Leaders in Web Culture Address Key Question: Is Marketing Ruining the Web?

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A growing divide exists between marketers who are increasingly turning to the Web to reach customers or sell products and the people who believe marketing negatively affects the authenticity of online communities. With speakers from some of the Web's coveted sites, including Buzzfeed, ROFLCon, BoingBoing, Reddit and Gawker Media, Ketchum's Dec. 3 "Respect the Internet" summit (#RTI2010 on Twitter) aims to find the common ground between marketers and the online communities with which they engage.

"We're increasingly finding that marketing on the Web is having the unintended consequence of creating two Internets – one built by marketers and one that has evolved organically by people who are creating content that is of genuine importance to them," said Jon Bellinger, vice president, social media strategy, at Ketchum. "The purpose of this summit is to create a dialogue that helps find common ground so marketers can become more effective while keeping online communities authentic and in tune with their members' interests."

The summit's scheduled topics include:

• Memes, Lulz and Internet Culture - Why marketers might want to pay more attention to what happens organically on the Web
• Why Geeks Matter - Why marketers should pay more attention to "geek" communities and less attention to the mainstream
• Mommies, Gamers, Frat Boys and Tweens - Exploring gender, age and race bias in marketing, and the gap between demographic perception and reality on the Web
• The Behavior Gap Between Companies and People - Can individuals and brands ever harmoniously coexist on social media?
• Big Data and the Promise of Web Culture - An examination of what data tell us about how people engage with each other and with information on the Web
• Is There Hope? What Does a Symbiotic Future Look Like? - A look down the road at how we might better bridge the gap between the Internet of the people and the Internet of marketers.

The speakers at "Respect the Internet" include:

• Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of BoingBoing  and Make magazine
• Jonah Peretti, co-founder of Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post
• Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and founder of Breadpig
• Tim Hwang, co-founder of ROFLCon
• Grant McCracken, anthropologist and author of the book Chief Culture Officer
• Alex Pasternack, editor of Vice magazine's Motherboard.tv
• Irin Carmon, blogger for Jezebel
• Christine Xu, co-founder of ROFLCon and Breadpig
• Celestine Arnold, creative strategy consultant and expert in social media, gaming and culture
• Ilya Zhitomirski, co-founder of Diaspora, an open-source alternative to Facebook
• Patrick Davison, researcher at the Harvard Law School-Berkman Center for Internet & Society's Web Ecology Project
• Greg Leuch, creator of "Shaved Bieber" and co-founder of KnowYourMeme
• Mike Rugnetta of MemeFactory, a performance art piece about Internet culture
• Lilit Marcus, co-founder of Jewcy.com and co-editor of TheGloss.com

About Ketchum

A communications innovator and the 2010 Large PR Firm of the Year (Holmes Report and PR News), Ketchum is a leading global communications consultancy and, operating as Ketchum Pleon, is the largest, most diversified agency in the U.K. and continental Europe. With five global practices – Brand Marketing, Corporate, Healthcare, Food & Nutrition, and Technology – and specialty capabilities that include Access Communications (high- and consumer-tech PR), Concentric Communications (experiential marketing, events and meetings), MMG (clinical trial recruitment), Ketchum Global Research Network, Ketchum Pleon Change (change and workplace communications) and Ketchum Sports & Entertainment, Ketchum leverages its marketing and corporate communication expertise to build brands and reputations for clients. For more information on Ketchum, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), visit www.ketchum.com. 

SOURCE Ketchum

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