The rise of online technology gave birth to two worlds – and with it, changed the face of business dynamics and human interactions forever. Our offline worlds expanded to include our newly formed online connections and a backdrop rich in content and experience. And then came the smartphone and our love affair with mobile technology. We’ve become attached to it in ways never deemed plausible; it’s become a portal into another dimension of connections, information and everything in between that had previously been restricted by a lack of offline mobility and comprehension.

Today, mobile technology provides us with an opportunity to seamlessly bridge the two worlds it’s created. We’re past taking snapshots of our daily lives and uploading them via apps; we want those apps to tell us about those daily snapshots. We want our online and offline worlds to collide and spill over with new and disruptive content. But more than anything – we want mobile to unveil new routes of exploration through personalised experiences and open our eyes to worlds previously invisible.

 Key takeaways:

• Why mobile is the right glue to connect our online and offline worlds – and how it should function as an instrument to do so

• Looking beyond QR codes and LBS: Where are the next innovative connections likely to occur, and how will they change user behaviour?

• A different perspective: How will industries close the gap and help their customers connect their two experiences – and where does this leave the grounded internet?

In any business, customer loyalty can be fleeting, elusive and (occasionally) non-existent as customers shop around for the best deals. But it’s vital to any business that depends on consumers to survive, and pivotal in determining which companies generate the most profits and achieve high performance. So how can brands implement an effective loyalty scheme that builds engagement, creates brand advocates and drives both new and repeat business? This panel discussion will highlight how best-in-class companies are doing precisely this – and the pitfalls they watch out for.

Key takeaways:

• Ensure your customer loyalty marketing programmes are creative, innovative and engage the customer on their level – and learn how to avoid stagnant loyalty programmes

• Discover the importance of being part of your customer’s social media conversation as a tool to listen, clear up miscommunication and enhance your brand

• Utilise customer loyalty programmes as an instant response to your brand and understand the metrics needed to measure brand affiliation and loyalty

Online ad spend is set to overtake TV by 2016 in the US – according to Forrester, advertisers will spend US77 billion dollars online, with search accounting for 44% of that total. The public’s continued shift to online fuels the growth of Google as it continues to strengthen its position as the largest media company in the world. Last year Google earned US29 billion dollars. Yet almost all this growth is based on marketers targeting just 10% of the clicks. SEO is about capturing the remaining 90% – but it’s about much more than just about traffic. It’s about getting unparalleled insight into the behaviour of your customers, so you can not only make better online decisions but also better marketing decisions – ones based on facts, not opinions.  

Key takeaways:

• Understand the core principles of SEO distilled from 10 years of implementation experience that have consistently delivered results

• Understand how to find out what your customers really want and how they articulate it using well-tested techniques

• Understand how to properly translate these insights into a compelling content strategy that can drive online, social media and broader marketing activities that attract and engage your customer

Agencies and marketers are currently drowning in a sea of data. Access to targeting data and inventory is no longer the challenge; instead, the challenge has become determining what data to apply and what its value is. This has become more complex than ever before.

Indeed, as data continues to accumulate, marketers face an enormous challenge: which tools should I be using to optimise my campaign and increase ROI? How should I use my data? And what kind of insights will I obtain? This workshop showcases the strategies and best practices that make data-driven ads perform to their full potential.

Key takeaways:

• What is a data management platform?

• How can a DMP help my bottom line?

• Discover what insights and analysis can you gain from audience data?

This workshop will focus on the best practices in search to improve your relevance and positioning. Key tactics will include how to utilise website analytics to improve SEO and increase traffic; improving your content within search; looking at traffic and testing meta data to improve performance; and will conclude by diving into link building strategies.

Key takeaways:

• Creating better reporting utilising website analytics

• How analytics can drive your SEO strategy

• Online Reputation Management’s impact on reporting and the role SEO plays

When it comes to engaging consumers across devices, it’s not only about making a good first impression, it’s about making a lasting impression – one that’s memorable, measurable and gets your brand some action. In this interactive session, you’ll experience top-performing campaigns for yourself, get a deeper understanding of measurement capabilities and the audience targeting that move consumers forward, and learn how cross-channel marketing can and should be an integral part of your marketing strategy.

Key takeaways:

• Understand your mobile-consumer base, and learn how to increase brand loyalty and customer spend

• Truly engage your customers in the growing world of mobile

We're still working hard behind the scenes to get together the best case studies across Australia and New Zeland. Watch this space and we'll be updating content in the nearest of futures!

