I recently attended the San Diego Ad Club’s annual Interactive Day, an all-day conference focusing on the latest trends, solutions and services in digital marketing and advertising. I kept seeing the same theme throughout the day: marketers need to make innovation a top priority and make a commitment to investing in understanding and using the new technology.

One of the sessions I attended was focused on search engine optimization with SEO expert Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOMoz.org, at the helm. The presentation was filled with many ways to not only increase your website’s search engine rankings (think keyword tracking and research), but also other innovative ways to get your message across online.

One item Fishkin highlighted was the use of widgets and badges. By creating a creative widget or badge for your website and asking other websites or blogs to post it, you will not only receive links back, but it is also a great way to get a specific message across. The example Fishkin used was for the website Picnik, a photo editing software company. The company created a badge and embedded the words “photo editing awesomeness.” Not only was Picnik extremely successful at getting a large number of blogs to post it, but when you search the words photo editing through Google or Bing, Picnik is the first result.

Another session I attended was focused on mobile marketing. While I knew this area is rapidly growing, I was surprised to learn at how many users this sector already has. According to Amielle Lake, CEO of Tagga, a mobile marketing software and solutions firm, every month more than 73 million mobile phone users view websites, more than 70 million phone users use apps and more than 14.5 million phone users access social media applications. Lake did point out that while social media (defined in terms of social networks) may not have scale, it does have reach.

The mobile marketing landscape includes:

• Advertising
• Marketing services (i.e. coupons, promotions, events and SMS text campaigns)
• Content, such as video, music, mobile websites and branded apps
• Commerce – being able to use your phone as your wallet

Lake stressed that companies and brands need to stop thinking about a mobile device as a stand-alone item. It should become an integrated part of any marketing campaign, just like social media is now.

While I only highlighted two sessions, there were many other insightful presentations given. To see a detailed list of the San Diego Ad Club’s Interactive Day presenters, along with their respective presentations, visit the San Diego Ad Club’s Facebook page.