Pre-Conference in Las Vegas
20 March 2016, by Timo Mandler
Digital social media as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have a rising presence in a consumer’s daily routine. Our research group FOR1452, associated at the University of Hamburg, focuses on these developments.
Part of our scientific work is the international exchange of thoughts and ideas. This year, our researchers visited the annual Winter Conference of the American Marketing Association, a well-respected platform for academics. The conference topic „What Happens in Marketing, Stays Digital“ motivated more than 800 participants to travel to Las Vegas on the last weekend of February. Many participants came from Asia and Europe.
Our research group hosted its own half-day pre-conference , focussing on „Social Media Marketing“. A respectable number of 80 guests joined in to discuss the latest insights of our work. Henrik Sattler (University of Hamburg) and Thorsten Hennig-Thurau (WWU Münster) opened with some remarks on our efforts to structure an unstructured field of academic expertise. Charles Hofacker (Florida State University) afterwards introduced some major research gaps. Caroline Wirtz (Cass Business School), Vithala Rao (Cornell University), and Edward Malthouse (Northwestern University) explained, what can and should be measured within the context of social media. In a concluding panel discussion Franziska Völckner (University of Cologne), Michel Clement, and Kay Peters (both University of Hamburg) opened the floor for discussion.