Episode 4: How was Ads Camp 2019? - with Lena Gmeiner

00:00:00
SebastianMorjen and "Gude" good to my guests!

00:00:51
Sebastian: Our guests, Gude! (charming)

00:00:52
Lena: Hello!

00:00:55
SebastianSo Niels co-host, I also co-host and Lena! And today it's about the Ads Camp, that was this week, we're talking about this week now because just Saturday, for the person who's listening to the podcast right now, it probably wasn't this week. But we were now at the Ads Camp, Lena and me. Lena as a speaker and I as a listener. And Niels is also there at the start right now, to ask a few questions that are not so nerdy, because you tend to quickly sink into a topic. Especially at the Ads Camp, there was even "nerd sanctuary" everywhere.

00:01:43
NielsI've seen pictures of that too, great. (laughing)

00:01:37
Sebastian: That was already hard. Part of it is also the conference. I've been to all the Ads Camps so far - they've only been around since 2017 - and it's always very reunion-like, just like Flo, Florian Litterst, always says. You sometimes have deep-dive conversations. But sometimes you also have a bit of superficial things and also things that are not so good and we would like to talk about that today. First of all, I would just like to hear your opinion about it, Lena, how you perceived the Ads Camp. First of all, it was your first time and your first time as a speaker, which means a premiere for two things. What is your overall feedback and perception of the camp?

00:02:36
LenaYes, exactly. So it was a premiere for me, especially as a speaker, so I was incredibly nervous. Because I also couldn't estimate: "Okay, are there really only the really tough experts in the audience who will then somehow pester me with questions afterwards? Or what is the general level of knowledge like? And I must say, it was really for me also a mega event! So generally also everything around it. I found the atmosphere super relaxed just chatting with people somehow. People came up to you and said: "Hey, do you have a minute? And then you chatted with them a bit about advertising in general and about my presentation and everyone was just totally relaxed and really laid back. So the days were really pleasant and you also enjoyed talking to the people. Also from the organization everything was really tiptop. Therefore, for me as a premiere I can really only say. Mega, mega good event! Super many new people met and of course also old contacts met again, just as you said just a class reunion in any case. That was very, very cool! (enthusiastic)

00:04:01
SebastianYes, I mean, at conferences in general, maybe Niels can say something about it, . is usually a bit of a difficulty. There are just a lot of conferences that are very superficial and very superficial, where you really don't go into depth. And at the Ads Camp in particular, you do that - as far as possible - we'll get to where it wasn't like that, for example. In any case, that will no longer be the case next year, the organizers know that, according to the feedback. But I have the perception that there are really few who go deeper into the topic and really tackle it a bit more concretely.

00:04:39
LenaThat was also a lot of feedback from the people, that they really went out of the conference and said: "Cool! Tomorrow I can implement this and this and this directly". And so you have tips and tricks that you can apply directly. And I thought that was cool, too. Of course, I've been to conferences before, and then everything just scratches the surface, and well, you come out of it and think: "Well, it was a nice lecture and a nice day, but you didn't take away a whole lot of learning. And that is also different at the Ads Camp. So the organizers do that consciously. That they also say: "Okay, the lectures really go deeper into the topic," even with the risk that maybe one or two people sitting inside will think: "Wow, that was really very deep, somehow I'm still missing the understanding for some things," but that's exactly what they want, that you somehow deal with the whole topic even deeper.

00:05:56
SebastianYes - so with all the conferences, Niels, I don't know if you have a little bit of experience there, but do you see anything similar?

