Postback 2018 Day 1 Recap: Panel Highlights and Quotes

For #Postback18, TUNE CEO Peter Hamilton took the opening number in a different direction — an acoustic one. Joined by the “Fine Tuners” onstage, Peter and his TUNE-based band had the crowd clapping and singing along as we looked back on Postbacks from years past and set the stage for a new, more reflective era in the industry. You can watch the full performance here.

Day 1 Opening Keynote: Peter Hamilton

At a glance:

TUNE’s CEO set the tone for the rest of the day with a presentation that touched on two elements shaping the future of the marketing and advertising industry: human connections and technological advances. As we embrace more automation and machine learning in our day-to-day activities, we can’t forget to focus on the key things we can’t automate, such as partnerships and creativity.

Peter also announced some of the TUNE product updates that are helping both sides of the industry to measure and manage those connections and partnerships. Check out highlights for Attribution Analytics here and read about HasOffers updates here.

 

Session: Making Measurement Count

Speakers:

• Patrick McCarthy, SVP & Global Head of Marketing – Citi FinTech
• Michael Brooks, SVP Revenue, WeatherBug
• Steve Lok, Global Head of Martech, The Economist

At a glance:

Poor optimization: It’s a common pitfall too many growth marketers encounter, even after careful campaign planning and execution. They optimize for metrics that don’t take into account the full capabilities of modern tools and technology, then wonder why their ROI doesn’t measure up. They measure paid marketing spend, but not the organic amplification resulting from the efforts. They measure the acquisition cost, but do not take into account the full customer lifetime value. They measure the last click, but fail to account for the relationships that drove the initial awareness. No longer.

Key Quotes

“The concept of understanding a customer isn’t gated behind a particular function or person or team … even taking anecdotal experience from someone is valuable.” – Steve Lok

“I think CPI can still tell you a story. It’s still an important variable, but it’s not the top one.” – Patrick McCarthy

“Maybe that’s what installs have been missing all this time — context.” – Michael Brooks

 

Session: Tech That Ties Us Together

Speakers:

• Andrew Birnbryer, Managing Director, AppLift
• George Deglin, CEO, OneSignal
• Adam Biehler, VP of Business Development and Partnerships, mParticle
• Jude McColgan, CEO, Localytics

At a glance:

Mobile devices are pillars of modern life that we depend upon for daily tasks and interactions. Mobile-best brands know this and focus on pre- and post-sale activities that move beyond the traditional customer journey to encompass the entire customer lifecycle. It’s this lifetime commitment that’s helping marketers and ad partners expand possibilities at every touchpoint. Dive deep into the behind-the-scenes technologies that are bringing the world of the customer together.  

Key Quotes

“The biggest change we’ve seen [in the industry since last year] is the amount of notifications keep going up … and publishers are starting to push back.” – George Deglin

“Users are much more willing to share their data as long as they get something back for it.” – Andrew Birnbryer

“It’s not just us going out and trying to solve problems for the customer. We have to work with the ecosystem, and we have to have an open approach.” – Adam Biehler  

“If I was going to make one provocative statement here, it’d be this: Our customers aren’t gaining enough value from what we have.” – Jude McColgan

 

Keynote: Steve Lok on Engineering Trust

At a glance:

Steve discussed the ways modern companies are trying to “engineer” trust with their users through marketing, and why some are going about it wrong. For example, Steve says targeting perfection is not a measure of trust — relevancy is. Marketers shouldn’t spend more time trying to overwhelm their potential customers with ads and messaging, but instead listen to what customers are saying and what they want, then give it to them. You don’t want to miss this keynote in full, so check back soon for the video recording.

Key Quotes

“We keep running toward this idea of unattainable perfection in our targeting.”

“Listen to the customer and where their signals are for when they’re ready to do something.”

“Build [technology] to listen back, outside of just a transaction.”

 

Session: Over-the-Top TV: H-OTT or N-OTT?

Speakers:

• Robin Chacko, SVP for OTT, Starz
• Jen Taylor, Sr. Director Digital Audience Development, A+E Networks
• Julia Beizer, Chief Product Officer, Bloomberg

At a glance:

Audiences are growing. Spend is up. Buzzwords abound. What is OTT? How are marketers using it to grow their respective businesses. What is the path and trajectory for OTT? How do marketers measure it and extract value from it? As a brand, how do I remain proactive? As an advertising partner, how can I prepare?

Key Quotes

“OTT feels where mobile was a few years ago. People were on mobile but not filling all the digital inventory yet.” – Jen Taylor

“One of the biggest challenges we face is discovery. These platforms are closed universes … There’s a discovery issue within the ecosystem themselves.” – Julia Beizer

“We’re probably in the first inning when it comes to OTT. It’s a great time to be in this business, and it’s a great time to be a TV lover.” – Robin Chacko

 

Day 1 Closing Keynote: Tricia Wang

At a glance:

Tricia talked about the problem with big data today: It’s too often siloed or overvalued and overused by marketers who think it’s a magical solution to all their problems. What marketers really need is to create strategies based on human models, and then optimize those using data models — what Tricia calls “thick data” versus “big data.” In the end, it all comes back down to the customer as the center of everything marketers do.

Looking ahead, Tricia believes marketing is moving into the third stage of its big data lifetime. Whereas the first two stages, Data 1.0 and Data 2.0, were about data-driven tools and skills, respectively, the customer is helping to make Data 3.0 all about insight-driven communication. That means marketers have more responsibility than ever to both understand their customers and to put the power back in their hands.

Key Quotes

“We conflate reaching the customer with understanding the customer.”

“We should be using big data to scale and accelerate an understanding of our customers — not to generate that understanding.”

“GDPR is not about privacy. GDPR is about personhood.”

 

On to #Postback Day 2

What did the second day of speakers and sessions have in store? Read our Day 2 Recap to find out!