When ad technology company Right Media recently planned its first "analyst day," it invited 20 select advisors from Wall Street's top investment banks and research firms to its brand new digs, a sprawling 42,000-square-foot office on Manhattan's Park Avenue.

The future is looking bright again on Madison Avenue. No, not the temporal plane, which continues to hold a great deal of uncertainty for the advertising and media businesses. The bright spot is futurism itself. It's fueling new businesses like Publicis' Denuo and Interpublic's Futures Marketing Group, and it's leading to a fundamental rethinking of the role of advertising agencies.

This is a first for me. I'm about to use this column not to pontificate (at least not only to pontificate) but to ask you, the readers, to weigh in on something for me: Is there a difference between channel planning and connection planning?

Magazine ad pages dropped slightly in 2006, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, and the state of publishing doesn't do much to raise the confidence of media buyers.

In an effort to make an impact with an advertising budget far smaller than what the big-box retailers spend, Oak Brook, Ill.-based Ace Hardware execs created a "once in a lifetime" contest linked to the company's entrepreneurial philosophy.

Mobile advertising in the U.S. was valued at $421 million last year and should grow to $4.8 billion in 2011. That's why networks like Fox News are signing up with mobile advertising provider Third Screen Media.

You're driving down the highway, minding your business, when suddenly the billboard ahead flashes the nickname your mom used when you were four. Coincidence? Not.

As El Pollo Loco of Irvine, Calif., expands its grilled-chicken franchise with 61 new restaurants nationwide, it's also firing up its brand name on reality TV.

They're not the newest tool in a marketer's arsenal, but they certainly are the smelliest: rubbable scent strips added to magazine ads, catalogs, and outdoor media

Promotional agency TvPromo inter- national has wrapped itself around Charmin Ultra's new toilet-tissue campaign, taking a grass-roots approach to bringing the brand message of softness and absorbency to Los Angeles consumers, with a focus on Hispanics.