Fresh from New York: Trends in online advertising
Silicon Alley technologists and Madison Avenue advertising executives have been meeting yesterday and today at the AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC conference. Here are some of the trends people were talking about:
Context & Ripple Effects
The arc here starts with the Wall Street Journal's May 2007 framing of advertising's brave new world, when the industry's business-model questions were still being argued in print. By late January 2008, AlwaysOn's OnMedia NYC conference turns that argument into a room: Silicon Alley technologists and Madison Avenue executives spending two days together on where online advertising goes next.
Why it matters is geography. New York owns the advertiser relationships while the platforms building online advertising largely sit elsewhere, and a recurring venue where the two sides meet is how Silicon Alley positions itself as the place where ad money and ad technology negotiate.
First-order effects
- NYC-based ad startups get direct access to Madison Avenue decision-makers over two days, compressing what would otherwise be months of agency outreach into a single conference floor.
Second-order effects
- Agencies and brand executives hearing these trend pitches face pressure to respond with in-house digital capability or acquisitions rather than treating online as a line item handed to specialists.
Third-order effects
- If the Silicon Alley–Madison Avenue pairing keeps formalizing through events like this, New York's tech identity consolidates around advertising technology as its anchor market — the niche where its incumbent relationships give it an edge over other startup hubs.
The trend: New York's technology scene is organizing around advertising as its defining vertical, with industry conferences turning the Silicon Alley–Madison Avenue proximity into a standing pipeline.