CPX Interactive recently sponsored the iMedia Brand Summit held this past Sept. 11-14, 2011  in Coronado, CA.  Ross Cohen, Director of Sales at CPX Interactive  gives us his account of the event and shares more about the theme, ‘Going Big in 2012.” 

“What happens when advertising can’t bullsh*t us anymore?”  That was the question.  A provocative question, to be sure, but all the more so when you consider who was being asked: the very people behind the ads.  No, not the creative wizards, but the brand marketers — the stewards of the brand.

The setting was the iMedia Brand Summit.  The theme was “Digital Marketing at Scale: Going Big in 2012.”  A few hundred executives, representing major brands and leading providers of digital marketing solutions descended on Coronado, California with gusto, relishing the opportunity to hear from industry heavyweights, meet fellow marketers and exchange ideas.

A few hundred may sound crowded, but for an advertising industry conference, it’s downright intimate.  iMedia carefully crafts its summits for an enjoyable, informative, collegial, and with any luck, productive atmosphere.

CPX Interactive is proud to sponsor these gatherings and our own Jamie Gutterman, Dir. of Sales and Brie Thomas, Dir. of Sales, helped kick off the events with a lunchtime presentation that took the audience on a trip through time.  Marketers witnessed just how far advertising has come in recent years, culminating in the latest marketing capabilities CPX brings to bear.  Jamie, Brie, and I were on hand throughout the summit and were pleased to see iMedia once again outdid itself, delivering the impressive lineup we’ve come to expect.

Conventional wisdom was challenged, worn strategies refreshed, and clichéd buzz words dismissed, even as new ones were introduced.  Summit Host and former Mars Chocolate marketer, Carole Walker, encouraged attendees to be “tradigital.” Shiv Singh, keynote speaker and global head of digital at PepsiCo Beverages, spoke of going “glocal” to achieve scale.  While squeezing words together seemed to be the thing to do, others went a different route.

Geoff Ramsey, CEO and Co-Founder of eMarketer, spoke about “magnetic content.”  Advertising grew up on the interruption model of TV, but digital gives brands the power to make audiences find them.  “It’s more about attraction, rather than distraction,” said Ramsey.  This was exemplified perfectly soon after as General Mills showed off their impressive foray into the market with branded information.  As General Mills VP Doug Moore explained, users search for help baking cakes all the time, and there’s no shortage of ads fighting for their attention on the results and landing pages, but that really doesn’t concern General Mills.  After all, with their branded information strategy, virtually every organic result links to a page syndicating one of their Betty Crocker how-to videos.  That’s magnetic content.

Mitch Spolan of Living Social eschewed the vocabulary portion of the speaking formula and instead treated the audience to some amateur video of his daily lunch routine.  The group couponing craze is about breaking pattern—getting someone to turn left, when every other day they go right.

Jeff Rosenblum, Co-Founder of Questus/Filmmaker

He was a great speaker, but the real entertainer on stage was Questus founding partner turned filmmaker Jeff Rosenblum, who stole the show with his caustic takedown of traditional advertising, hilariously scathing rebukes of advertising gone wrong and clarion call to embrace the new reality of marketing in the digital age.  It started with a sneak peak at his upcoming documentary, The Naked Company.  Jeff traveled the country interviewing academics, CEOs, and industry luminaries to discern the future of advertising.

Of course, to know where you’re going, you need to know where you are, and where you’ve been.  Cue the black and white Flintstones episode with the cigarette product placement and full-throated endorsement by Fred and Barney (here’s another).  It’s pretty shocking to today’s eyes but that’s where advertising started.  Cut to the famous shot of the tobacco executives being sworn in for Congressional testimony and you can see where this is going.  Trust in corporations is at an all time low.  Advertising’s credibility has diminished over the years.  Few industries in history have faced change as dramatically as advertising has over the past decade. But some brands are still preaching from the hilltop while consumers ignore ads and turn to unbiased sources of information.

