• Platform Diving
    In a world where you watch "Heroes" on a 50-inch plasma screen, stream it to your laptop for free on NBC.com and download it to an iPod for $1.99, the question arises: Do platforms matter? Do people care whether they're watching "TV" on a TV set, a cell-phone or a monitor at the gym?
  • Super Models
    Last June, after more than half a century of presenting twice annual estimates for the advertising economy, Universal McCann's director of forecasting Bob Coen did something unusual and, in some ways, very symbolic. For the first time, Coen was joined by a co-presenter, Brian Wieser.
  • Fast Forward: Hitting Pause
    As you might expect, I spend a good deal of my time searching for information. But as I write this month's column, I find myself in the position of going out of the way to avoid some information.
  • The Biz: The Slippery Slope of Choice
    A lot has been said in recent years about the rise of the consumer's role in the creation and use of media. Bloggers are regularly credited with either breaking a story first or developing a story first introduced somewhere else.
  • The New Next: Our Lives As Open Books
    Documenting our lives once meant keeping secret diaries. We would typically write in them at night, detailing things that happened during the day. A little later, people began carrying blank books and journals around with them, periodically updating them throughout the day. In the mid-1990s, the Internet helped us keep these diaries online, for our friends to read.
  • Media Metrics: The Numbers Don't Lie
    Whether deciding to buy broadband video campaign, run a mobile campaign, or estimate how many viewers will fast-forward past ads on DVRs, executives first need to know how widespread the key platforms are. So here's a look at some of the key numbers driving our industry today.
  • The Talent: A Terrible Thing to Waste
    In the last two months, I've had the opportunity to judge a media plan of the year competition for professionals and a creative media advertising competition for students in the Northeast.
  • The Consumer: The More Things Change
    Recently, I was invited to speak at a symposium about alternatives to the traditional 30-second spot. I was joined by an eclectic group of speakers, ranging from game developers and toy makers to designers to people who said they worked for "non-advertising agencies." And there also was an interesting group of clients, creative and new media types.
  • A Home Run for Sony? 
    Online virtual worlds have certainly been growing in popularity in the last 12 to 18 months. Worlds like Linden Lab's Second Life, There.com and even fully branded environments like MTV's Laguna Beach and Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis have all helped legitimize consumer interest in persistent virtual worlds and communities.
  • The Sell: Burnout Makes for Tune Out
    Lately I've been listening to a Dallas radio station via the web from my desk in New York. The music is great, but instead of normal commercial breaks the station repeats the same two promotional spots back-to-back for five minutes. Digital rights management issues keep their regular commercials off the Internet, resulting in ad fatigue. This becomes quite annoying, leading me eventually to change the station. If radio really is theater of the mind, then this is theater of the absurd.
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