Hello from the bustling floor of Advertising Week Europe!
As I write this, I’m in the midst of Day Two of the event and it’s been as full-on as I expected, with no end of excellent talks and interesting people to see and meet.
Yesterday was a great day for retail media content, and I haunted the front row of multiple sessions in the Retail & Commerce Media track, including an excellent discussion from Expedia Group’s Jennifer Andre and The Trade Desk’s Jessica McGrogan about travel data and how brands can reach audiences who travel – one of my favourite details from the conversation was the term “set-jetting”, which refers to travellers who visit destinations based on TV series and films they’ve enjoyed.
I later listened to Ollie Shayer announce the launch of SMG’s new Commerce Media Network Maturity Index, and had the opportunity to speak to him afterwards about what led to the Index’s launch, some of the challenges, and the plans ahead. Another really interesting session brought together Boohoo’s Tom Binns with PayPal Ads’ Henry Stokes to talk about how Boohoo is working to cater to changing customer behaviour, including via PayPal’s shoppable Storefront Ads proposition – something that younger demographics are particularly willing to jump on board with.
You also can’t beat wrapping up the day with a hilarious keynote from the effervescent Graham Norton and his ‘Wanging On’ podcast co-host Maria McErlane, which RMA and NDA editor-in-chief Justin Pearse ably covered on New Digital Age.
Day two then kicked off with a great session about measurement all along the funnel, with insights from RAAS Labs’ Thomas Ives, Diageo’s Rachel Morgan-Jones, and Havas’ Barry Walsh. One intriguing nugget mentioned by Morgan-Jones was that Diageo compared its reach from TV ads with that of retail media and found that the two channels were delivering equal reach – but both are doing very different jobs (beyond pure reach), and the important thing is to consider: “What is the consumer taking away from that environment?”
Being a journo myself, I also enjoyed the afternoon session ‘Crack the Code: Industry Journalists Tell All’, with a panel made up of Marketing Week’s Niamh Carroll, the Financial Times’ Daniel Thomas, and The Subthread’s Hannah Bowler. Bowler revealed that she really dislikes email and prefers other contact methods for pitching – myself, I’m in the pro-email camp with Thomas, though I won’t say no to a pitch on LinkedIn. But email gives me much more room – and all sorts of helpful sorting and labelling options.
On which note: if I didn’t catch you at Advertising Week (there’s always more to do than you can fit into a day – or even two!), don’t be afraid to say hello virtually, as I’m happy to take time out for a coffee whenever – or we may well find each other at a future event. (On which note: have you signed up for RMA’s Manchester Lunch yet?)
Until next time, take care!
Read more of Retail Media Age’s coverage from Advertising Week Europe.
