Out Of The Dark

Author:
George Assimakopoulos
Managing Director

This past week I was in Chicago attending the ad Tech Conference where the leaders of the Interactive Marketing industry gathered to showcase the latest in new media. During my time in Chicago, I met one-on-one with several of the giants: Google, Yahoo, ValueClick, MSN, etc. But nothing caught my attention more than the exhibitors hall. Imagine over 400 exhibitors on two floors jammed packed with more than 8,000 attendees. The entire scene reminded me of those early Internet-years. Yet this time, instead of worrying about the over-abundance of start-up companies supplying for the new demand, I welcomed it.

This time, these companies are more focused - and they compete to offer a real differentiator that marketers actually need: quality customer insight. Now we have start-ups focused on understanding audiences and defining behavioral trends. We also see that the larger media players are embracing the interactive channel - and integrating it into the marketing mix. I noticed several Fortune 500 attendees eagerly trying to understand best practices of gathering behavioral data and the impact on a purchasing lifecycle. For the first time - in a long time - I believe that marketers are coming out of the darkness of generality do something that has rarely been done before: to understand customers and give them what they actually want and need. HOORAY!