Rob Edwards, Chief Executive Officer, ADMA

State of the industry.

Rob’s annual state of the industry address will focus on the key issues facing marketers today, that is, customer engagement in a multi-channel marketing environment. What do consumers really think of direct to customer communication and who owns the relationship anyhow? Web 2.0 has the potential to irrevocably swing the pendulum in favour of consumers. Drawing from ADMA’s 2008 Consumer Insight Study conducted in conjunction with the University of NSW Rob will provide some useful information that will greatly assist marketers on how to manage the process of enlightened engagement.

With the environmental sustainability being of great importance, ADMA has developed a set of guidelines along with an on-line self assessment tool that will significantly assist marketers in reducing the environmental footprint of their marketing activities, Rob will also launch this initiative and show how real gains can be made by following these guidelines.

Daniel Morel, Chairman and CEO, Wunderman Worldwide

Customers as constituents.

Engagement is a promise to do something. Not just to do something but to continue to do it with each other. It involves one or many to participate. And it doesn't just mean showing up, although that is important - have something relevant to add to the conversation....You wouldn't sit down at a dinner table full of strangers and start talking would you...? But this is what is happening today all over the digital landscape. Welcome to the age of influence marketing, where, much like politicians we must focus on building constituencies instead of customer bases.

Both messaging and content must be flexible: portable, customisable & socialisable, allowing the customer/constituent to make them their own and, tellingly, to share them. The keys to this new intimacy are two customer mega trends: The Channel of Me and The Channel of US.

Amanda McCluskey, Head of Sustainability & Responsible Investment, Colonial First State Global Asset Management

Sustainability: driving long term shareholder value.

Amanda will define sustainability and outline how it evolved from being a concept of ‘social responsibility’ and philanthropy to an issue key to the risk management and strategy of successful organisations. Amanda will demonstrate that investments in sustainability have a strong return on investment, help companies engage their people, customers and other stakeholders and often help companies better manage risks and identify new investment and business opportunities.

Amanda will draw on the latest investment research and case studies from within the Commonwealth Bank and the market more broadly to demonstrate that managing the sustainability issues of your business is key to managing long term financial performance.

Geoff Jones, Chief Executive Officer, Ticketek

Harvesting value through strategic partnerships and customer engagement.

Upon appointment as the CEO of Ticketek, a key strategic goal for Geoff was to monetise the value of Ticketek’s 1.8 million online customers. Ticketek wanted to create a new opportunity to connect and engage with its customer base, whilst continuing to service its clients and meet aggressive growth aspirations.

To achieve its objective, Ticketek realised that key strategic partnerships would provide unique access to the domain expertise, technology requirements and sales generation capabilities necessary to successfully deliver a new and innovative business proposition.

Geoff will share the learnings from Ticketek’s journey, as they leveraged the strengths of their organisation and those of strategic partners to create an entirely new revenue stream that was launched as Ticketek Rewards.

Key out-takes from this presentation include:

• How value can be added at all stages of the value chain, spanning B2B and B2C relationships, through innovative marketing and entrepreneurial thinking
  
• The value of sourcing strategic partners with complementary assets and expertise that can accelerate implementation and the achievement of strategic goals
  
• How effective strategic relationships are about more than long term contracts, but also about sharing risks and rewards
  
• Exposure to how organisations are benefiting from the blending of traditional direct marketing with online marketing within single campaigns

Simon O'Day, Managing Director, eServices Communications

Getting email campaigns into inboxes – a review of current and advanced processes.

Globally, email marketing has become a justified and powerful tool for marketers to use in their channel mix. In the US and Europe this has advanced into very specialised processes to increase actual delivery of customer email campaigns into inboxes vs going into junk mail or black holes. In Australia, the processes are not as advanced or available and so the battle continues to get those emails to customers.

In this presentation Simon will discuss what is going on globally and where he would like to see Australia head and what local brands are doing with their email campaigns to increase deliverability and revenue.