The i Team

If your exposure to consumer feedback is taking insufficient account of the explosion in consumer participation in social media, the answer is 'no'. Since these conversations can have an immense impact on your brand, it becomes critical for marketers to understand what's being said… and why.

Integrasco, Europe’s leading provider of social media analytics, exists to solve this problem, and has done so for a wide range of global, blue-chip brands, including Vodafone, HTC and RBS. Unlike competitor offerings in the marketplace, however, this information is benchmarked against your peer group and accompanied by in-depth, expert qualitative analysis.

Key Takeaways:

• The many ways in which organisations can leverage social media data and analytics
• Why the best solution arises from combining state-of-the-art tools with expert human analysis
• Why deep category immersion is critical

Instagram has a snap-happy community of over five million users; FourSquare is covering its corners with a cool 10 million; and lest we forget the smallest of binary blue birds with its Twitter span in excess of 100 million. We all love to feel part of something, and communities are the epitome of that sentiment, mobile or otherwise. But when it comes to the world of mobile, being part of a community has become a mere inception point.

With the ever-advancing and immediate opportunities prevalent within location-based services (LBS), communities are now living, breathing and moving bodies with the ability to accelerate the bonds between their physical and virtual realms. But once you’ve established a location-based community, how can you tame its exponential marketing and crowd-sourcing powers? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you define when location-based communities are the right fit for your strategy?

Key takeaways:

• Ten percent of mobile owners use LBS at least once a week – and that figure is rapidly rising. What does this mean for the power element of location-based communities?

• From coupons to gamification: How geo-location and LBS are encouraging community interaction like never before

• How to measure the potential ‘power’ of your location-based community º and understand the myriad implications for your community in the void between online and offline

Video remains one of the most effective media for online brand building – and YouTube videos are cheap, fun and effective way to market your business. Indeed YouTube is not just a forum for Star Wars parodies, finger-biting babies and skateboarding pets; it can also be a highly effective business tool, if sued correctly. You can use it to show off your expertise, share knowledge, market your products and connect with customers, colleagues and prospects. But how do you do this effectively in a world swash with content?

Key takeaways:

• Learn how to use web videos to reach out to current and potential customers and build more engaged relationships with your client base

• Understand how to make your video stand out from the crowd

• Take advantage of the analytics and demographics information that YouTube offers

2011 set records for the amount of time and money customers spend online. Marketers who transformed their strategy to adapt to the consumer behaviour across social and mobile channels reaped the rewards of deeper brand affinity, increased demand and more engaged audiences. What are the essential strategies and tools of any digital marketing strategy to stay relevant and win the digitally immersed consumer?

Key takeaways:

• Discover the technological innovation across personalisation, mobile and social marketing

• Learn about how global brands are transforming their marketing operations to adapt

• Discuss and share best practices

We have entered a new era where tablet devices have become the norm for both businesses and consumers – providing new challenges as well as new opportunities for digital marketers. It’s not enough to simply push your web content to the tablet, just as it’s not enough to regurgitate that same content for a smartphone. People consume content on these devices in a fundamentally different way. So how do you adjust to shifting communication patterns and consumers who are demanding more relevant messages, content and experiences? In short: are you prepared for tablet ubiquity?

Key takeaways:

• Understand why tablets represent a different user experience, and why content and messages must adapt to reflect this new reality

• Learn how to create a uniform way to both standardise new advertising campaigns and measure performance

For years now, service providers around the world have been offering bundled services to maximise return from network investments, add value to customer relationships, reduce churn and generate incremental revenue. Bundling certainly adds value, but if SPs stop there, they’re not fully exploiting the potential benefits available. The next stage is to integrate their services, offering customers a converged, seamless experience across device platforms.

Doing so will cocoon the consumer and SP brands, add substantial value to their customer experience and further insulate the SP from subscriber loss. The question is: what challenges lay in wait for SPs and companies looking to distribute multiplatform video? What are the drivers for content and SPs to enter into this space; and what technology components are required to do so?

Key takeaways:

• Over 38 percent of SPs worldwide strongly agree that multiplatform is a priority – but what challenges do they consider a priority?

• A detailed breakdown of the main technology elements required for multiplatform video distribution and the standards initiatives that may impact the market

• From traditional telecom vendors to wireless media technology providers; defining correct multiplatform structures will aid implementation and streamline distribution

The eco-system of television is shifting rapidly as social platforms, new consumer behaviours and entertainment collide. The ‘show experience’ is no longer limited to 30 or 60 minutes of linear time. As such, many programmes have moved past being a passive viewing experience into a powerful social currency.

