Marketers Celebrate Glimmers of Recovery

FTER a few years of struggling, the advertising industry is finally willing to believe some good news. Nancy Hill, chief executive of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, or the Four A’s, kicked off the group’s annual conference here on Monday bearing what she called “hard-core, positive, yes-our-industry-has-survived-and-is-robust news.”
The statistics Ms. Hill provided were probably enough to inspire more than a few advertisers to get back to the planning board. According to Nielsen, in February 111 million people watched the Super Bowl — one of the largest opportunities for advertisers. Ms. Hill said that chief marketing officers were seeing revenue gains, with brands like Procter & Gamble and Kraft increasing spending. She said a 30-second ad slot during the Oscars telecast this year was the most expensive in the history of the awards. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” she said. “Maybe Charlie Sheen should take a note from us.”
It is advertising, it would appear from Ms. Hill’s remarks, and not Mr. Sheen who is in fact winning. Here are some highlights from the conference, which ended Wednesday.


KINKY LAUGHS The second morning of the conference began with off-color comedic relief from the author, musician, sometime politician and longtime Texan Kinky Friedman. After earning a few muffled laughs from the crowd, many of whom were still grabbing cups of coffee, yogurt and pastries, Mr. Friedman offered to sign copies of one of his books. “I’ll sign anything but bad legislation,” said Mr. Friedman, who ran for governor of Texas in 2006.
 
DATA RULES Content may be king in media, but in advertising it is data. Most of the vendor booths at the event were focused on data analytics, media management and back-office technology for advertisers. The technologies can help advertisers track consumers on the Web and understand which ads are most effective for certain audiences. Other technologies were geared to helping agencies buy digital advertising or manage their accounts online more efficiently.
 
PRIVACY All of that digital data comes at a price. A theme echoing throughout the conference was data privacy. In her opening remarks Ms. Hill urged the audience “to actively participate in this discussion, because without self-regulation our creativity will be increasingly threatened.” In recent months, the Federal Trade Commission and the Commerce Department have both issued reports about online privacy and digital advertising, while industry groups like the Interactive Advertising Bureau have supported self-regulation.

David Vladeck, the F.T.C.’s director of consumer protection, was at the event to help explain the commission’s proposal for a “do-not-track” mechanism that would allow consumers to opt out of being tracked by advertisers and shown targeted advertising. Mr. Vladeck said that the commission recognized the benefits of behavioral advertising for consumers — they see more useful and relevant ads — but that data collection still raised “serious privacy concerns.” Mr. Vladeck added that while the commission did not recommend legislation and was encouraged by some of the recent progress made in self-regulation by industry groups, there was more to be done. “It’s not just the F.T.C. looking over your shoulder, folks,” he said. “So is Congress.”


On Wednesday, the day after Mr. Vladeck spoke, a panel of advertising agency representatives tackled the issue of privacy and responded to Mr. Vladeck’s speech and to the overall issues affecting the industry. Bob Liodice, chief executive of the Association of National Advertisers, said the industry was “gratified” by Mr. Vladeck’s remarks but expressed concern about what it considered mixed messages by the F.T.C., including the lack of a clear definition of tracking, collection or first-party marketing.

Carla Michelotti, executive vice president and chief legal, government and corporate affairs officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, part of the Publicis Groupe, said Mr. Vladeck’s remarks were a sign that the commission was “extending an olive branch after a very harsh approach in the report.” All of the panelists encouraged advertisers, agencies and publishers to regulate themselves or risk being regulated by the government.
 
HELP WANTED Agencies are taking a close look at their hiring practices. A star-studded panel of advertising executives underscored the challenges they faced in recruiting a diverse staff, being more aggressive in recruiting talent, and rewarding and training current employees.
“No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘You know what? I want to be in the advertising business,’ ” said Michael I. Roth, chief executive of the Interpublic Group of Companies. “The real issue is getting new talent interested in our industry, and frankly we do a lousy job at it.”
Martin Sorrell, chief of WPP, said, “The criminal neglect in our industry is that we do not recruit good people consistently.”
John D. Wren, chief executive of the Omnicom Group, added: “It’s neglect. We’ve gotten a lot more comfortable poaching, if you will, our own people.”
 
RUBBER DUCKS AND COOKIES The number of sponsors at the conference increased to 38 this year from 34 in 2010. Attendance was also on the rise, with a little more than 1,000 participants, up from 970 in 2010. Technology and media companies were the main sponsors. There was free Wi-Fi sponsored by Bloomberg and AOL. Google sponsored coffee breaks. Bloomberg and AOL also competed with gifts in attendees’ hotel rooms. AOL gave door hangers with miniature bottles of Moët Champagne, and plastic devil rubber ducks. Bloomberg left cookies from Tiff’s Treats, a local bake shop. At dinner on Monday night, Microsoft gave out bottles of Tabasco sauce with wrappers that said, “Spice up your next campaign with Microsoft advertising” and “Give your advertising some kick.”