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Who won what at the Venice Festival of Media?

Before I get to the winners at the second annual Venice Festival of Media, I might say that the opening session started with the highly anticipated, "Agency CEO Hot Seat Sessions." The problem was that the only real hot questions came from the audience, not the moderators.

There were some mutually agreed upon, rather generic, topics such as the need to invest in talent as the best way to respond to the new demands in our businesses, and that media agencies are best positioned to take the new strategic lead in brand strategy development.

Participants were: Nick Brien, worldwide CEO, Universal McCann; Jack Klues, chairman, Publicis Groupe Media; Mike Cooper, CEO, PHD Worldwide; Steve King: worldwide CEO, ZenithOptimedia; Mainardo de Nardis: CEO, Aegis Media Group; Alexander Schmidt-Vogel CEO, Mediacom worldwide; Maria Louisa Francoli, CEO, MPG; and Dominic Proctor, CEO, MindShare worldwide.

Things got warmer when the always-delicate topic of rebates, or AVBs, was raised by the audience - which the moderator immediately referred to as "the elephant in the room."

I was very impressed with how Dominic Proctor addressed this question head on. "It is a valid source of income in some countries," he stated, adding that "as long as it's transparent, then it should and must be accepted." I was also pleased to hear Alexander Schmidt-Vogel say how "It has come time for media agencies to have the courage to say no to unreasonable demands by clients to cut costs."

The audience raised another interesting topic when it was pointed out that only one of our industry's global CEOs is a woman - when our industry consists of roughly 60% women. I am personally pleased to know that this is not the case in Canada, where some of our industry's top CEOs (country managers) are female.

After lunch, I attended what I believe were the two most interesting seminars of the Festival. One was "Playing Around. . . Advertising Through Gaming," for which the speakers were: Damien Blackden, digital president EMEA, OMD; Dario Raciti, gaming leader, OMD Digital; Reuben Steiger, CEO millionsofus; and Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive Inc. (part of Microsoft).

I think we all know that media investments in gaming platforms will never be at the cornerstone of our clients' media plans. But it was truly interesting to learn how some clients can and do benefit from this investment.

Realism is the focus and goal within the gaming community, and the reality is that brands are a part of our lives. Whether it's test-driving the latest Nissan in Second Life, or using your Xbox to race it in Red Bull's latest online rally, brands exist everywhere - so for virtual worlds to be realistic, brand must continue to be present.

A key element of this discussion was that gaming provides a frequency of product placement like no other, as the average gamer spends 11 hours per week gaming and often plays the same one over and over. Compare this with cinema, where today's movies are filled with product placement but movie-goers rarely see the same movie twice.

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