Nowadays, brands can’t (and shouldn’t) stretch the truth.  In the digital age, brands can’t claim their product is amazing when it’s a dog.  To illustrate, Rosenblum tells a little story about a seemingly wonderful product he found online… and proceeds to mercilessly skewer it (although to be fair, it’s really the abysmal user reviews that do the heavy lifting).

He tells us he works too much and travels more than he should, so he wants to buy his kids a little something.  He goes hunting for the perfect present to buy back their love; something fun but not too expensive.  Voila!  He comes across Crayola’s Washable Colored Bubble Launcher and its wondrous scenes of children filling the air with colorful bubbles, grinning ear to ear with the unbridled joy only a child can experience.  It’s perfect, exactly what he wants.  He’s ready to buy it and win Father of the Year award.

Unfortunately, before pulling the trigger on the purchase, he can’t help but notice that Amazon customers gave it just one out of five stars.  Every product has a few detractors though, right?  Well, in this case it was 80 detractors.  And it turns out they gave it one star because Amazon doesn’t let you give zero stars.  At this point in the presentation, there’s blood in the water and you can see Crayola is in for a tough time in this room full of brand marketers.  Scientifically speaking, we’ve seen the quantitative feedback, now it was time for some qualitative reviews.  Customer reviewers didn’t disappoint, saying it was “invented to torture parents,” and calling it “the worst ‘toy’ I have ever purchased.”

Perhaps the expression should be changed to “Hell hath no fury like a customer scorned.”  The rebukes continued:   “Whoever designed this product is a sick individual that hates parents, and thinks torturing children is great fun. It drips everywhere and destroys everything it touches”

These reviews may have made for some nice Schadenfreude, but a customer saying “you can no longer trust the Crayola name,” is a brand’s worst nightmare.  That’s where the opening question comes in, “What happens when advertising can’t bullsh*t us anymore?”  The answer, of course, is to watch his documentary and find out.  Transparency has to be embraced, either you make it happen, or it happens to you.  Making that point in the film is no less an authority than creative genius turned altruistic entrepreneur, Alex Bogusky.  He continues, “Being a great company is the new brand, because there’s not going to be anything between the consumer and the reality of that company.”

A special thanks to our guest contributor, Brie Thomas, Director of Sales, West Coast.

My name is Brie Thomas and even though I started just a couple of months ago at CPX, I can’t believe how much I’ve already learned as a part of the Sales Team. In early May, I started out getting situated in the beautiful LA office.  Then I was off to New York for the New Employee Orientation, also known as N.E.O., where I got the chance to put faces to the names I had been hearing, and meet the other new hires. Polly Payne, our Brand Sales Product Planner, led in depth N.E.O. training sessions where I learned about CPX, its history, tools and products. At the end of each session, the other new hires and I were able to verbalize what we learned in our own words – it was a great opportunity for team building and sharing our best individual strengths in order to better succeed as a group.

Francisco Lozano, Dir. of Sales, Adometry; Brie Thomas, Director of Sales, CPX Interactive; Max Germain, Media Dir., Levelwing Media

Next, I was off to iMedia with Natalie Lambert, nother new CPX Sales Director, down in Bonita Springs, Florida. This was a perfect opportunity to reflect on what we had just learned at N.E.O. and to expand our networks.

Luckily, timing worked out and I got back to LA just in time to celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend with family and friends. Then it was back to work!

The following Wednesday I attended Interactive Day San Diego with Gary Bembridge, our EVP of Sales. CPX sponsored the Twitter-Wall which gave us some great branding throughout the entire event while we were able to mingle with agencies and industry leaders.

Up next for me, and what I am getting very excited about, is having the opportunity to attend OMMA Adnets in LA on July, 18, 2011.  Jamie Gutterman, Director of Sales, Sharone Hadari, VP of West Coast Operations and myself will attending the the CPX Interactive sponsored event in hopes of gaining insight from their “Targeting 2.o” discussions.

