If a problem shared is a problem halved, an upcoming media conference is a must-attend event for media agencies and advertisers. The iMedia Modern Media Summit NZ, being held from 25-27 October at the Hilton Lake Taupō, has adopted a unique partnered format, inviting key decision-makers from agencies to sit alongside media owners from their clients.
The summit is hosted by leading event organiser Comexposium. Managing Director of Comexposium ANZ & SEA, Ryf Quail, says after conducting further research with marketing clients and the agencies, there was consistent feedback surrounding an absence of joint learning opportunities.
“There was nothing serving the industry that curated an experience whereby the client and the agency could attend together and hear the same delivery of relevant content,” he says. “From global trends, technology advances or media regulation updates – no industry events were giving them a partnered experience to learn and then compare notes or collaborate.”
He adds there was a desire from potential attendees to have media-focused content presented, and to sit side-by-side and learn together. “We watch the pairs come out of select sessions discussing their positions and pathways: ‘Can we change the way we’re doing this’ or ‘This is something we haven’t considered’. It’s propelling the industry forward and we can see it working, and the connections between the businesses are also better for it.”
He says in a ticketed event environment, such as a marketing or advertising trade show, quite often the client and the agencies wouldn’t attend together, or they might separate into different content streams and miss the opportunity to come together and debrief. “It got lost in translation, and the impetus was gone. We find that rather than having one translate to the other after the fact, they’ve both sat there together, through the same sessions and they both understand the concepts allowing them to both drive it through their organisations.”
Another trend they noticed in media events was that they all seemed to be specialist events. “The customer experience events were programmatic, broadcast or digital… and there were no events for the media generalists,” he says. “The media industry had matured, and yet nothing was really serving the media leaders, and particularly their clients. The audience had become more programmatic and that had basically become the commodity way to trade media, which in turn meant that the people who were doing the work and going to the conferences weren’t the senior decision makers anymore.”
He says the relationship between an agency’s group business director and the client’s head of marketing – who leads the media decisions and budgets – is one of the most important relationships in advertising. “Having them spend 2-3 days together in a stimulating environment is significantly valuable to both parties. The content is tailored at this level for the group of senior media executives who are thinking about the way they’re addressing their next round of media budgeting and the approach to their channels.”
This year’s Modern Media Summit features a range of industry experts and speakers, including Responsible Metaverse Alliance Founder Dr Catriona Wallace, data.ai Head of Insights Lexi Sydow, Founder of venture studio Previously Unavailable James Hurman, as well as writer and trainer Shelly Davies.
Content for the summit will be announced over the coming months, however it’s expected to tackle the big media issues, including the Privacy and Regulatory frameworks confronting all media.
Quail says these issues weren’t around three or four years ago. “If a client is spending with Amazon, a Meta, a Google, or Apple for example, the client has to consider not only the media spend, the AdTech spend, but also the regulatory and compliance spend that has to go with executing on those platforms. Those are senior decisions to be made and that’s just some of the issues we address at the Modern Media Summits.”
For more information please visit: https://www.imediasummits.com/modernmedianz
