2012 Symposium

Consumers in Charge: Crowdsourcing & Social Networking

Pre-conference workshop at ANA’s Masters of Marketing, Orlando, Florida
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The 2012 Leo-Arthur Kelmenson Symposium, sponsored by the Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF), will explore the pros and cons of one of the hottest trends in advertising today.  As part of the AEF’s mission to promote an understanding of advertising and its relation to culture, history and society, Consumers in Charge: Crowdsourcing & Social Networking will bring together the industry and academia to discuss in an open and unbiased manner the phenomenon that is turning today’s marketing communications process on its head—have consumers become the new creators!

Andrew Benett, Global CEO, Arnold Worldwide, will deliver the keynote address. A multi-disciplinary panel of industry and academic experts moderated by Paul Kurnit, Founder and President, Kurnit Communications, PS Insights and Marketing Professor, Pace University will follow with panelists Nick Fuller, Senior Director Marketing, MRY; Zach Harris, Director of Marketing, Mountain Dew; Andrew T. Stephen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Business Administration and Katz Fellow in Marketing, University of Pittsburgh; Claudia Strauss, CEO, Grey Alliance and John Winsor, CEO, Victors & Spoils.

We will explore what this new phenomenon means and where it’s all going. What are the merits and pitfalls of crowdsourced work?  When should the “crowd” be invited to be the creators?  How does social networking operate in commercial selling?  What is likely to change in client and agency relationships?  What role does the agency creative team play in this new creative process?  How will we evaluate great creative work?  What can we look to in the future?

This year’s AEF Annual Symposium has been made possible by generous donations from the Iacocca Family Foundation and the Mark Family Fund in honor of the late Leo-Arthur Kelmenson.