I spent 4 hours at the Future of Television conference today and will spend all day Friday there.   IPTV Evangelist has a review and then I'll talk about my own impressions and observations.

Jewish Holocost Museum - where the Future of Television conf is being held

I came in near the end of the first panel:

 Panel 1
A View from the Top:
The Outlook for the Television Industry & Digital Media
This panel of top television and digital media industry executives will discuss the increasing importance digital media for the future of the television industry. Topics include viewer trends; programming for non-traditional platforms including online video, VOD, HD, IPTV, broadband and mobile; the future of advertising; the democratization of video production resulting from broadband penetration and falling operational costs; and new business models. What are the challenges and opportunities for the industry to build new revenue streams from digital media platforms?

Speakers
Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, President, Digital Distribution, NBC Universal
David Poltrack, Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation /President, CBS VISION
Peter Price, President, The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Conrad Riggs, Co-Executive Producer, Mark Burnett Productions
Terry Mackin, EVP, Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.
Blair Westlake, Corporate VP, Media & Entertainment Group, Microsoft
Moderator: Andrew Wallenstein, Digital Media/TV Editor, Hollywood Reporter

Without really knowing any of these people what I quickly picked up is that behavioral targeting is changing how advertising is sold and how much of it is being sold, by taking portions of your audience and splitting it up to sub groups and then selling off that inventory of ads to interested advertisers.

I also listend to the second panel

 Global TV & the Emergence of Worldwide Content Distribution Networks
The widely hyped merging of the PC and TV is finally taking shape in a way that only a few people imagined during the late 1990s Internet boom. From kids in their dorm rooms to independent producers to big media companies, everyone seems to be producing content these days and the Internet is becoming a sort of worldwide TV network for audiences seeking entertainment, both mainstream and offbeat. With new global online video services such as Veoh and Joost, as well as place-shifting devices such as Slingbox, national boarders matter less and less in the television landscape. This panel will discuss the consequences of this development from the perspective of content creators, producers and advertisers as well as distributors and consumers.

Speakers
Eric Bader, SVP, Director of Digital Connections, MediaVest USA
Ian Blaine, CEO, thePlatform / SVP, Comcast Interactive
Greg Clayman, EVP, Digital Distribution & Business Development, MTV Networks
Jordan Hoffner, Head of Premium Content Partnerships, YouTube
Steve Mitgang, CEO, Veoh Networks
Bruce David Klein, President & Executive Producer, Atlas Media
Moderator: Mike Vorhaus, Managing Director, Frank N. Magid Associates

What I got out of this panel is most people are turning out to advertising while most distribution networks want to increase the opportunities and frequency of advertising.

I suppose, making advertising more relevant to the viewer is not a bad thing - but most just want to do away with being advertised to.   Some new devices that are no so high tech, but provide marketing data and were liked in beta tests, were spoken about.

The keynote was actually given at the end of Day 1:

5:15PM - 5:45PM
KEYNOTE
Larry Aidem, CEO & President, Sundance Channel

I liked the keynote the best, actually.   Larry Aidem, who I happened to be sitting right behind, near the front row, spoke about staying true to yourself and what branding means for a Cable Channel showing original content for which they get full rights to before showing.

"if your going to fail, fail on your own terms"

I got an idea about branding just by listening to Larry Aidem - perhaps the first, concreate defination of branding in a way that makes sense to me - here goes:

A Brand orginates as a "philosophy" about a product/service, that, through it's execution and attributes, communicates meaningful differences to one or more of the Brand's target audiences.

If you think about it, there are many brands that are not, for the most part, brands by my definition.  For example, the difference between Chocolate Bars like Hershey and Nestle is noticeable enough - but becomes most meaningful when it reflects the idea that made the products different in the first place.  To most people, it's either the packaging or the taste that are the main differences.

But there may be some people who are fanatics about a certain Chocolate Bar - those people will really notice differences that make their favorite brand different. 

In a lot of cases, there is not meaningful difference between different brand of say..insurance (except rates for insurance) and house plans you can buy over the internet - most sites are selling things that look so similar, same plans often, that the idea of Brand doesn't' seem to fit.

But where there's no brand - I guess, there's be commodization - the grayness of having a bunch of products / services that are similar all blend in, so it's hard to tell them apart.  

I think, most of the time, brands no longer really reflect meaningful differences in the products the brands sell - just different packaging of the same things - in which case, most people just buy least expensive.

In my view, based on the Larry Aidem keynote - a brand ought to reflect the original idea that makes it different in such a way that target gets it - and the philospophy is reflected down to the smallest detail.