Skip Graham, Executive Director of the Oldtimers Foundation

Over the years I have been becoming increasingly disturbed by the fact that Interactive marketers seem far less concerned with the advances in marketing technologies than they once were. When internet marketing first began to compete directly with other more traditional media for dollars, the technology was a primary focus. The ability to compile a new level of data and to instantaneously react to that knowledge was a primary differentiating factor that proponents used to push the assertion that Interactive marketing was up to the task of better delivering
a direct response or branding message.

Shelly Palmer, Host of "MediaBytes"
Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC
President of National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY

“Half the money I spend on advertising is
wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
— John Wanamaker, US department store merchant (1838-1922)

This may be the most famous quote in the advertising business. And for good reason — in the black art of media planning and buying lies the tacit understanding that at least half of what you are selling your client is snake oil. You know it and they know it. And, for more than a century, it really hasn’t mattered. Brand advertisers generally look at a few metrics such as, brand awareness, lift and purchase intent and use them to calculate their return on investment (ROI) and their return on advertising spend (ROAS). As long as they could show positive results in these two budget lines, life was just fine.

Corey Kronengold, Sr. Director, Marketing & Communications, Tremor Media
Managing Editor, OnlineVideoWatch.com

Like previous economic downturns, belt-tightening drives innovation. With doom and gloom dominating the economic landscape, and ad spending forecasts being downgraded like a NASDAQ stock, ad:tech seemed like the right time to balance that sentiment with an insider’s view of a market segment that is not just buoyed with hope, but driven by innovation. Online video.

Kendall Allen SVP Digital Marketing Services, MKTG

For as long as we’ve been introducing digital to the mix, we’ve thought about our tool set. We’ve thought about what is required to not only get the job done but to scale our mastery. Ad serving, campaign management, tracking and analysis, web analytics – by third party, by partner or by ourselves, it’s been a considerate journey of necessity. And, here we are, ad:tech New York, 2008. It’s a vivid point in time.

Don Knox, Global VP, ad:tech: expositions

By Kathleen Formidon, Principal and PRocket Scientist of Blast!PR

Typically, the member spotlight columns aren’t ghost written, but Don Knox is not your typical member-especially this time of year. In late October, Don Knox, global vice president of ad:tech expositions, is a very busy man, so I offered to conduct a reside chat about his life, his world and his show.