Jeff Hirsch, CEO, AudienceScience

Originally published on iMedia Connection on May 3, 2010.

In the constant pursuit of convenience, the various media and technologies that we use daily are now on a path of continuous convergence. TV, phone, the internet, and social networking are, more often than not, integrated processes, and often on a single device.

Jim Meskauskas,
VP & Dir of Online Media,
ICON International, Inc.

Originally published on iMedia Connection on May 25, 2010.

In an era of downward cost pressures, advertisers are looking for the biggest bang for the littlest buck. Typically, that means going "viral." And typically that means an advertiser asks its agency to make their advertising something that will "go viral."

Eric Picard, Advertising Technology AdvisorAdvertising Platform Engineering, Microsoft

Originally published on iMedia Connection on May 12, 2010.

Recently on the Internet Oldtimers List, someone posted a link to a video mashup where someone had taken a clip from the movie "A Few Good Men" and replaced the famous "You can't handle the truth!" dialogue between Nicholson and Cruise with a farcical semi-humorous debate about demand-side platforms (DSPs). What was interesting about this clip was that its central argument was that DSPs lower the CPM of premium publishers' impressions (with Cruise arguing for the premium publisher and Nicholson arguing for the DSP).

Adam Kleinberg, CEO, Traction

Originally published on iMedia Connection on May 10, 2010.

Some direct response marketers claim that the focus on ROI and auction-based media forces good creative. That notion illustrates a fundamental problem in advertising today-that the art of persuasion is dying. And it's simply not true.

The dominance of direct response has made it so that good creative has been relegated to what performs well in driving clicks. Sure, the more sophisticated wonks out there focus on the second or third click and name it a conversion, but it's still about a click. As long as it fits neatly in a spreadsheet.

Jaffer Ali, CEO, Vidsense

"...there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals" -C.G. Jung

One of the discussion lists I belong to had a recent and spirited exchange regarding an alternative name for "social media." The dialogue was festooned with imaginative offerings, but there seemed to be a lot of confusion regarding exactly what social media is all about.