Simon van Wyk, Managing Director, HotHouse Interactive

Brands need to be content in the digital world.

Traditional marketing messages don't work like they used to. In the past advertising messages were pushed upon the consumer whether they were interested or not. But now online, people happily pull the content that they find valuable – and simply bypass all the clutter.

To resonate with consumers today, marketing needs to be more about providing valuable content and applications rather than forcing messages through traditional media.

Simon will discuss how progressive marketers are developing and executing marketing strategies that are based on providing real and useful content that's utilised to encourage conversation, connection and ultimately purchase decisions.

Amanda Wise, Executive Producer/Digital Strategist, TEQUILA\

How to harness viral marketing.

The first and most important change with emergence of a new media landscape is that consumers are not what they used to be and are not where they used to be. Communicating effectively and with success requires new ways of thinking and engaging the audience. They are no longer consumers but have become users.

In this presentation Amanda will talk about how the media landscape has changed, where viral marketing fits within this new terrain and how brands such as Quicksilver, Dove Beauty and Wedding Crashers Movie have been successful implementing viral and why.

Catherine Graham, Head of Direct Strategy, OgilvyOne

Give a dog a home on your phone.

With at least 13,000 unwanted pets being dumped on the doorsteps of the RSPCA Victoria every year, the reliance on donations to provide shelter, comfort and care is a necessity. The challenge for the RSPCA was not only to increase donations year on year but to acquire new, younger donors.

This presentation will look at how RSPCA Victoria targeted a new audience – the donors of the future, using the technologies that come second nature to this demographic, including mobile, social networking sites, e-cards and viral emails. Hear how the RSPCA integrated all of these mediums to drive donations via this channel, whilst maintaining a competitive cost per acquisition.

Chuck Berger, Director of Strategic Ideas, Australian Conservation Foundation

Consuming Australia: how the Australian lifestyle impacts the environment, and what that means for our business future.

Consumer interest in environmental issues such as climate change and water scarcity is at an all-time high in Australia – but how much do we really understand about how consumer expenditure patterns affect the environment? What kinds of consumption have the biggest impact, and where are the biggest opportunities for consumers to make a real difference? Can we buy our way to a greener future, or does a sustainable lifestyle mean something different? A clear understanding of these issues will be crucial for businesses seeking strategic advantage in a future in which corporate responsibility is increasingly demanded, and quality of life and experiences may be more valued than material consumption.

Emily Kucukalic, Head of Brand and External Relations, AGL Energy

Being green and clean - Building real business value.

How do you derive real business value from a green brand? Being 'green' is the latest thing in branding. But what does it really mean to be green? Where is this trend heading? How do you derive a real business value from the most important branding issue that we will face in our lifetimes?

Judi Lewis, CEO, Rivet Australia and Stephen Pearson, CEO, The Lowe Group

How to drive business growth in the new media landscape?

For most companies, business sustainability depends on perpetual business growth. Consequently most companies have a never-ending need to acquire new customers.

Given the fragmentation of media and consumers increased marketing ‘power’, achieving growth and sustaining business has become significantly more difficult.

The new media landscape demands a new approach to drive customer acquisition and growth.

What are the new strategies that are needed to reach, catch and convert consumers to buy?

There are six critical success factors to develop an effective acquisition strategy in today’s complex marketplace.
1. Think “people” versus “consumers”
2. The right six degrees not 360
3. The 5th Grader test
4. Shifting from ‘we think to we know”
5. A lead is not a sale
6. A sale is just the start

Case studies to illustrate these points will include Tesco (UK), Vodafone (AUS), 02 (UK) and others. Judi and Stephen will share how these brands have tackled acquisition and the business results that have been achieved. They will also take a look at the Australian marketplace for learnings – who is getting right and who is getting it wrong.

Based on international best practice you will be provided with an acquisition ‘checklist’ including the major ‘watchouts’, which you can takeaway and apply to your business.