00:06:06
NielsSo I think on the whole there are probably two divisions of people - and I'm not talking about the conferences themselves - because I haven't been to any conferences worth mentioning myself yet. And I think it's probably the same for some, I mean you call it a reunion. But it's probably always similar people and I think a lot of people ask themselves: "Okay, does it make sense to go to something like that" because you get lectures. I was sporadically on some events and as you said it now, most things were just somehow very superficial and it was not bad so the thing and the lectures was interesting, the people were interesting, but one does not see now at the first go compellingly the added value, because mostly tickets are also right high-priced for such events. That's why I think it would be quite interesting for many people and also for me, if you maybe just a little bit "recapt" from the sewing box: "okay what have you now somehow taken away and what are so your top takes". Because I would certainly have found it interesting I'm not even there but I could not really overcome me now to take a larger distance on me to take somewhere an event in the form because you come so much content ran. I think for you this class reunion and network component is probably important and you make contacts and find each other again. How important do you consider this aspect compared to the content when visiting such an event?

00:07:43
SebastianI would say at the end of the day it is so the question is the whole mix of everything at such an event? You also have a ticket, the whole meal and so on. They have already made it very very "smooth" that you now do not have extra costs on top. They've already done that very well and I thought the organization was generally very cool, even at the last Ads Camps, and then of course the component with the people has to be right. I mean "All-Facebook-Conference" is also cool - but there are not 500 people, but 1000. So it is much bigger, you have several stages and so on. It's just a different vibe and so on.

00:08:27
Niels: How many people were there " Round-About", what do you estimate?

00:08:29
Sebastian400 to 500 I would say - Exactly. But I don't know the exact numbers now. Yes and then so from the content. There are always no things there. So where I have now learned a lot of new things, I must say, I found the lecture of Andrew Foxwell very good. He's a Yank, he's great, I also won the coaching with Andrew. And the topic Facebook Attribution, from Andreas Grimm was just very nerdy - was also cool! Otherwise naklar the lecture of Lena was just by the Creatives very, very exciting. Since I now work with Lena, I now have the advantage that she is the brain behind it, which concerns, but many do mega hard. So just the topic of ads - preparing images, videos well is a huge topic and I think that was also the first time at the Ads Camp, where it really went very strong in the creative direction and especially in the direction of: "What does the user see at the end"? Of course Flo always makes his key-notes 1A, that's always cool! He is the man who actually represents the Ads Camp a bit, I would even say gladly. Because he also has the group and so and in this group there are a few people. There is a Thomas Thaller, who is called Performance God.

00:09:58
Niels: I have also read the name many times!

00:09:58
SebastianExactly! That's how a small community is formed. For example, you have Lars Budde, formerly of "t3n", and now also a Facebook advertiser. Yes, and then there are all the other names, and so a small core team is formed. So where we were now also with it. Lena through the Flo, I also through the Flo and so the just also came in I would say now times. And that has already cool especially if you get along with the people so well then just also times things are communicated that you just do not discuss otherwise. So things that maybe not everyone should know now, so insights just. And you would never get that information sitting around at home, you just won't. That's why I find the networking events in the evening so cool! Well, I mean, they've really taken over you, Lena.

00:10:55
Lena: Yes! (laughing)

00:10:56
SebastianI don't think they ever let you go.

00:10:59
Niels: Lena, cards on the table - What do the LinkedIn DM's look like? (humorous)

00:11:24
LenaSo my inbox is already well filled - on all channels. So LinkedIn, email, Facebook. There's quite a bit coming in at any rate. But that's also the cool thing. It really overwhelmed me a bit and I thought it was super cool how many people actually gave me feedback and are still writing. That they found my presentation super cool, super inspiring and also generally that I should continue and that is of course very cool when you get direct feedback from people. The networking component is always what makes a conference like this so special. Because, just like Sebastian said, you meet the people who are also on the road every day somehow in the area of social media advertising or something else. And then you also discuss things where you think: "I've already tried out some things, but somehow it doesn't really work, hey, what about you, are you having any problems with any customers or projects, can you help me out somehow? So you just exchange ideas with the people and then you can also bring up your problems a little bit and that's always really cool. Because everyone has to fight with other things every day and has tried out what the others have not tested. When you simply get together at a conference like this, you can exchange ideas a bit more intensively. Than if one then somehow only times briefly messages back and forth writes. And that is of course already a jumping point. So of course the content component should always be important at a conference, that you also say: "Okay, I've taken something with me" and the organizers were aware of that a bit, so that they also took me in to cover this creative component. Because the last camps were also very technology-heavy, which is super important because it definitely belongs to the whole topic. But there was always a bit of a creative component missing and that was also the feedback from the people that they said: "Hey that was really cool, because that was really something different". But of course it's just as important and that always takes a bit of a back seat. This whole creative theme and. Design and yes, there's always a lot of talk about pixel tracking and all kinds of things. But the other then always falls a bit behind.

