ad:tech London 2008 – The morning after

September 26, 2008
by Simon Whittick

Our presence

Latitude had a very productive 2 days, and enjoyed some great conversations with both late starters in online marketing, and early starters who want to find out how they can do it better. However, this certainly signalled to me that everybody is now realising the power of online marketing, particularly during an economic downturn.

I know our COO Richard Gregory also had a big take away from the event, and that was his new found love of video streaming and sharing website Qik. He spent most of ad:tech, phone in hand, recording anything and everything. Check out his first (questionable quality!) effort with a video on our stand here. Richard did also manage to take time to snap a few pictures of our Elvis themed stand, one of which you can see below.

US presence

One of my biggest observations from ad:tech London was the strong US presence at the event this year. It wasn’t just people walking the hall; it was also an increase in the number of US companies exhibiting at the show. This to me signalled that as the online marketing industry continues to mature in both the US and the UK, companies from the US are obviously signalling their intent to hop over the pond and test the waters in the UK. It will be interesting to see how this develops, as I had mixed reactions from US participants as to their feelings on the UK market potential after the show.

Mobile

Another point I noted as a running theme at the show was the increasing conversation about mobile marketing. I think people in the industry have started to take note of this marketing channel after Kimmo Paaso recently suggested it could be worth $2.4 billion by 2011 and Google announced the release of their new mobile phone, G1. Attendees still seemed to conclude that it is currently too small a market for companies to fully leverage its potential currently. However, now is certainly the time to prepare a plan for when it really booms.

All in all the show was a success and produced some great insight into what companies are doing with online marketing. I’m just looking forward to next year, hopefully without the rain though!