Indeed, fans no longer just watch their favourite TV shows – they ‘check-in’, tweet and join fan groups about them on Facebook. Fans want bonus and exclusive content delivered to them in new and disruptive ways. Media check-ins are not only a way for fans to show affinity for their favourite shows, but to also discover new ones.

This time of hyper-connectedness – combined with an emphasis on innovation – creates a transformative landscape for fans, networks and brands. This session will explore how the application of these social experiences are helping content grow to become a multi-platform hit.

More and more of your potential customers are using social media to talk about your business and – whether you like it or not – there’s nothing you can do about it. However, people also use the exact same sites to announce they need a new product or service – making social media the perfect place to drive new sales leads to your door. The best part? All the information is right there in front of you.

This session will explain how to use social media to exploit sales opportunities from existing and potential customers, taking into consideration advanced search routes to unveil customer selling options and market trends.

Key takeaways:

• Discover how to utilise the advantages afforded to you as a brand participant in a social, online conversation to increase point o sale opportunities

• Learn why direct customer interaction is the inception point for attracting potential brand advocates and improving company reputation

• Understand how to use social media as a chance to upsell and/or provide extra incentives to new and existing customers

As social networking becomes further integrated into the lives of everyone, rather than just the tech-savvy, developers and retailers have awakened to the idea that there’s money to be made in the world of social shopping. Nevertheless, monetising social media has so far proved to be elusive for most. So what does social media mean for retail? How can it be successfully integrated into marketing campaigns and loyalty programmes? And how do you convert ‘likes’ into ‘buys’?

Key takeaways:

• Learn best practices in using social media for retail – with specific case studies that have led to profitability

• Discover how to engage the customer across all platforms

• Understand how to measure success using effective metrics and tracking

In this live chat show-style session, Adam Burns – iStrategy MC and Editor-in-Chief of Meet The Boss TV – interviews some of the industry's leading players about today's most pressing social and digital issues, examines the secrets of their success and gets their thoughts on the key trends to emerge from Day One of the conference.

In the pre-smartphone days, art, literature and all things creative were free to roam the social ether as they pleased, void of definition past those of the medium. However, in today’s highly technological and mobile world, creativity has taken to the world of binary, where classic literature can be turned page-by-page on a screen; where 8mm videos can be recorded on a device the size of your palm; and where an entire library of apps can be logged, searched and bought at the click of a button or swipe of a finger. The problem? Electronic content of any creative sort should create an experience that is better than that of its traditional cousin. It needs to be additive, not reductive. But most of all, it needs its audience to forget – if only for a moment – what preceded it.

This keynote will step away from the norm of digital strategy and focus on a more leftfield perspective to take away – the evolution of content for a growing electronic army and the need to explicitly preserve the art and culture of traditional creativity as we transition to a digital future.

Key takeaways:

• Assessing the cultural sensitivity and inherent creativity of consumers moving into a holistically digital age, and what it means to create a ‘better experience’

• Why perceiving such an approach as complimentary to revenue streams – not necessarily as a revenue stream entity – will entice brand loyalty

• Creating new experiences for consumers and how to avoid the pitfalls of greedy design in the context of a digital market moving forward

Traditionally, B2C marketers have been the first to realise the benefits of social media marketing. But a study earlier this year by B2B Magazine confirmed that B2B marketers are embracing social media marketing on LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter in particular, with LinkedIn cited as the most important social channel.

But as more and more brands engage via an ever-growing number of social media sites, the question of how to match up relevant information with the right people will become vital for businesses to succeed. So, how do you cut through the chatter and provide a relevant experience in a B2B environment?

Key takeaways:

• Understand why it is essential you provide people with information you know they are interested in – and why they will quickly be ‘turned off’ if you don’t

• Hear how the best B2B firms are engaging their customers

With so many technologies available, it’s not just the cost of development options that should influence your decision when it comes to the world of mobile apps. Ultimately, mobile apps take user engagement one-step further, so it’s important to research exactly what your audience wants from your business in terms of application technology. Get it right, and your audience will follow you wherever you go – a notion easier said than done, which is exactly why this panel will function to draw you in tot eh art of mobile app engagement.

