Center for Brand Research to host national advertising conference, Nov. 17-18

AUSTIN, Texas  Oct. 3, 2006  Leaders and innovators from some of the nation’s top advertisers, agencies and universities will converge on Austin Nov. 17-18 to discuss how the advertising industry has been redefined as a result of recent technology and cultural shifts.

“Chaos: New Agendas In Advertising” is an executive-level advertising industry conference co-hosted by the Center for Brand Research, a unit within the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin, and GSD&M, one of the country’s most respected ad agencies.

The conference will feature the following keynote speakers: Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, one of the industry’s most highly regarded international communication companies; Roy Spence, founder and president of GSD&M whose clients include BMW, AT&T, Chili's, Southwest Airlines and the U.S. Air Force; Joseph Jaffe, president and founder of jaffe, L.L.C. and author of “The End of the 30 Second Spot”; and Bob Garfield, an Advertising Age columnist and co-host of National Public Radio’s “On the Media.” This is the third major conference hosted by The Center for Brand Research.

“New models of advertising are emerging along with new thought leaders. This conference brings them together in an exciting forum to discuss the changes taking place and the new ways in which advertising is imagined and practiced,” said Dr. Neal M. Burns, director of the Center for Brand Research and conference chairman. “YouTube, MySpace, podcasts, blogs, RSS technology  not to mention the everyone-as-celebrity culture suggest the existing assumptions we have about traditional media and customers are up for grabs.”

“The ‘chaos’ conference truly reflects the state of the industry these days and the need for a new model of advertising,” said GSD&M’s Spence. “We look forward to bringing together some of the best minds in advertising theory, practice and education.”

The two-day conference will take place on Friday at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum and on Saturday at The University of Texas Club on The University of Texas campus and will cover such issues as the importance of creativity, the measurement of advertising results in a complex media environment and how to advertisers and agencies to “the big idea” faster.

Speakers scheduled to present include:

• Sergio Alcocer, Latin Works, Austin, Texas

• Jonathan Carson, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, New York

• Manny Flores, Latin Works, Austin, Texas

• Tom Gabriel, Gabriel De Grood Bendt, Minneapolis

• Scott Goodson, Strawberry Frog, New York

• Eric Hauser, Swivel Media, San Francisco

• Joseph Jaffe, Jaffe LLC, Westport, Conn.

• Oscar Jamhouri, Integration-IMC, Nicosia and Singapore

• Mick McCabe, Leo Burnett, Chicago

• Frank Mulhern, Northwestern University

• Kate Niederhoffer, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, New York

• McGhee Williams Osse, Burrell, Chicago

• Roy Spence, GSD&M, Austin, Texas

• Gary Stein, Ammo Marketing, San Francisco

• Todd “Turbo” Watson, IBM, Austin, Texas

For specific information on conference pricing and speakers, please visit www.chaos2006.com.

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Contacts: Erin Geisler

(512) 475-8071

egeisler@mail.utexas.edu