• by June 27, 2008

While I disagree with Steve Balmer that in ten years "everything gets delivered in an electronic form," I agree there is a better way to plan and buy media than the antiquated system in place today.

Planners need to effectively identify where their target audiences engage with media - be it TV, magazines, online communities, search, whatever - and find ways to engage with them back through those vehicles.

A better tool for evaluating and planning media will allow planners more time to identify and segment their audiences so they have less need to do mass advertising and can hone in on hundreds of segments. Time spent bouncing from one platform to another to compare media can instead be spent understanding their audiences and what they're about. Because let's face it, you can't engage very well with someone you hardly know.