• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 1, 2005

At a time when the future of media seems more important than ever, Madison Avenue has lost another key media futurist. Bob Flood, executive vice president-director of national electronic media at Publicis Groupe's Optimedia International unit, has left to develop new media platforms for MTV Networks, MediaDailyNews has learned. Flood is that latest in a litany of new media gurus who no longer see their future on Madison Avenue. Flood's departure comes just one month after Adam Gerber resigned as senior vice president-group director of strategy & innovation at Optimedia sister unit MediaVest Worldwide (MDN Sept. 20), and comes as another top Publicis new media executive, Tim Hanlon, has taken another, as-yet-undisclosed job working for new corporate media unit Publicis Groupe Media.

It also follows a series of defections from that ad business, including both new media visionaries, as well as high-level research minds, who have grown disenchanted with the agency world and have moved on to greener pastures. Like Flood, some have moved on to the media supply side. Others, like Gerber, former Carat research chief Joanne Burke, and former MediaVest research chief Mary Ellen Vincent, have left to do a bit of mid-life soul-searching. Gerber, however, is expected to announce new plans soon, and the expectation is that it will involve a new media venture.

Flood, whose new role is expected to be announced by MTV Networks today, was the oldest employee of Optimedia, and was one a part of the original media buying team when it was independent DeWitt Media Inc., before being sold and ultimately becoming part of Publicis.

His appointment at MTV Networks comes as it is about to be spun off from CBS by parent Viacom, into a new media company that would also include Paramount. MTV Networks, once considered "new media," now considers itself behind the eight ball, as other newer media companies, especially Yahoo! and Apple's iTunes, have rushed into the market with online services that are poaching MTV's core youth audience.

Flood will work with MTV Networks President of Advertising Sales Larry Divney to spearhead advertising and sponsorship opportunities for a host of new media platforms being developed by MTV Networks, including online, video-on-demand, and wireless services.

Flood's departure from the agency world is also significant because he was one of the few to hold the dual role of media futurist and head of a national TV buying organization--something unique on Madison Avenue--because it gave him real budgets to work with to develop new media platforms for clients. Flood was a key player in the well-regarded multi-platform BMW Films media strategy, and has pioneered new uses of broadband, satellite, VOD and DVR media buys.

Mike Drexler, president-CEO of Optimedia International, said he intends to keep the post as a hybrid buying/futurist role, and that he already has a couple of key candidates in line for the job.

Starcom, meanwhile, has hired Tracey Scheppach to succeed Hanlon, and MediaVest has delegated some of Gerber's duties to Jen Soch.

The media futures role has a long history of being a rocky one on Madison Avenue, coming in and out of vogue depending on agency margins, and the sense of impetus for changing media technologies. One earlier pioneer in the field, Universal McCann and its precursor, the McCann Erickson media department, has had a succession of new media executives over the past several years, including Mitch Oscar, who left and is now at Carat, where he has been chided for grandstanding, but where he also has created a new concept that seems to be working where other media agency initiatives have not: a "Digital Exchange" that functions as a live, real-world laboratory to develop and implement new media buys that aren't simply R&D, but are based on genuine advertising budgets. As part of the exchange concept, Oscar regularly invites rival agency executives, as well as new media suppliers and strategists, to brainstorm ideas for his clients, as well as the industry at large.

As part of its effort to reengineer Madison Avenue's role in new media, Starcom MediaVest Group has formed what it calls a "Video Investment Group," a team comprising executives from its national broadcast buying group, Internet unit Starcom IP, as well as media futurists, who apply new ideas to tangible advertising budgets. However, both Starcom and ZenithOptimedia Group, the unit that oversees Optimedia, may be in the process of further restructuring, as parent Publicis formalizes its corporate-level media unit, Publicis Groupe Media.