Hartmut Ostrowski Opens International Digital Marketing Tradeshow
The digital future of media not only gives us additional opportunities, it is also extraordinarily colorful and attractive. Never before has it been so exciting to work in our industry - because behind the term ‘digitization’ there is infinitely more than the binary coding of information – there is emotion, excitement and relevance." With these words, Hartmut Ostrowski opened the 2011 Digital Marketing Conference & Exposition (DMEXCO) on September 21st in Cologne. The CEO gave a speech about the digital strategies of Bertelsmann entitled "More than just 1/0" before experts, industry representatives and visitors to one of the most important meeting places for digital marketing and digital advertising
"You have fittingly chosen to hold this conference on a red-letter day in digitization," said Ostrowski. "Exactly 28 years ago today the U.S. approved the world’s first cell phone handset. It weighed 800 grams, was 33 centimeters long, cost $4,000 and took ten years to develop - a real weapon for hand-to-hand combat . Back in 1983, I had only been at Bertelsmann a little over a year and had a dial phone in my office. Today, a few cell phone generations later, you can display almost our entire product range on a smartphone. Nothing has changed our industry so fundamentally over the past 20 or 30 years ago as digitization."
Bertelsmann’s chief sees this rapidly accelerating process of change as an opportunity, especially for our company: "As a media company that was already almost 150 years old when the digital revolution was just beginning, we had a significant head start. From the very beginning we were able to develop our digital business from our established activities. That is why we now command market leading positions in the digital sector as well." After listing specific examples from all divisions of the company, Ostrowski turned to the seven success factors for the digital world: content, brands, high-quality journalism, paid content, networking and collaboration, expertise in services, and focus on cost.
After the CEO examined the various factors in detail, he said: "Digitization offers us additional opportunities:
First, because no matter how sophisticated it is, technology will not replace high-quality content or make it superfluous. Second, because the greater the diversity, the more the value of established brands increases. Third, because quality journalism is irreplaceable." Fourth, said the CEO, in the long term paid content could become an additional source of revenue for Bertelsmann’s offers.
Fifth, as a content provider, Bertelsmann will work with other industries to ensure that users are anything but bored – regardless of the time and place they happen to be in. "Sixth, we are working to combine the best content with the best services. And seventh, we are learning how to structure our business at a lower cost base . " The CEO concluded his speech by saying: "If we base our actions on these opportunities, we will be in good shape not only for DMEXCO 2012, but also for DMEXCO 2022. We're working on this at Bertelsmann - with creativity and entrepreneurship."
DMEXCO is a tradeshow for the digital marketing and digital advertising sectors. It was first held in Cologne in 2009. The exhibition covers the topics of online marketing, targeting, tracking, digital content, social, mobile, performance, affiliation, e-mail and search engine marketing as well as e-game advertising. The predecessor to DMEXCO was the Online Marketing Düsseldorf trade fair, which ran from 2000 to 2008. Besides Hartmut Ostrowski, other high-ranking experts spoke at the podium in Cologne. 440 exhibitors from around the world presented at the trade fair. Bookings from abroad were up 50 percent over the previous year, underscoring the importance of the exhibition as an industry meeting point.