It is hard to go to a OMMA gathering these days and not hear the phrase "email is dead." Everyone says the same thing: "no one is going to use email in the future because my children don't use email." Saying email is dead is rational, understandably, and...dead wrong. Email is here to stay and it is only going to get more, not less, critical to our lives. First the facts: People spent more time in email in 2010 than any prior year. The next biggest year was 2009. The next biggest was 2008. And so on. And …

Filtering is the dominant media problem of the age. Set yours too coarsely, and you drown in distractions; set it too finely, and you miss the Big Idea. Good filters combine and balance different approaches. Consider the New York Times' set: professional (Tom Friedman), social (most emailed), tribal (what your Facebook friends recommend). To these, Google News adds the algorithmic ("Personalize" topics and sources). William Gibson fans love quoting "The future's already here, it's just not evenly distributed." We're in the middle of an interesting transition, from filters as stubby features growing out of content properties, as with …

There used to be a push to create a single game-changing device to replace all other devices. This push produced some great technology, such as the iPad and tablets, but users have demonstrated that they can accept a wide variety of devices in their lives. They use each device for different purposes and in different situations. The devices currently include phones, gaming devices, tv screens, laptops, tablets, desktop computers, etc.

For consumers, media takes many forms. It's any one of a number of channels where they can go for information, news and entertainment. Mobile media fits this description, but takes us beyond all other channels in key ways. Like television and the Web, people use mobile media by design; they see certain channels, CNN for example, as reliable resources, and open a mobile Web site or app. But, mobile means more than simply accessing traditional media sources through mobile mediums. Mobile has changed the game. All consumer-facing brands can now become mobile media properties in order to inform …

After years of fits and starts, it looks like mobile media's moment in the spotlight is finally here. Smartphone penetration tipped over 40% this summer (Source: Nielsen), 3G connectivity is nearly ubiquitous, and tablets are poised to take the 2011 holiday sales throne. Consumers are spending more time than ever interacting with mobile digital media- namely the mobile Web, mobile apps, SMS, and mobile video. Yet for publishers and advertisers alike, mobile remains several steps behind the traditional Web in terms of user engagement. Many content owners are still in experimentation mode - not yet spending a ton of …

1. Geomobile Ads Meet Big Brother 89% of retail sales still take place in brick & mortar locations. The Wall Street Journal just wrote about how the government no longer needs a warrant to track your location with e911 capability on mobile phones. Now imagine you're within 200 yards of a car dealer, and you stay in that location for 30 minutes. Forty-eight hours later, you're within 200 yards of two more car dealers for at least 30 minutes. Based on lat/long and a simple database of car dealer addresses, big brother can assume you're in the market for …

Let's face it, most people don't like online ads, are not interested in ads and do not click on ads. Need some proof? - According to the Pew Project for American Journalism annual report for 2010, the vast majority of Internet users, 79%, say they never or rarely had clicked on an online advertisement. They don't mind them. They simply ignore them. - Click-through rates on Facebook ads only averaged 0.05% (5 clicks per 10,000 ads) in 2010. - According to Comscore and Starcom research, 8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks on display ads. So, when …

One proven way to increase effectiveness and lower your costs is earned media coupled with social optimization. With the social share button being one click away from spreading good content, the connection between "earned" and "paid" is undeniable. Intent is everything, if someone shares, tweets, comments, etc., it all hits the graph and spreads to friends. That's gold! Where brands fall short is the follow through engagement, re-posting the best-trending content means not just your super fans become your evangelists. Without good content the engagement that drives reach will not happen and social has become the best way …

Every industry can learn from history, and ours is no different. The communications industry - marketing, advertising, and PR - has had a history of shrinking then expanding, then repeating the cycle. As an industry we have done so for financial gain. In a time period where we're shrinking we're finding efficiencies. In a time period where we're expanding we're increasing profits. We are coming off of a time period where business, not just media, was expanding but we're entering a period of extreme efficiency - the business of our industry will shrink in every sense of the word for …

In this constantly changing media environment, there is a need for media companies to be nimble in the development and delivery of content to the audience. At MTV we are hyper-focused on the media consumption habits of the Millennial generation - a generation that has shattered the traditional boundaries that previously existed between the television, digital, mobile, and even gaming screens. Media companies need to learn from the content consumption habits of today's youth. We must quickly begin to develop creative ideas that are not tied solely to a specific format (e.g. 30-minute, 1-hour, short-form online) and platform (e.g. …