After getting back from N.E.O., iMedia, and Interactive Day San Diego, and now preparing for OMMA Adnets, I feel energized and educated, and I’m developing a real routine. I have started organizing my prospects, and I’ve been putting a lot of focus on setting up daily meetings and calls. And I’m proud to report that I have closed my first deals! It was great to be able to go through the sales cycle from a lead to a Customer, working in conjunction with our Account Management team.

For just about 2 months, I feel like I’ve done and learned so much. I’ve taken this time to get a handle on the ropes and I absolutely love being a part of the CPX team!

VIDEO: Jack Myers on Digital Transformation

In this recent interview for iMediaconnection, media industry thought leader, Jack Myers, presents a macro view of the digital advertising industry. He explains that when the digital ‘revolution’ is viewed against other transformational shifts in our history (i.e. the industrial revolution), we see that it is following a similar and predictable arc. By his calculation, we are 17 years into a 30 year transformational period. Watch to learn what to expect from the next 13 years…

A special thank you to our guest contributor, Natalie Lambert, Director of Sales, LA/Texas.

Brie Thomas and I attended the iMedia Summit following our first week of CPX training in beautiful Bonita Springs, FL. The weather was warm and sunny, which we thoroughly enjoyed coming from the rainstorms in NYC.  It was the first iMedia Summit for both of us and we were excited to meet new and interesting people in the industry. Over the course of just three days, Brie and I had the opportunity to network and build new professional relationships, all while expanding on our knowledge of the industry. The keynote speakers and panel discussions were quite informative and the networking sessions were extremely beneficial.

One of the keynote speakers was Dr. Mitch Earleywine, author of new book “Humor 101,” who discussed humor and its role in persuasion. He gave some interesting examples of how humor can be applied for both agencies and media companies.  Some of his examples pushed the importance of having meaningful interactions with senior agency executives and exploring digital marketing challenges during a variety of uniquely designed collaborative sessions. Following his presentation, he gave a signed copy of his new book “Humor 101” to everyone.

During the networking sessions, we managed to meet some impressive advertising agencies and direct companies such as Orbitz.com, Cooking.com and WeatherBug.com, just to name a few.

Overall, we definitely learned a lot and look forward to representing CPX in future iMedia conferences.

Brie Thomas, Dir. of Sales West Coast, CPX Interactive

Natalie Lambert, Dir. of Sales LA/Texas, CPX Interactive

CPX Interactive EVP of Sales, Gary Bembridge, and Sales Director, Celina Kwolek, sit down with iMediaConnection to discuss ad network differentiators and best practices, as well as the challenges of reaching online moms.

CPX Interactive attends iMedia Breakthrough Summit 2011

‘Thank you’ to Polly Payne (Product Planner/Brand Sales at CPX Interactive) for the contribution.

What brings top brands, ad networks and agencies in the internet industry under one roof?

Jamie Gutterman (Director of Sales at CPX Interactive) and Polly Payne (Product Planner/Brand Sales at CPX Interactive) having lunch with other iMedia Breakthrough Summit attendees.

The iMedia Breakthrough Summit in Miami, Fla. was packed with industry players this Spring. CPX Interactive was proud to sponsor a delicious lunch on day two which provided a nice opportunity for everyone to graze and mingle.  While the goal of iMedia is networking, this summit provided a great platform for educating advertising leaders on what will happen next in this rapidly changing industry.  I learned a lot from my time at iMedia, but some key take points I took away were: 

1. Social media is growing!  Advertising on Facebook is much different than traditional sites because people use them differently.  People use Facebook like TV.  People log on as a form of interactive entertainment.  Facebook “Likes” are reinventing the purchase funnel and generating a real connection to the user.

