I was fortunate to spend Monday and Tuesday of last week in Santa Barbara, US, listening and debating the future of advertising with a couple of hundred industry colleagues at a conference called ‘Relevance’.
What brought us together? Both the topic and the venue were compelling.
Who brought us together? AT&T and its newly branded advertising and analytic division Xandr.
Why did they do it? Because Xandr’s CEO Brian Lesser and his team have developed a lofty mission and needed a place and audience for its unveiling. Their mission: “We will use data, distribution, premium content, and technology to connect people with the brands and content most relevant to them in an engaging and effective way. We will make advertising matter – for consumers, content owners, and marketers.”
Why did I and the rest of the participants go? Because AT&T knows that shaping the future of media and advertising will take a community, and involving players from across the emergent digital ad ecosystem – including those from advanced TV advertising – can only help accelerate their plans and opportunity.
Will AT&T and Xandr be able to pull it off? Like many who attended, I am hopeful.
Without question, there seems to be a big commitment from AT&T to make it happen.
First, the opportunity to optimise billions of dollars in TV advertising was billed as a key point of synergy in AT&T’s $85+ billion acquisition of Time Warner.
Second, the importance of modernising advertising was certainly driven home on that stage by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson in an interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow.
Finally, the newest members of the Xandr unit – leaders from AppNexus, which AT&T acquired just months ago for a reported $1.6 billion – attended the conference as well, and were very much part of the conversation.
What do you think? Will Xandr make advertising matter?
This story was first published by MediaPost.com and is republished with permission.
Dave Morgan, a lawyer by training, is the CEO and founder of Simulmedia. He previously founded and ran both TACODA, Inc, an online advertising company that pioneered behavioural online marketing and was acquired by AOL in 2007 for $275 million, and Real Media, Inc, one of the world’s first ad serving and online ad network companies and a predecessor to 24/7 Real Media (TFSM), which was later sold to WPP for $649 million. Follow him on Twitter @davemorgannyc
