• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, November 2, 2010

Why shouldn't agencies just be allowed to buy data by itself? Because they'll most likely fail, because they'll lack the proper strategy to make proper use of the data. That's what Joanna O'Connell, Senior Analyst at Forrester, said she was told by Paul Knegten, Head of Marketing at online ad tech company Dapper. (Knegten, sitting next to O'Connell on an afternoon panel, didn't say she was wrong.)

Meanwhile, Knegten, interpreting comments from the rest of the panel, thinks they (as marketers) wish there was some giant machine that would let them test various online marketing strategies -- from social to contextual to search, etc. -- and then report back to clients with the answer for the right strategy for them. Alas, everyone, according to Knegten, acknowledges that media buyers just "aren't ready" for a such a machine.