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Internet Fair Showcases Innovation, Diversity
by Adam Phillips
The atmosphere is electric at Internet Week New York's headquarters in
the city's trendy Soho neighborhood, as computer programmers, artists,
entrepreneurs, investors and journalists browse and compare notes on
the latest trends in the Internet industry.
"I think that people who work in this industry are really, really vocal
advocates for what they do," says Greg James of the global advertising
agency, Cake. "There is a real passion about it. So you come to an
event like this and you just feel in the room everyone wanting to talk
to everyone else - people wanting to connect and learn more and really
get onto the latest thing. So there is a sort of social one-upsmanship
as well about this, which is great. You get that kind of competition
and camaraderie."
With so many different types of devices connecting to the Internet and
with online content proliferating, advertisers have to be more creative
than ever in competing for consumer attention, according to James.
"They have to almost turn their marketing into value and extensions of
products and services a lot of the time," he says. "Because people
don't necessarily want you hitting them over the head, telling them,
`Buy more of this, buy more of that.' They want to say, `Why should I
buy more of it? Why should I buy more of it from you in particular?
What is your point of view in the world and how are you going to
deliver it for me?' So actually, the worlds of advertising and
technology are very closely aligned now."
''
Demand Media is a company that seems to embody that trend. It creates
online articles, videos, slide shows and other online content for
special interest websites and mobile phone users, and sells targeted
advertising to companies that want to reach those niche consumers.
"We provide content that is health and fitness related as well as
mobile applications to help you quit smoking, to track your daily
intake of calories if you are looking to lose weight or eat more
healthily," says Leyla Farah of Demand Media's display. "And we provide
a community around that as well. So if you need help or you need
encouragement, you can get all that in one place."
Farah's company also publishes a popular instructional site Internet
site called e-How that helps people with their home repair and other
household projects as well as eHowMom, which caters to mothers.
According to Farah, their Cracked.com site - part magazine, part social
medium, and part advertising revenue generator - is one of the most
popular humor sites on the Web.
"The interesting thing about Cracked.com is the way the content gets
produced," she says. "We actually have something we call a 'writers'
room,' which has thousands of people pitching ideas into it and voting
ideas up or down, so that we know that the ideas we're going to write
about already have gone through a process to vet them. Our audience has
told us that before we even create the content."
Some old fashioned trade show gimmicks can be found among Internet
Week's high-tech displays. At the Vitamin T booth, there is colorful
green candy, a photo booth and souvenirs.
"It draws people in to the booth. We are trying to get people to talk
to us," says Sharon Strauss says Vitamin T, a one-stop agency for
"digital creatives" - the people who have flocked to Internet Week New
York.
''
She explains how the year-old company does business.
"So an ad agency wins a brand new account and they are very excited to
get this account, but they don't have enough staff to handle that. So
they come to us and they hire Web designers and copywriters and
production designers and Web developers, and we place them to handle
that project. It's fun."
In addition to the many small companies like Vitamin T, there are some
industry giants here at Internet Week New York. Galileo Vieira is here
to promote Hotmail. The pioneering free email service, founded in 1996
and acquired soon after by Microsoft, leads the industry with its 364
million registered users. But in recent years, critics have panned the
service for its poor performance. Vieira wants to reintroduce Hotmail
to this crowd.
"Many years ago, the product wasn't up to what people expected," Vieira
says. "We had a lot of issues. So concerns around spam, concerns around
storage size of the in-box, performance overall. So over the last year
and half, two years, we fixed most of those problems, and we are really
good at the fundamentals today. In addition, we're tackling new
problems."
For example, Hotmail engineers have developed a way to screen so-called
"graymail" - bulk email that has been solicited, such as newsletters,
discount offers and news alerts, but which can choke a user's in-box.
"So we are really out there to show off these features," Vieira says,
"to tell folks, `We know what we did the past. We know why you folks
aren't using us, but give us a shot."
The approximately 500 companies and 40,000 attendees in attendance make
Internet Week New York one of the biggest fairs of its kind. The
week's other offerings include mini-courses, the Webby Awards, art
installations, lots of parties and seemingly endless networking --
online and face to face.
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[1]http://www.voanews.com/content/internet-fair-showcases-innovation-di
versity/727206.html
References
1. http://www.voanews.com/content/internet-fair-showcases-innovation-diversity/727206.html