Verge: The Ogilvy Digital Summit, on March 11, 2008,
at TheTimesCenter in New York, located within The New York Times Tower and headquarters.

Digital DADA

Dadaism was an art rebellion, a backlash against the status quo, a breaking free of constraints and conventions. What could be a more perfect metaphor for today’s cut-and-paste society? Dada was a “mash-up” art form, with the artist reimagining ordinary objects and making them extraordinary. Dada stood for unexpected juxtaposition, combinations of incongruous elements to say something entirely new – like the moustache Marcel Duchamp painted on the Mona Lisa. Dada reminds us not to foist traditional media notions onto new media platforms. Creative work today must be surprising – through the words, music, art, style, design or entertainment it contains. How can we tap into culture today to create, build, protect and celebrate brands?

DATA and the art of storytelling

The internet has us swimming in data. We use it to segment audiences, construct media plans, set context, increase relevance and measure results and ROI. Data unquestionably provides the basis for better marketing science, while giving us the ability to engage in new forms of storytelling. By tracking behaviors and interjecting the right content at the right moment into consumer conversations, we can tell stories in a way that’s participatory and dynamic. More than ever before, data lets us create value in collaboration with each individual consumer, acting as a new currency in the exchange that is a brand relationship. How do we catch the data wave? What new media platforms will drive the next five years of marketing? How do ad networks, email engines and campaign management systems connect? How can we use data to drive a dynamic participatory storytelling process?

ALPHA dogs: the leaders of the pack

Digital alpha dogs are those mavens who spread opinion like wildfire through the blogosphere. Word-of-mouth, conversational marketing and “user-generated content” all have a power they never had before: instant, global electronic distribution. Ogilvy invented the concept of “differential marketing” – the idea that a small percentage of every brand's consumers is responsible for the lion’s share of its profits. We’ve talked for years about influencers – consumers who take it upon themselves to share their views of brands. The network effect gives these alpha dogs influence that is instantaneous, ubiquitous, permanent. What turns an early adopter into an evangelist? How does a casual consumer become a blogger-broadcaster? How do we interact with the consumers who care, those “leaders of the pack” who will market right alongside of us? What kind of experiences and opportunities can we come up with to collaborate and create together?

Perpetual BETA

We live in an ephemeral world – where nothing is ever finished, where digital technology allows us to continuously cut, paste, mash-up, redesign, integrate and experiment. A world we call “perpetual beta.” The days when we spent six months refining a marketing program to perfection are long gone. When the target audience is able to “mess with your message,” it’s more important to put work out (“beta it”) on new and emerging platforms, gauge the response (good or bad), and then keep the stories living and breathing with continuous input from the consumer. What lessons did we learn from the early years of the internet invasion? As media becomes more and more personal, how do we cocreate with consumers and quickly apply what we learn from constant experimentation? What can we look ahead to?