Last week, marketers of all stripes flooded The Fairmont, InterContinental Mark Hopkins and The Masonic in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood to participate in RampUp. This was the 8th year for LiveRamp’s flagship event and as in previous years, the conference presented itself to be bigger and better than ever before.
Last night, cred and The Commonwealth Club hosted an expert panel discussing what’s to come in the future of digital marketing. Panelists included Ming B. Wu, CRO of MightyHive, Nikesh Desai, CEO of InvestingChannel, Mason Garrity, VP Strategy of 3QDigital, while CPO of LiveRamp, Anneka Gupta, moderated the conversation.
What were the hot topics? The evening’s conversation circled around the past, present and future of marketing, issues around data privacy/intent, and the changing role of the CMO. The panelists agreed that data has become more vital in the conversation: from targeting audiences and understanding their mindsets, to driving content creation itself.
Who are the ones to watch? While Google and Facebook are dominating the space, panelists agreed that Amazon is a key player to watch. “Amazon is very well positioned; if you think about all the data they have, they have a ton of different ad formats they can use. They’re one of the companies that can challenge Google in the search domain as 50% of commercial searches are happening on Amazon.” - Mason Garrity, VP Strategy of 3QDigital
What’s to come in the next 5 years? Machine learning will likely continue to bombard the market with advancements. As it becomes more integrated, panelists agreed we’ll see marketing become more predictive, rather than reactive, with more ads seamlessly integrated to enhance the consumer experience. Younger generations will also likely grow up interacting with other mediums and realities, so marketers will need to keep a watchful eye on AR/VR to connect with consumers wherever they are.
The panel in its entirety is now available for download via The Commonwealth National Podcast.
That's a wrap! For the past few months, we've been working closely with LiveRamp to put together the agenda and speaker line-up for RampUp 2017. (cred also helped with RampUp 2016!)
In its fifth year, the annual summit has carved a name for itself in the MarTech industry, delivering insightful content around artificial intelligence, data quality, mobile, and more.
One of our favorite sessions was "Hot Zone: The Marketing Industry's Most Difficult Questions Answered," moderated by SafeGraph's Auren Hoffman. To start, Auren offered a $2 bill signed by the panel to whoever asked the most controversial question. Touching on topics like data attribution, democratization and ethics, the panel featured: Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, Drawbridge; Aaron Bell, AdRoll; Brian O'Kelley, AppNexus; and, Kishore Kanakamedala, Google.
Another attendee favorite was "Proximity Marketing is Ready." Moderated by LBMA's Asif Khan, the panel featured: Thomas Walle, Unacast; Brian Handly, Reveal Mobile; Walt Doyle, GasBuddy; and John Dokes, AccuWeather Network. A key takeaway? Mobile without location data is just another screen.
This year, the two-day conference took place at The Masonic and The Fairmont, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco. In total, there were more than 2,300 attendees, 130 great speakers, and 55 engaging sessions across the Pre-Conference and Main Day of the event.
We can't wait to see what next year has in store - hope to see you there!
Entering the Hot Zone...
For more insights and key takeaways from #RampUp17, check out the following articles:
