• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 2, 2010

That's right, what's all this technology and data about after all? That's what Sean Kegelman, the senior vice president-partnerships at Publici's Vivaki unit is telling OMMA Ad Nets during a morning keynote.

What's it really about? The consumer, stupid.

"We spend a lot of time talking about platforms. We spend a lot of time talking about platforms, Kegelman noted, adding, "but one thing we don't talk about, that is at the top line of our business. Is the consumer."

Invoking a favorite theme of Vivaki digital guru Rishad Tobaccowala's famous "data, data everywhere" speech, Kegelman suggested that, as an industry, we sometime miss the whole point of what we're trying to do. The point, he said, is the consumer.

Needless to say, they are consumers who have more control over media ever before, including how it is shared.

"We know this, our clients know this. But sometimes we forget," Kegelman reminded the OMMA Ad Nets crowd. "Without people, we don't have engagement."

"We can't get caught in the trap of blind optimization," he concluded.

Vivaki's Kegelman.