Digital People - 2011 Roll Call

Rohan Lund, CEO of Yahoo!7. Rohan forecasted an even more significant shift to mobile marketing with increasing capabilities on formats & audience targeting and highlighted group buying as the sector to keep an eye on.

Geoff Hird, Publisher at Westwick-Farrow Media & Chairman of Publishers Australia. Geoff shared his views on the challenges facing the magazine & publishing industry & highlights their many opportunities as they focus on reaching audiences through multiple digital platforms.

Megan Clarken, Managing Director -Media- of Nielsen.  Megan looked at the current state of the digital media market & notes traditional media's extension into various digital platforms. She also highlights the challenges & opportunities surrounding revenue yields & the repurposing of content for multi-media platforms.

Mick Liubinskas, co-founder of Pollenizer.  Mick’s insights jumped off the page with a range of opinions such as the opportunities & challenges China offers as well as the downside of an always connected & on-screen society. He also asks us to 'embrace the chaos’

Aden Hepburn - Head of Digital at IdeaWorks+Y&R Sydney & creator of Digital Buzz. Aden highlighted issues surrounding the sheer pace of change in our industry, the rise of the social media 'guru' & the constant theme running through profiles this year - talent & recruitment.

Andrew Reeves, Strategy Director at ZenithOptimedia. He brought us his interesting views on digital media including the increasing differentiation between brand & performance advertising and the challenges of recruitment & ongoing education.

Alex Littlejohn, APAC President of the Adconion Media Group. Alex shared his views on the fast changing practice of digital advertising trading through demand side platforms (DSP's) and exchanges, the opportunities these present and what they mean for traditional media trading

Tony Faure - who identifies himself as a 'media guy' and outlines his previous roles launching Yahoo! in the Aust/NZ market and as CEO of both Homescreen and ninemsn. Tony offered his views on the current market and contrasts the strategies of independent and major publishers within the changing media landscape. He also highlighted three key challenges facing our industry…

Ellie Rogers, National Digital Director at Ikon. Ellie highlighted a comprehensive range of issues such as data capture, the need for increasing transparency, the rise and rise of Facebook - and cross platform integration. She also forecasted specific upward and downward market trends including the coming age of the math geek in our industry.

Laura Peck, Director at E&L Consultancy.  Laura confessed her love for all forms of media - bought, owned and earned, and offered her interesting views including insights into the state of our current market and forecasts collaborative consumption as a key area. She also recognised the size of the Australian market and the limitations this brings

Nick Bolton - Head of Media and Entertainment at internet broadcasting company – Viocorp.  Nick offered his views from a video media perspective highlighting current opportunities, challenges and market forecasts. He also presented a very useful roll of media resources to stay up to date with this fast growing segment of the digital media market.

Brad Howarth - long time IT and technical journalist and recent co-author of ‘A Faster Future’.  Brad brought us a unique view on our market as a long time and highly immersed observer on the broad range of issues affecting the digital media industry. He recognised the exciting timse we are currently navigating and the opportunity this brings particularly surrounding data as the new currency.

Lauren Oldham - Head of Online and Mobile at PHD Australia. Lauren gave us her thoughts on the need for more automated systems to deal with a real-time media buying environment across not only digital but other media platforms. She also anticipated the many innovations the NBN (National Broadband Network) will offer the digital media industry

Lee Stephens - CEO of independent digital media agency - Switch Digital. Lee provided us a wealth of insights including his views on key issues such as demand side and exchange platforms which publishers and agencies are currently making decisions on - and the talent void our market continues to experience.

Jeremy Macvean, Head of Digital and New Business Development at Austereo. Jeremy highlighted the need for more education, less jargon and recognition of digitals place in the total marketing mix. He raised the need to build digital as a better branding and involvement communication channel. He also forecasted the launch - and demise - of even more group buying sites.

Paul Fisher - CEO of The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Australia (IAB). Paul highlights several trends such as the increasing number of ad exchanges entering our market and user privacy concerns.

David Gaines - CEO of Maxus and head of The MFA’s Digital Committee. Dave offers insights on our smaller Aust market and how this  makes us more nimble and better able to innovate than our larger overseas counterparts. He also highlighted the immediate need to bridge a gap between those who can deliver digital media solutions and those who fund them.

Iain McDonald - Founder and ECD of Amnesia Razorfish.  Iain offers us his very well developed thoughts on the current fast changing digital and consumer media landscape, our challenges and opportunities and future trends to keep an eye on - mobile, tablets and gaming are all discussed.

Simon Corbett - Managing Director of Slingshot Digital Ventures. Simon asks us to create work that makes a difference and delivers real results. With this he forecasts the increasing need for the stringent measurement of these results against the clients brand and bottom line.

Thanks to everyone who read and supported Digital People in 2011. We'll return in late Jan/early Feb 2012. Please get in touch if you have any comments - denise@mediascope.com.au or Phone:  0424 100325.