00:14:24
SebastianYes, of course, you can also make a presentation where you show nothing at all, so quasi only his self-view. There was also one - I would like to mention - not because I found so cool, but because I think no one found good. And it was just an absolute mess. The people from "Gedankentanken" were there. So if you know the brand, they do a lot in the area of personal development and seminars and all that stuff. Which is cool in itself, like these up-and-coming ones with their events. That's also their big business and it works well. You can think what you want about the speakers. I don't want to go into too much detail about the brand, but I just want to mention it briefly. They were at the Ads Camp with the case of how they generated 280,000 leads with a personality test. Who knows such personality tests, there are a lot of personality types and they used that as a magnet. In itself - cool idea - cool case. Cool in itself, I would say, but you can imagine it well or imagine it very badly. They presented it very badly because they showed about five to ten minutes at the most of the actual content. The rest was actually just a self-pitch about their business factory and how cool the company is. And you could tell that from the questions. There were still a few questions at the end. There is always this Q&A after the talk. People can send in questions. And there was one more question. This one question about uploading email addresses. And that's not really okay from a data protection point of view. But they have made it clear that they have collected leads and then had these emails and made lookalikes from them. How do you want to have done that if they have not uploaded. In any case, the question came up. And then it was like. Did you upload the email addresses to Facebook and make lookalikes out of them? And then they said:" Not directly, no". You knew exactly ok - you did it, let them stand by it. Yes, it was a difficult presentation, which was also noticeable in the audience, and I spoke to all of them. I don't think they will come back. I don't want to bash the brand now, because if they managed to do it the way they said, it was a blatant case. But when you present something like that, you should focus more on the content and less on how cool you are. Lena did you also perceive it that way?

00:16:59
Lena: Yes definitely. That was already.... The presentation started off well, you thought: "Yeah, it's kind of cool, it's also a cool case". The two of them somehow managed to present it in a very cool way. But at the end it became a bit more difficult and you noticed the general mood in the audience. That it suddenly became a bit strange and everyone just thought: "Okay, where is this going? Is this somehow still a lecture that makes sense or what do the two of them actually want from us? "So I think that you also really noticed the mood in the audience and then also in the final round of questions that there was one or the other pointed question that wanted to provoke. Yes. Difficult, I must say. I also think that many people thought that it really wasn't that great for self-promotion. You definitely have to think about it in advance. Does that make sense what we are presenting here or how is that generally received by the people? And the reactions from the people afterwards were that the presentation was not particularly well received.

00:18:33
NielsOkay - good to know - and I think it's also important to say something like that. But basically your feedback and what I have noticed on social media and for you personally was very positive. That's why I would still be interested in what and maybe who and which presentations were your highlights - your personal highlights from the Ads Camp this year.

00:18:55
SebastianYes, for me it's definitely Andrew Foxwell. I'm a bit of a fanboy.

00:19:00
Lena(laughs) You hardly noticed it.

00:19:02
Sebastian: Not at all. (humorous)

00:19:10
LenaYes, it really is, we sat in the front row with Andrew and Sebastian has virtually sucked up the words but it was of course not only you so, but generally also. The whole room was really like: "Wow, awesome!". Because he was simply also a cool entertainer on stage.

00:19:29
NielsCan you give a little bit of context for people who might not know this one.

