I’m excited to be heading to sunny Barcelona this week for the fifth IAB Interact Congress, an annual event where European online advertising industry players gather to discuss the latest industry developments. This year’s congress will be held on June 8-9th and will take the theme of “Together Forever? Online + traditional media in perfect harmony”. It will bring together senior figures from both the online advertising industry and traditional media to consider what the relationship between these forms is and where it’s going in the future. IAB Interact Barcelona

With the continued growth of the digital market, sometimes to the detriment of the traditional media, this is a particularly pertinent subject. While at first there may have been some conflict and a clear division between the online and traditional media spaces, I think it is now easier and more helpful to think of the media landscape as a continuum. Campaigns can, and must, span a number of different screens and touch-points in order to really connect with an audience. The more discussion between the two spaces, the more integrated and successful campaigns we, as advertisers, can create for our clients.

The IAB Interact Congress will see the second installment of our Microsoft Advertising Ad Vision Series panel discussions. We will be filming the 'Better together? TV+ Online' panel discussion, which will be moderated by Guy Phillipson of IAB UK, on Day 2 of Interact. I will be joined on the panel by Antony Rhind of Havas Digital, Phil Macauley of Quantcast and Steve Brown of Yahoo! for what promises to be a lively debate.

As with the first Ad Vision panel at the Festival of Media in May this year, a recording of this discussion will be available along with a number of interviews - such as Richard Dunmall’s interview with John Sintras, Starcom MediaVest Australia CEO - on the Community blog. The Community Site will also have all the latest updates on Ad Vision and further interviews in the lead up to Cannes and you can always follow us on Twitter (@MSAdvertising) or Facebook. 

The winners of the 2011 IAB Europe Research awards will be announced on the first day of the IAB Interact Congress. The Microsoft Advertising team were very pleased to have four of our entries long-listed last week: one entry – Dwell on Branding – in the Ad Effectiveness category and three entries – Talking Brands, The Great Ignored and New Shopper Journeys – in the Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour category. I think this reflects the dedication our research teams have to finding real insight into consumers’ motivations and actions and I’m really proud of them for continually gaining industry recognition. We look forward to seeing the short-list this week and have our fingers crossed to win something on the night!

If you’re planning to attend the IAB Interact Congress I urge to you try and attend our latest Ad Vision panel, as well as the keynote speech by our VP Global Marketing, Marc Bresseel, and the talk on Microsoft Shopper Journeys by our Global Research Director, Beth Uyenco. It looks like it’ll be an interesting and highly rewarding congress.

Thank you,

Laurent Delaporte, Vice President EMEA, Microsoft Advertising