Image courtesy of interactivedaysandiego.com

For the 6th year in a row, the San Diego Ad Club brought Interactive Day to San Diego with record attendance. The event discussed anything and everything related to digital marketing and advertising and featured many prominent speakers and industry leaders from San Diego and Southern California.

The event kicked off with a great presentation by M.E.D.I.Advisory Group’s Jack Myers who discussed the importance of innovation across the marketing industry and how marketing companies should apply more innovation in planning their next big steps. Myers touched on the many facets of digital advertising and their impacts on the industry, including social media. Myers noted that social media is a “game changer” and changes the entire landscape of marketing.

Myers hypothesized that social media is leading the transformation of marketing, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the late 1800s. Myers asserts that the last time there was such a shift for marketers was when the Agrarian Age segued into the Industrial Age and consumers started pouring into crowded cities as opposed to living removed, rural lives. Marketers had to quickly learn how to market to this new, urban lifestyle. Today, the Industrial Age has been swapped for the Relationship Age and social media is leading the way by connecting consumers with brands.

Other key points that Myers touched on included:

• Small to mid-sized media agencies from smaller markets (including San Diego!) are leading the way in terms of innovation and bringing new ideas to the marketing atmosphere
• Mobile advertising is going to explode, including a rise in coupons distributed on mobile platforms
• Mobile and integration of GPS is going to continue to grow rapidly
• Online video is on its way to becoming huge

Check back soon to hear more great takeaways from San Diego Interactive Day!