00:19:32
SebastianWell, Foxwell is simply a Facebook advertiser. He's been doing this for ages, since the beginning of Facebook Ads, maybe as early as 2009, so really, really early. Flo has also been doing it for a long time and so has Andrew, but when even Thomas Thaller says that the presentation was awesome, then it's already next level. The special thing about Andrew is that he doesn't tell you: "I used this technique to achieve so and so much". He's talking about these principles of how to use the whole thing to scale. So it was really about scaling campaigns. The magic is not just to keep campaigns at one level, but to scale them up. That means more budget - higher revenue. In your mind you think: "You invest more money, you get more out, but in reality, as Thomas Thaler said, Facebook is working against you. So you can't just increase the budget and get more out of it. That would be much too easy. So you would lose every fox if you throw more budget but it's just not like that. I think Andrew said that very well. And I thought it was cool, the topic of Facebook Attribution by Andreas Grimm. He's a hard nerd, but I think he managed to present the topic of attribution in a really understandable way. Because if you ask someone about attribution, then always comes from the people: yes, we just use "Last-Click", so standard from Google. Attribution is just a topic, especially with Facebook. Many people are rather in the dark and think: "Okay, yes. No idea what the attribution model is supposed to do here or what an attribution window is supposed to do? I think he presented that very nicely. Stop That one quasi an anti_sleep blanket or so a weight blanket and the other was still shoes. I think he did a very good job of asking how long it takes to get to a commercial. When he is addressed quasi he was addressed quasi. He tried to reproduce his purchase decision or to look at how it was with him. And he showed that in his presentation and then introduced the Attributener tool. And with you, Lena?

00:21:56
LenaFor me, Andrew was clearly my highlight. In general, I just thought it was cool, and this was the first time that there were really only international speakers on the second day. Which I personally found super cool. How often do you have the opportunity to hear people from the USA or other countries other than internally? I found that to be a highlight in general. And Andrew just brought it across in a super cool way. He really is such a little entertainer on stage. He entertained the whole hall really well. And yes, but not only that, not only that he is somehow a cool guy, but he also addressed a few things on a high level, regarding scaling and everything. But in such a way where you say: Okay, I understand that anyway, in an understandable way and also simply addressed many things. That was definitely one of the highlights for me as far as speaker presentations are concerned. But in general, the entire event was just so special for me - maybe even more so for me - because I also had my premiere as a speaker. And that's why the whole event was such a highlight for me. So everything around that you then also went to dinner together after the presentations and somehow had the opportunity to chat again. And all in all, it was just an all-around successful event for me - definitely!

00:23:57
Sebastian: In any case - in any case!

00:23:59
NielsSo clear recommendation from you and next time again!?

00:24:01
Lena: Yes!

00:24:01
Sebastian: Yes, hopefully then also me as Speaker- 2020.

00:24:04
Niels: Seba 2020!

00:24:13
SebastianYes, at the Ads Camp then! I'm on the "AllFacebook", I do not know if it works with the Lena also, possibly you are also on the "AllFacebook" in Berlin. Maybe- Flo is definitely at the start, I'm there. And Berlin, Niels, Maybe you could also meet there, you are here in the area ...

00:24:29
Niels: I am at the Sart! Logo !

00:24:29
SebastianYeah man. Allright. Cool. Then if you have any questions. Just check it out - you can find Ads Camp on facebook. You can also pre-book your tickets for next year - or at least sign up.

00:24:46
LenaExactly, and you can also see all the videos. If you want to get a small overview of all the lectures and somehow want to see a bit of the atmosphere that prevails at the mads camp, you can also watch the videos.

00:25:05
SebastianAll right. Then thanks for your Time Guys - and Girls. I mean I make Guys actually always universal. I mean if that is genderconform I don't know (humorous) - but yeah cool! Then we hear us next time - until the next time!

00:25:16
Niels: Peace-Out!

00:25:16
Lena: Allright!