Key takeaways:

• Research in the context of m-commerce: Understanding your ‘touch’

• Development: Concentrating on client research and strategy

• Marketing: Understand how to engage your new audience

The way we engage with customers and build relationships digitally is moving. Literally. This workshop will look at the ways email marketers can capitalise on the opportunities created by mobile marketing and social media programmes that are tightly integrated with their email marketing efforts.

Included in the workshop will be a focus on how today’s brands are integrating these channels, driving opt-ins for email programmes, creating differentiated, ‘humanised’ content and increasing the ‘shareability’ of their email messages.

Key takeaways:

• Integrating email, social and mobile marketing channels to drive maximum engagement and revenue

• Creating ‘humanised’ content that engages with consumers and ensuring your are using the right tone in email and social channels

• Utilising the preference centre: Offering alternatives to email such as social media, SMS or direct mail helps companies communicate with customers on their terms

As marketers, we often think of CRM in its traditional terms, and as a discipline that prevails after the sales funnel. But today, CRM is more than just managing the customer relationship. CRM is about understanding how to market to your customer based on his or her relationship with your brand, even before they become a customer.

With that in mind, this workshop will explain how a deeper understanding of consumer and their online behaviour is enabling marketers to target advertising and recommendations based on real-time consumer activity, and achieve a 1:1 approach from acquisition all the way to cross- and up-selling.

With traditional digital advertising increasingly delivering less value to brands, the key to ensuring brand messages are heard is to engage key target audiences through more interactive social advertising. Today’s digital consumer is driven by the ability to share, recommend and participate in conversations. Social video campaigns offer brands the chance to be endorsed by online communities, grow online share of voice and meet the evolving needs of consumers. But with Cisco predicting a whopping 90 percent of online traffic will be video-based by 2013, how do you ensure your content is seen, shared and recommended?

Key takeaways:

• What is so social about social video, and why do we need to focus on engagement rather than video views?

• A look at seeding strategies in YouTube and their tipping points – how to supersize your video to make a viral hit

• Understand regional trends and cultural differences

The days of believing that mobile services and their products are al about fitting the internet onto phones is thankfully, almost, over – and with it, so too is the misconception that an m-commerce strategy is merely an e-commerce site mirrored onto the handheld screen. From mobile payments, via mobile browsing and search, there’s no avoiding the fact that m-commerce is exploding onto the scene as one of the biggest trends for 2012 as its potential continues to be unveiled. But how can you ensure you’re pushing boundaries and customer experiences with your strategy?

Key takeaways:

• Understanding consumer needs – and why behavioural data can give your m-commerce strategy the leverage it needs

• How can you seamlessly integrate your e-commerce and m-commerce strategies to improve your bottom line?

• Through the crystal ball: How to position your mobile commerce strategy and stay one step ahead of your competitors

We’re all acutely aware of the QR war waging on behind the digital marketing scenes. Heads are being scratched – and many an industry critic has jumped on the point-and-laugh bandwagon in recent months – over ridiculously executed QR code campaigns and marketing efforts. What we’ve come to realise is thus: marketers love them, consumers don’t have a clue. So is that it for the QR code hardcore?

Well, while we don’t consider ourselves psychic, we know this for sure: if QR codes are to become anything more than a fad, things are going to need to change exponentially. Marketers need to take a step back and understand how consumers connect with the offline world and why an appreciation for disruptive marketing is the key to enticing new levels of engagement. They need to grasp better measurement qualities, and they need to keep it simple. In essence, and with every pun intended, they need to think ‘outside the box’.

Key takeaways:

• Top tips to avoid the myriad pitfalls already uncovered by failed QR campaigns – and how to improve the market in doing so

• QR codes and mobile web pages: Three advantages to simply encoding URLs, and using the subsequent mobile web page to deliver content – flexibility, measurability and simplicity

• Case studies of successful QR code campaigns: How to work within the confines of your demographic while still delivering ground-breaking creative campaigns

While the world of magazine publishers has got to grips with taking their page-turners digital in recent months, a nagging question has raised its head in the realms of digital content development: HTML5 or native apps? Well, regardless of perspective, one thing is certain – mobile is going to be pivotal to the future of product and content strategy, and HTML5 should offer that seamless access standard, cross-platform, that both consumers and brands have been yearning for.

But could it all be a case of polishing the golden statue and watching as the lacquer comes off in your hands? With many still uncertain of HTML5’s readiness, its early adopters might feel they’re taking a leap of faith in converting, but the reality is that – with mobile becoming a larger component of media access and consumers digesting content across multiple devices and platforms – the future of content and product evolution has to involve HTML5.

