• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 8, 2011

For all the hype about behavioral targeting, big brands that tend to advertise on TV -- and, now, on online video -- often believe that the programs ads appear in is more important than whether the ads reach a particular audience. So says David Cohen, executive vice-president, global digital officer at Universal McCann.

"In the television space, traditional marketers, big marketers, always have believed, and rightfully so, that environment matters," Cohen said at a panel about what online video can learn from TV. Therefore, he said, those marketers are probably the last ones to believe that as long as they reach the right person, the content isn't all that critical -- provided it isn't completely marketer-unfriendly.