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Huge's Fern Diaz: Five things I learned at New York Advertising Week

By Fern Diaz

October 3, 2014 | 5 min read

As Advertising Week New York begins to wind down, Huge events manager Fern Diaz reports back on what she’s learned from this year’s event.

Fern Diaz

1. Coupons are not innovative

For all the talk at Advertising Week about the technological opportunities afforded to both the industry and the consumer by accelerated development in software and hardware, it’s hard not to be disappointed by a coupon at the end of the digital journey.

Jared Blank, VP of e-commerce at Tommy Hilfiger, reflected on this issue: “At the end of every pitch I get for e-commerce at Tommy Hilfiger, it’s always just, ‘You can give someone a coupon for 10 per cent off through this thing!’”.

It’s funny at first, but there’s an onslaught of vendors adding ads and coupons to personal media, social shares and location-based experiences without creating any real new value. At the end of the day, you don't need technological development to give coupons to consumers.

2. The best digital work is invisible

So the question becomes: 'OK, now how do I use the growing number of digital channels to deliver content that’s more valuable than a coupon?'.

Derek Fridman, Huge’s creative director in Atlanta, answered by saying: “The best work is invisible." Fridman was specifically referring to Disney’s new seamless magic band experience, which becomes delightfully indispensable by connecting the pain points of the Disney experience through a simple wearable. The more connected we are to the brands and retailers around us, the more we’ll want them to blend in. If a consumer is going to grant you access to their battery – or their wrist – it’s going to have to count.

3. Admitting you have no idea is a good thing

It was rare to attend a panel that didn’t include a heavy dose of fear. There’s the fear of becoming obsolete, getting outpaced or making the wrong predictions. There’s the anxiety behind the growing number of channels in new media, and the worry that new opportunities will overwhelm instead of solve real problems.

And don’t even get everyone started on how the kids of today would rather watch a grainy clip on a small screen rather than on a giant HD TV – or how they may never purchase media again.

The real antidote came from the panelists who were honest enough to admit, 'We still don’t know what this means for us' — because nobody really knows and that’s perfectly ok. In fact, it can be a whole business model.

Quirky’s CMO, Bret Kovacs, said it best: “We don’t even know what products we’re making tomorrow.”

And while that might seem like the scariest thing of all, it’s actually a source of pride for a company that is redefining hardware manufacturing, and convinced GE to take a gamble on a startup.

4. We’re close to a data and gut sweet spot

The biggest source of tension across this year’s Advertising Week was the battle between data and emotion, which will inevitably heat up as our access to data explodes and our emotions stay pretty much the same. But the more we talk about both go-with-your-gut storytelling and the quantified self, the more crucial it seems to find the balance.

Gordon Bowen, founder, chairman and chief creative officer of Mcgarry Bowen, mused on an illustrative example: Disney’s Frozen. If Disney had listened to the numbers, it could’ve been its last animated feature.

But in a whirlwind that it couldn't have predicted internally, Frozen’s core emotional resonance created one of its most successful films of all time. "Emotion is a long-term strategy," as one of the panelists in the NYT CEO roundtable said, but it’s a commitment that brands can’t afford to stop making (especially as we continue to hand over our data).

5. Trending topics are just a starting point

Buzzwords are inevitable, but over the week of panels and discussions, it’s clear that the most interesting conversation happens when you step back.

We can all keep repeating 'iBeacons! Geo-tagging! The internet of things!' to each other, but agencies, new technology vendors and clients have to think about the consumer before they take the plunge on a shiny new thing. And that zoom out approach was a refreshing perspective at Advertising Week.

Steve Cheney, SVP at beacon manufacturer Estimote, Inc., already faces many preconceived notions about the technology from potential clients – even as it’s only in its infancy.

The more we zoom out every time we hear the keyword of the week, the faster we’ll get through to something that people really want.

Fern Diaz, events manager, Huge

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