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As you know, last week we mounted our first large-scale e-marketing conference, our E-marketing E-mersion E-vent.  In the past we’ve done single seminars for an hour or a few hours, but this was our first effort at a multi-track, all-day event.

Judging from the intensity of the note-taking by our participants and the results from our survey, I think we are on the right track. One of the things I did in planning the conference was to invite speakers that would bring examples and experiences not only from the arts, but also from Fortune 500 companies and outside the US arts world.

I think often we get too myopic and think that unless something is being done in our specific genre it’s not relevant. Actually, what I was hoping to convey last week was that arts marketers need to learn how to do better e-marketing in a big way, and and ultimately they should be learning not only from each other, but from corporate America and abroad.

One of the big themes of my keynote talk had to do with segmentation and targeting. Although it’s not nearly as sexy nor does it generate as many eager questions as talking about Youtube, it’s vitally important. I made that point, as did several of our guest speakers.

And talking about Fortune 500 companies, I was really pleased to read a press release this weekend about a new study issued by IBM Global Business Services, titled "IBM Predicts the End of Advertising as We Know It." I encourage you to read the press release at least, if not the whole study.

Here’s a few quotes that should whet your appetite:

To survive in this new reality, broadcasters must change their mass audience mind-set to cater to niche consumer segments, and distributors need to deliver targeted, interactive advertising for a range of multimedia devices.

IBM believes that all players will need to invest heavily in consumer analytics and automation to gain more insights about the consumer and how to reach them. For example, interactive advertising paired with consumer analytics provides compelling knowledge of who viewed and acted on an ad rather than estimates of impressions, allowing advertisers to maximize revenue and yield management.

Marketing is marketing and whether you’re IBM or the Iowa Brass Museum, the contours of the evolving world of arts marketing seem to be the same for everyone.