Panelists include:
Scott Hillard, General Manager – Sales, Wine Selectors
Daniel Johns, Managing Director, Ikon Communications
Alexandra Badenoch, Executive Director – Human Resources, Telstra Consumer & Bigpond

Panel: Staff sustainability – good staff and the bottom line.

Staff retention and company profitability has become the elusive, but much sought after, equilibrium, especially given the high demand for recruits and the cost to train up staff.

How do you then hold onto good staff and keep both employees and employers happy?

This panel discussion will look at how three different companies deal with this very issue, whilst facing their own set of problems. From the regionally based direct wine supplier in competition with significantly large players, to the agency that boasts 100% staff retention in 2007 and finally, to the big corporation, whose employee count is in the thousands, country wide.

You will hear from Wine Selectors, Ikon Communications and Telstra on their individual challenges on staff sustainability and what they are doing to overcome these and the impacts staff retention has on the bottom line. Then, it’s over to you the audience, to discuss the challenges you may be facing.

Peter Bidenko, Creative Director, TEQUILA\

World Wide Awards: how Australia compares on the direct marketing world stage.

Pete Bidenko, Head of Judges for Asia for the John Caples Awards in New York, will break down the important awards around the world that form the basis on which we measure ourselves internationally (don’t forget, this is direct marketing so it’s as much about results as it is about creative). How well is Australia doing? Are we really as good as we think we are?

What does the WON Report mean to the international community and how is it scored? What is the difference between Caples, Cannes and Echoes? How about our own awards, how easy is it to win an ADMA Award? Pete will also give a wrap up of this year’s Caples from an insider’s perspective – show some of the work that won and explain why it won.

This talk will give you a good perspective on what awards to enter and how likely you are to win.

Todd Sampson, CEO, Leo Burnett Sydney

From concept to world-wide global movement.

In just 2 years Earth Hour has become a global movement, with over 22 cities around the world going dark to support the issue of climate change. Earth Hour is also the most awarded and recognised integrated idea in the world.

Todd Sampson, CEO of Leo Burnett Sydney will speak about how Leos, together with WWF created Earth Hour. He will talk about how the movement was created and what was learned along the way.

Find out what it took to create this successful, integrated, world-wide campaign, that achieved above and beyond any initial goals set.

Scott Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, m.Net Corporation

Do you want mobile with that…

The Australian mobile consumer is changing as the combination of better device usability, cheaper data plans and more contextual outcomes encourage exploration and a deeper experience off the mobile device. Greater creative possibilities are now available both on and off carrier portals, and innovations like the iPhone will quickly increase consumer’s expectations of how they will engage with your brand. Execution will need to be beyond the “off packet” SMS promotions that have been used with great effectiveness for some time.

Mobile provides a unique opportunity to be the “glue” that tracks your consumer across your media plan and touch points. In the year largely touted as the “Year of Mobile” this session will examine the new opportunities that this change in consumer behaviour presents marketers and the techniques that can be used to drive greater integration across your existing campaigns. Learn how leading brands are adapting their campaigns to utilise these opportunities to improve overall campaign ROI.

Amantha Imber, Head Inventiologist, Inventium

Science-based creativity: 6 ways to vaccinate yourself against dull thinking.

There are a lot of myths that exist about creativity: it’s magical, only some people are truly creative, you can never predict when a great idea will pop out. Sound familiar?

According to scientific studies, these myths are just that: myths. Creativity is in fact a highly predictable event of which everyone is capable. What’s more, it’s easy to make yourself more creative.

During this session, Amantha will take you through 6 science-based ways to boost your individual creativity and that of your team. All techniques taught in this session come from extensive scientific research that has been conducted all over the world. In other words, it means that the techniques taught will actually work.

Amantha guarantees that you will leave this session with 6 practical ways of increasing creativity that can be used as soon as you get back to the office.