SESSION 17. SHOWING THE MONEY: BRANDS FINANCING CONTENT

Outdated and in the past are the old “product placing” exercise and the uneventful TV commercial that endlessly repeated the old formulas around “buy-this-product”. Brands are becoming involved in commissioning high quality content. Today, luxury brands engage with audiences via proprietary cable TV channels; leading filmmakers direct TV commercials in campaigns that also portray highly recognisable actors in mini-scripted films for cinemas and television; brands commission feature and short films and fans re-create their own TV ads on YouTube. The visual medium has exploded and the public lies wide open to be challenged, awed and inspired. Through case studies, this session will look at how brands have become involved in commissioning content across platforms and explore the new dynamics between media agency and brand, and content producer and creator.

ADAM ERLEBACHER, Co-Founder, PlaceVine

PlaceVine is a web-based information service that facilitates brand integration transactions across film, television, and the web. Currently the brand integration industry relies on personal relationships between marketers, agencies, and content creators. The entire workflow of a brand integration transaction – from discovery to evaluation, through negotiation and execution – remains a completely manual process.

PlaceVine believes that every integration is unique and cannot be reduced to a “click-to-buy” transaction, but that technology can play a critical role in improving transparency in the industry. Today’s model, which relies exclusively on manual filtering or on one agency’s client relationships, is becoming increasingly inefficient in the face of a rapidly expanding content base. Due to a lack of visibility into available integrations, marketers (buyers) are unaware of existing inventory and content producers (sellers) are unable to maximise the full value of their integrations.

PlaceVine addresses these needs with powerful technology tools for the discovery and evaluation of integration opportunities. PlaceVine provides marketers and agencies with transparent access to brand integration opportunities in feature-length film, television and new media whilst enabling content creators to maximise the value of their brand integration inventory.

PlaceVine was founded in 2007 and is based in New York City and Los Angeles.

Adam was most recently a Member of the Board of Advisors and prior to that, Director of Business Development, at Colloquis, Inc. (acquired by Microsoft), a developer of natural language software systems. Adam played a central role in the turnaround and growth of the company, leading all direct sales as well as partnerships with AOL and Microsoft. He was responsible for the company’s critical first sales to Comcast, BT, COX, ETrade, Cingular, Vonage and Time Warner. Erlebacher was also actively involved in product development, having co-authored two pending patents. Before joining Colloquis, Adam was a Senior Analyst at JPMorgan in the Leveraged Finance Group where he focused on technology, media & telecom transactions. He received his B.A. from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

ALEX KUMMERMAN, CEO Clicmobile

Alex is CEO of Clicmobile. He is responsible for the business strategy and operations of the company, as well as overseeing IT development. Alex is also the author of the core program code and architecture builder for the Clicmobile interconnectivity software suite.

Since the creation of his first award-wining interactive CD in 1993, Alex has been at the forefront of multimedia development.
Prior to founding Clicmobile in 2003, Alex co-founded and served as CTO for the New York-based company Oversampling, which offers interactive and innovative city tours via a mobile or an MP3 player. Oversampling’s star product “Soundwalk” won the 2005 Dalton Pen Award and the 2005 Audio File Award.
Alex also co-founded and acted as chief operations officer for Absolut Media, the award-winning French Web designer startup. His guidance helped ensure the successful purchase of Absolut Media by Euro RSCG in 2000.
Alex has also been a multimedia consultant for major companies such as Sony CSL, AFAA and Havas. Alex is also a commentator on the developing Mobile Social Software (MoSoSo) industry. In October 2005, he organized the first Clicmobile European MoSoSo Round Table in Geneva, an event attended by Yahoo! Orange and Sony. He is the founder of the Mobile Monday Geneva chapter.

Alex brings over 13 years of mobile telecommunication expertise and successful management to Clicmobile.

Alex holds a bachelor of art degree in cinema studies from the New York University Graduate School of Arts & Science.

MARK BOYD, Head of Creative Content, Bartle Bogle Hegarty – tbc

INMACULADA MARTINEZ, Digital Media Strategist (Session Moderator)

Inmaculada Martinez is one of the world’s leading digital media strategists, described by FORTUNE and TIME as one of Europe’s top talents in Human Factors and Social Engagement through technology. A serial entrepreneur since 1999, she has been directly involved in the emergence of many of today’s digital technologies (Web 2.0, Mobile, Wifi, Blogs) and has worked internationally with some of the best talents in the medium. In 2006 she founded Stradbroke Advisors, providing development strategy not just to corporations (Nokia, Apple, Universal, HP, BBC) and venture capitalists (3i, Index Ventures) but to governments. She is also an Advisor to the EU Technology Commission (voted Best Contributor to the Formation of Digital Media Strategy at the 2001 European Leadership Forum, a Fortune 500 CEO and EU Governors summit). In 2005 Red Herring ranked her amongst the top 40 most influential women in technology. Working since 2005 with TV and film production companies in the UK and Australia, she has developed digital media strategies for clients looking to explore further revenue channels, to interact directly and for longer with their audiences and create a seamless connection between the visual art and digital platforms.