In a Crappy Ad Economy, Innovation is Key

During the ad:tech San Francisco Keynote Roundtable "Innovate or Die! Great Brands in the Age of Disruption," Nielsen Online EVP of Digital Strategic Services led a panel which focused on the need for brands to innovate as they move forward. Panelist Eric Feng, Senior VP of Audience and CTO, Hulu noted true innovation can come after a product is released and the end user feedback - which is now a real-time waterfall thanks to social media - is analyzed and put to use for future product releases.

Part of the discussion centered on where innovation originates and how that location can affect it. For example, in the U.S., innovation is built on years of previous product generations versus China where there is a lot of generation skipping. Legacy is not always part of the equation. Because of this, foreign markets are sometimes a better place to innovate because there's less legacy and less baggage.

When Blackshaw asked Eric Feng, Senior VP of Audience and CTO, Hulu if he'd succeeded ad innovation in advertising, he laughed and replied, "No, we are not there, we have a long way to go." Which isn't to slam Hulu. It's just to note, for a business that, for the most part, gets its revenue from advertising, they do, indeed, have a long way to go.

The rest of the panel was fairly basic with suggestions such as companies urging people to switch jobs every few years to stay on the top of their game and avoid complacency.

It's really a no brainer. For a company to survive, the must innovate. If they don't, a competitor will and they will lose.