Question from the mailbag: I represent a new, emerging media company and am making the rounds to media agencies. The sales cycle is much longer than I anticipated, and I'm left wondering why. Are agency folks really motivated to find and test new vendors? Are they happy to fill out plans with their usual "preferred" vendors, or do they want to try/test new, innovative things for their clients? What is the deal? I thought agencies wanted to be leaders.

My favorite new TV drama this fall centers around a global incident in which every person on earth dropped into a state of unconsciousness for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During that time, everyone mentally "flashed forward" to the exact same time, six months into the future. The characters see a variety of different experiences ranging from joyful and serene to horrific and terrifying. That got me to thinking. What if we could all see six months into the future? Aside from a huge ratings spike that ABC is hoping for with the season finale of "FlashForward," what else …

Every business and nearly every businessperson can be neatly put into one of three buckets. While we all hate being categorized, most of us fit better than we would care to admit. In business, there are three buckets: 1s, 2s and 3s. Ones are start-up types that are trying to go from zero-to-interesting. Twos are growth company folks that are attempting to build a scalable business. Threes are large, mature company people.

Question from the mailbag: I am now a VP-level media director. A premium site I have done A LOT of buying with for many successful branding campaigns over the years recently gave me the hard sell to become part of a client's direct-response campaign. I verbally informed them that their site was recommended as part of the plan at the negotiated rate for a pretty healthy budget amount, but couldn't sign an insertion order until the client approved the plan and the authorization was signed. Based on our history, I thought that would be enough assurance. Apparently it wasn't. The …

I attended a formal gathering of the MPA (Magazine Publishers of America) here in New York last week dedicated to the topic of ad networks. The panel was made up of six top-level executives representing various ad network plays. The audience was filled with executives from major magazine publishers. The session turned quickly into six separately prepared sales pitches. Listening to all of the presentations in a row provided some side-by-side clarity.

Question from the mailbag: Do salespeople know the definition of badgering: "to harass or urge persistently; pester; nag" on dicitionary.com? None of those words describe anything positive, yet recently my team was badgered by a salesperson who just would not stop. Even after hearing the specific rationale of why the site in question was not appropriate for our client, the salesperson still called team members one-by-one and over and over.

Frank Abagnale Jr. was an airline pilot, a lawyer, a doctor, a Lutheran and a self-made millionaire all before the age of 19 -- or so he would have you think. If you've see the movie "Catch Me if You Can," you're familiar with the true story of this infamous con man played by Leonardo DiCaprio. While the extent of his deception seems somewhat inconceivable, it is a story that is still being played out every single day. I'm talking about well-meaning companies that have spent years building their brand and their reputation, choosing to engage in authentic online interaction …

Thousands of media executives are going to dozens of conferences this fall, but they won't find what they need most. Publishers, producers, sales executives, and marketers attend conferences to learn about changes in the industry, to find out what other media companies are doing, to find out about the next big thing. It's certainly important to understand how the industry is changing, and how technology is changing and what your competitors might be doing. But I'm here to tell you that you won't find the competitive advantage you need at a conference.

  I recently posted about inventory strategies and specifically about "leftover" or unsold inventory and   suggested 3 reasons why there are leftovers.  The first reason is the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy or SFP.   What is the SFP?   SFP refers to the fact that it is "easier" to sell things that you have sold before than it is to locate and suggest new alternatives.  Thus, what you have sold before is replicated for the next campaign.  All you need to do is change the flight dates and resend the IO.  No fuss, no muss.   What's wrong with this, …

It has become the cheap word that every ad network, rich media company, technology provider, publisher, and agency drops when they attempt to sound sophisticated. It makes its way into every media plan, and sneaks onto every vendor Web site. So what's wrong with optimization? Optimization is like love. It is an easy thing to say, and much harder to put into practice.