Avenue A | Razorfish held its 8th annual Client Summit this May in New York City. The “Rock the Digital World” theme of the event focused largely on providing marketers with insights into what is working for others in the online space and what new offerings should command their attention. While each Client Summit seeks to impress, this year’s event marks significant change as the buzz focused around the blurring of traditional and online.

Underscoring this merge, Jeff Zucker of NBC gave a very candid interview candid on how broadcasters understand that if they don’t get their content out there someone will find a way to steal it. He sounded upbeat about the impact of Hulu not only in regards to viewers but also in about their ability to collaborate with competition to create the site. Zucker also took a nice swipe at YouTube, stating that “others have built billion dollar sites on the back of our content.”

Guy Kawasaki offered captivating discussion on what brands need to do to master the “Art of Innovation.” Aside from the brazen humor in his presentation, Kawasaki gave the attendees real life examples of how they should approach innovation. He proposed “don’t worry, be crappy” as a mantra to inspire companies to not wait for the perfect situation or overanalyze their inventions. Though quick to state that marketers shouldn’t intentionally create crap, Kawasaki did acknowledge making a 1.0 might be necessary, even if it is missing some features; the initial product serves a purpose, and getting it out there helps you learn how to make product 2.0 sooner.

Kawasaki has also started a new site - http://marketing.alltop.com, which aggregate content from top sources in a reader layout to enable a fast scan of headlines.

Other discussions included a panel on the agency of the future, social media, and several client case studies, with one of the most interesting insights given by Andy England, the CMO of Coors Brewing Company. England talked about how their offline agency understands and works with them well, yet what AA|RF brings to the table is completely different. As you can see from the offline and online collaboration of Coor’s advertising, there really is a benefit to working with best of breed shops. The dialogue reminds me of an article I once wrote about the integrated agency approach.

Check out the following links for additional coverage:

Advertising Age
Reuters Blog
Jupiter Research
Jeff Lantctot
ClickZ

Next year’s summit will be back in Las Vegas and promises to be another great event.

Article by Joshua Palau

Last week, corporate raider Carl Icahn went all Gordon Gekko and decided to wage a war on the Yahoo board. Icahn is angry that Yahoo spurned a Microsoft offer of $33.00 per share. In order to gain better leverage, Icahn spent has spent over $1 billion to acquire 59 million shares and options.

Many folks at Yahoo were not only stunned but also angered at Icahn’s assertion that the Yahoo board was being irresponsible. However, it looks like Icahn is not alone in his quest, as several of his supporters snatched up about 15 million more shares.

How many other people would you rather trade places with than Jerry Yang right now? His stock is at $27.48 per share. He reported so-so Q1 earnings, has a proxy battle on his hands, and must decide on how and to whom to sell off the search division – good times indeed.

All of this makes it unlikely that Microsoft would go anywhere near a $37.00 per share demand. Should Yahoo wait any longer, they run the risk of poor Q2 earnings, which would drive down any future offers.

Despite pulling its offer, Microsoft recently said that they "reserved the right" to reconsider a purchase option. There have also been reports that Microsoft may consider buying a portion of Yahoo! instead of trying to acquire the entire company. This may actually work out better for Microsoft, as it would allow them to gain market share in search without setting off monopoly alarms. One would think it would be easier to integrate the search products instead of the entire company.

Maybe Yahoo’s greed is good for Microsoft.

Article by Joshua Palau

A recent study from Guidance confirms the value of integrating a personalized experience for the online shopper. What does this have to do with search? It reinforces the notion that neither search nor creative and web development live in a vacuum. When engaging in a development project, you should consider what your traffic generation strategies will be. Otherwise, you’re not leveraging your development investment to further impact your business. Conversely, when developing effective search campaigns, particularly organic campaigns, which normally don’t craft specialized landing pages, the specific landing page and broader user experience will impact overall ROI and customer lifetime value. And when targeting a younger demographic, these customized shopping experiences have an even larger impact. So make sure to look at the broader picture and business strategies when developing your next online initiatives.

Article by Dana Melick

In April, Google hit a new high in search share topping out at 62%.

Microsoft will pay you to search…seriously.

Maybe Yahoo! is better off without search?