Business POV

Pete Blackshaw is the Chief Marketing Officer at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which uses data-mining technology and deep research to measure CGM for clients. Here he talks about trends in this fast-moving arena.

Mr. Blackshaw was speaking as part of the 55th Annual Management Conference held May 18 at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

He is a recognized expert in interactive marketing, word of mouth, and consumer understanding. Before Intelliseek’s acquisition by Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Pete served as the Intelliseek’s Chief Marketing and Client Satisfaction Officer, responsible for major client engagements and marketing efforts.

He is a co-founder of the 2004 Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association, one of the fastest growing industry groups in advertising and marketing circles, and he presently authors a bi-weekly column on digital marketing strategy targeted to CMOs for ClickZ network. He's frequently quoted in major publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Advertising Age, and USA Today. He authors several work and personal blogs, including www.consumergeneratedmedia.com, www.hybridbuzz.com, and parenting centered www.dosbebes.com.

In 1999, Pete founded PlanetFeedback.com (later acquired by Intelliseek) after a career in interactive marketing and brand management at Procter & Gamble. Before receiving his master's degree from Harvard Business School in 1995, Blackshaw served as a press secretary and legislative consultant to then-Senator Art Torres in the California Legislature, where he guided several consumer-focused bills to passage and initiated the nation's first "interactive" legislative hearing.

The panel discussion he was part of focused on "New Media and New Models of Advertising": New trends in media and marketing are changing the relationship between advertisers and consumers. Using digital technologies, consumers are seeking relevant messages, avoiding irrelevant ones and communicating their opinions and concerns to marketers. Is this truly a paradigm shift from one-way to two-way communication? This panel will explore the magnitude, relevance and impact of these changes by covering topics such as consumer-generated media, word-of-mouth marketing, time and space-shifting in media consumption and the digitization of advertising media. The panel will also provide some insights for firms on how to leverage and integrate these changes.