Engage 2011: Day One – The Rampancy of Inspired Genius

Webtrends kicked off its Engage 2011 conference today in San Francisco to a record number of attendees, and a record number of attending companies. One thing was clear on Engage day one: marketers are realizing that measurement across their brand platforms (web, mobile, social), and the actions that are defined by this measurement, lies with them and they need to understand and harness it. The shift from speaking at, to engaging audiences has been fast and furious, and more brands are getting this every day. The advent and mass adoption of social and mobile has amplified this shift. In celebration of engagement, and our social world, here are a few of the moments of inspired genius from Engage day one speakers in 140 characters or less: Hope Frank, CMO, Webtrends: Today’s companies require fierce creative, a brave marketing team, and a tremendous amount of depth and insight. Ze Frank, zefrank.com & star.me: Everyone is a marketer today. Kids use SEO to get their YouTube videos more traffic. Tyler Lessard, Blackberry: Life is now being lived on mobile devices. Brands now need to deliver hyper engagement experiences, and we are moving to hyper-connectedness: payment terminals, cars. Mark Challinor, Telegraph Media Group: Age of mass media: we talked to the forest. Niche media: we talked to the trees. Micro media: we talk to the leaves and they talk to each other. Sam Yagan, OkCupid: iPhone users have twice as many sex partners as Android users. BleackBerry users are somewhere in the middle. Adrienne Smith, Google Ads: Mobile device shipments have outpaced PCs. 65 million minutes on Angry Birds played every day. 79% of large online advertisers don’t have a mobile optimized site. Brian Solis, Future Works: Don't benchmark against competitors (old thinking) but against the opportunity. I need to speak to you, connect with you, speak through you. David Kirkpatrick, Daily Beast: If iPhone didn’t have a Facebook app, I guarantee it would not be the phenomenal success it is today. Dan Rose, Facebook: Social design principle: building with social first. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. Dennis Yu, Webtrends: Facebook advertising’s pitfall is confusing # of fans with engagement. Engagement is the number of likes/comments divided by the # of fans. We look forward to what day two will bring. If you'd like to watch the morning sessions live visit our event site. There's lot of blogging and tweeting going on, so follow the hashtag #wtengage