Speaking Sensis

AIMIA Victoria’s View 21 forum was held yesterday at a Docklands venue in Melbourne. The event was titled “The New Business of Media” and produced a diverse line-up of speakers from Apple, ABC online, Hyro, Sensis, IBM and a sound and lighting extraordinaire responsible for some of the biggest music concerts in the world.

The day kicked off with a keynote from former Global Creative Director of Apple, Samy Davy, who gave an insightful (although not unpredictable) glimpse into the importance Apple places on educating consumers about their products. He went on to attribute the success of the iPhone launch to the way they educated consumers in the 6 month lead up to the launch. TV commercials and 30 minute videos on mac.com were a complete success. With 90% of the population using only 10% of the features on their mobile, he said Apple places education at the forefront of all marketing activity.

Speaking on the first panel of the day, participants from IBM, Hyro and Sensis took on the topic of New business – not new media. The panel discussed businesses needing to move from product-based initiatives to providing customers with media solutions.

“The focus should be on providing consumers with information when and where they need it, and providing advertisers with simple solutions that meet their needs,” said Amanda Brook of Sensis.

The solution to fragmented media consumption is integration. It’s about giving consumers more ways to access information, and giving advertisers more ways to talk to their consumers.

When asked if 2009 was the year of mobile, Amanda said that after five years in the mobile business, Sensis believed mobile was definitely here to stay.

You can read more about V21 in this Digital Media article.