a down economy. Obviously, the good news is online is still growing (11% in the 3rd quarter). One recent study says still expecting 18% growth in 2009. We've all got these gadgets from a company called myxer that let us vote in real time and they're posting results. According to the folks in this room...

37% expect budgets to remain the same (about the same say it'll go up and down)
43.9% think biz's are projecting growth in 2009
47.2% think digital media will grow 10% in 2009 (plus another 10 or so % who think it'll grow more)
80% of people here have direct access to the c-suite
68.7% think agencies and publishers think there's decent collaboration
87.6% want to wait til the bar opens to have a big group hug

CEO of Havas up next...

iMedia Agency Summit: Why agencies suck.

10 minutes til breakfast here in lovely Palm Springs. I'm at La Quinta for my first iMedia Summit. Everyone keeps telling me to "pace myself" so I'm a little worried about the libations over the next two days 

(Note to future first timers: Just finishing this post 3 days later. Didn't pace myself. It was good advice.)

However, it's been a great event and given me lots to think about. Gordon Patterson, the former CMO of New Line Cinema (and a great guy), was interviewed yesterday about how where he sees agencies providing real value to clients and where he sees agencies screwing up—and why despite that he still loves agencies and sees they have great value to offer.

According to Gordon, the fundamental issues between clients and agencies are on both sides: clients don't communicate to agencies and agencies don't listen.  Big fundamental issue on both sides because it leads to clients who feel like they're being nickel-and-dimed by agencies and agencies constantly struggling with scope creep and being squeezed by clients. It leads to a situation where agencies—that are full of smart people trying to be strategic about everything they do—wind up being tactical.

From the client side, Gordon's other issues were really about getting the service you expect:

• the old bait and switch: principals pitch and then you never see them again
• retention and turnover: as soon as people get up to speed on your business, they move on (from now on, you can be be sure I'll mention that only 2 people have quit at Traction since we started the agency in 2001 every time I pitch)
• don't over-promise on bandwidth, dammit
• agencies better keep bringing new ideas to the table, because your competitors sure are
• turf battles: agencies and publishers need to tag-team to make good ideas a reality, not fight over turf

But Gordon also point out that agencies are incredibly value because of the energy, the outside perspective and the media relationships they bring to the table. He also brought up the value of agencies that "cross-fertilize" across client relationships (something I think Traction needs to do more of).

Great session.