Key takeaways:

• How to integrate HTML5 into future digital strategies without incurring the costs and headaches

• What HTML5 offer you? A run down of the top tips for publishers and brands looking to create cross-platform and device content – and how HTML5 is paving the way for seamless mobile video content

• The battle for fingers: Moderating the arguments of HTML5 and native apps

TV meets PC meets smartphone meets tablet. An average day in an average consumer home. And while your latest TV programme is on a break, what’s left to do but sofa surf the mobile web during the adverts? With only one pair of eyes, consumers still demand multiple screens – and with the explosive growth of IP networks and device choices, it’s something the relative industries can’t ignore.

With it, vendors are responding with new values, technologies and partnerships that allow connections to be made effortlessly across devices and screens. But this is just the start. As marketers and advertisers begin to see the opportunities, what is the multi-screen world we live in likely to entice when it comes to interaction across the board?

Key takeaways:

• Why are multi-screen services so attractive to consumers?

• How are the system architectures across devices likely to evolve within this expanded ecosystem – and where does the cloud fit in?

• The importance of ‘device shifting’ and how to support complex models of content distribution

Social media doesn’t change the message; it just speeds the depth and breadth of the truth about your company to the rest of the world. Social media robs companies of the time needed to ‘spin’ the message. Hence, the very nature of successful companies is changing around the world.

With that in mind, this masterclass has been designed to explore the idea of corporate culture development and management, and its impact on the brand community – leaving you with actionable ideas on how to meld your own department/company to thrive in the new community-based marketing landscape.

Much hype surrounds the topic of gamification. Largely seen as a technique to add engagement to existing tasks, projects, marketing campaigns and initiatives, the term often lacks the seriousness it deserves. But make no mistake, the benefits of introducing platforms that can help measure and influence real-time user behavior into the enterprise are huge – and gamification offers just that. this workshop will show you how.

Many marketers spend million of dollars elaborating advertising campaigns when often what's really needed to help influence consumers is a simple recommendation from a trusted source that cuts through the noise of traditional marketing methods. But how do you generate – and capitalise on – word-of-mouth equity? How do you find your advocates and disseminate the right message through them? And how do you ensure those messages reach the right networks? This workshop will show you how.

Key takeaways:

• Understand why the right message can resonate and expand, affecting brand perceptions and increasing sales

• Learn now to build a trusted community of advocates that will generate meaningful buzz around your products, services or offering

The biggest trap for any business wanting to get involved in social media is presuming that merely being present is inclusion enough. Indeed, whilst there’s no doubting the importance of presence, the underlying weapon of social media is its ability to engage an audience. This panel will highlight the reasons for ensuring audience engagement is a top priority, by looking at what it can do your traffic levels to your site(s), its effects on your online brand – and how, in the wrong circumstances, it can affect your bottom line. 

Key takeaways: 

• How do attitudes change due to social media activities? This is the branding value that should convert into sales
• Evaluating the share of conversation versus your competitors and how to reposition yourself to start a new conversation
• How to translate analytic data into tangible engagement strategies

Some experts claim that tools for benchmarking social capital like Klout and PeerIndex are essential yardsticks for measuring relevancy, engagement, presence and influence in the online realm; others claim they are the social media equivalent of the Emperor’s new clothes. But while the value of such tools divides opinion, understanding how your company interacts with its online community and knowing which tools are effective is seen as increasingly critical in driving brand equity. So how can companies harness these emerging tools to their advantage?

Key takeaways:

• Understand the algorithms behind online influence scoring, and where the real value in such measurement tools lies

• Compare, contrast and evaluate different tools to learn how to get the best out of each one

iPitch is an exciting session, new for 2012. Six participants have six minutes each to deliver a compelling presentation on a new technology, way of working or innovative idea to the entire delegation, using the most imaginative means possible – video, audio, technology, audience participation, props – after which they’ll be grilled by our panel of experts and take questions from the floor. The audience is then asked to vote for their favourite.

In today’s fast moving, ever-changing online word, it’s difficult to simply keep up with evolutions in branding – but doing so is not only pivotal to success, it is success. But what does the future hold for online branding? How can both existing brands and those looking to make the transition from offline ensure they’re best positioned for what the future holds when it comes to the arena of online branding?

Key takeaways:

• Top tips to maximise your brand on social media

• Understanding your community, understand your brand: Which brands are best maximising their social connections?

• How to speak to your ‘future’ brand