At the EconAds conference earlier this week, ad executives discussed the role of traditional agencies in the digital revolution. Greg Smith, COO of Neo@Ogilvy North America, said the agency's role now extends beyond advertising. That means creating actual content, such as branded information or entertainment, contests, sweepstakes, etc. "Too often we default to 'let me tell you about the product' as opposed to demonstrating," Smith said. Asked if the agency world would see more consolidation, Smith replied that it isn't good enough to "just go out and buy (another company) and then look to integrate it. ... …

A bevy of social networking startups were on display at the Under the Radar Conference in California yesterday. Maybe half will still be around next year. Why, because the success or failure of these startups is directly tied directly to online advertising, and if Facebook and MySpace don't have that figured out yet, it's unlikely these newbies will. Olsen also points out that traditional brands still aren't spending nearly as much online as they do on TV. For social networks, part of the problem is that marketers don't want to risk having their brand appear alongside a marijuana …

CBS has struck an agreement with Yahoo to become part of its CBS Audience Network, which distributes CBS content to large publishers. Launched in August 2007, the CBS Audience Network (CAN) streams 70,000-plus videos to more than 300 partners, including Google's YouTube, AOL, MSN, Joost, Veoh, Fancast, Bebo and TVGuide. Ads are generally pre-rolls, and revenue is split between CBS and the partner site. Still conspicuous by its absence from the network is NBC/News Corp.'s joint venture, Hulu. However, Yahoo users can see Fox, NBC and CBS content all at one place because the Web giant is …