2. Engagement is vital for a campaign’s success.  Engaging users without relevancy to  the users, however, is useless.  

3. Touch screens are the future.  50% of kids younger than 15 by 2015 will use touch screens.  

4. Purchase decisions are dependent on peers.  78% of people trust their peers, while a mere 14% trust advertisers.

Joe Monaco (Mobile Account Executive at JumpTap), Jamie Gutterman (Director of Sales CPX Interactive), Frederick Stalings (Associate Director at OMD Airwave), Polly Payne (Product Planner/Brand Sales at CPX Interactive)

Another great function this year at iMedia was the 1:1 sessions.  I was told previous summits would match you up for only one minute!  That’s hardly time to say hello!  This year “one to ones” were pre-scheduled and lasted 10 minutes.  My colleague Jamie and I had great success with the one on one meetings and enjoyed the advantageous time to sit and engage with new faces.

At CPX we work hard to stay on the cutting edge of internet advertising.  We offer custom social media solutions such as Facebook “Likes,” “Allows,” traffic across our entire social media vertical and customized ad units that incorporate social media buttons!  We also run on multiple platforms and provide targeted traffic on mobile, iPad, traditional displays and video networks.  With all of this and more, we have the capabilities to make brands cut thru the clutter with innovative executions. All in all it was a great conference.  iMedia rocks!

To see more photos from the event, please visit our Facebook page and out Flickr page.

It’s a busy week for the online advertising industry, and CPX Interactive is taking part in events in Florida and Washington, D.C.

COO & President, Rob Rasko, and EVP of Sales, Gary Bembridge, are attending the iMedia Brand Summit in Miami.  At this Summit, iMedia is asking digital marketers and their brand manager colleagues to pair up and learn together. They have been discussing core business challenges with peers-and publisher and service provider partners, and yesterday, enjoyed a keynote from Mark Snyder, CMO of the Kmart Corporation. CPX is sponsoring today’s lunch, from 12:30-1:45.

While Gary and Rob are in Florida, CPX CEO Mike Seiman, and VP of Publisher Development, Mike Zacharski, are in Washington D.C., lobbying Congress on behalf of small website publishers. They are participating in the IAB Long Tail Alliance Fly-In, a unique opportunity for small publishers from across America to tell their story to Congress. CPX is a major supporter of the Long Tail Alliance, and is proud to be a part of this event.

CPX Interactive Director of Sales, Chris Paine, talks about the benefits of CPX’s new ad management platform, adROIt^TM, at the iMedia Agency Summit in Austin, TX.

CPX is proud to sponsor lunch at the iMedia Agency Summit on Tuesday, May 18, in Austin, TX. The Summit takes place from the 16-19, and focuses the agency’s role in the integrated media landscape, with a keynote by Lisa Donohue, CEO Starcom USA. Since 2001, iMedia Agency Summits have been a place for agency executives to gather and network in a collaborative learning environment. This year’s Summit is located at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa, and is already sold out. Visit the iMedia website for more information.

CPX Interactive has been attending iMedia Connection Brand and Agency Summits for a number of years. Stephen Shearin, VP of Sales, Agency Division at CPX, reflects on the value derived from these events:

“CPX attends iMedia summits at least four times a year. The value in attending is layered on many levels, and goes WAY beyond the great locations, meals, and drink receptions…although they’re pretty great. On an individual level, most of the major players send their leaders, so the personal networking environment is much richer than it might be at a local event. To that end, the general conversation at iMedia summits can be as informative and instructive as the speakers and breakout sessions themselves. From a more holistic perspective, being represented there, personally and in the form of a sponsorship, is one of the most direct ways to come to the forefront of the market leaders represented at any iMedia.”

Next week, Shearin and other members of the CPX team will travel to Scottsdale, Arizona for the iMedia Agency Summit. The event takes place December 6-9, and will be guest hosted by Jim Spanfeller,  former President and CEO of Forbes.com. CPX will be sponsoring lunch on Tuesday the 8th.