In my 15 years in this business, I've had the good fortune to hire hundreds of great people. One thing I've learned over the years is that while compensation and benefits are very important, they do not rule the day when it comes to attracting and retaining great talent. In my experience, the best people take jobs or leave jobs for more substantive and core reasons than just money....

This television season has seen quite a bit more references to the Internet than ever before, as the networks are finally starting to understand the concept of supporting their core programming with interactive supplements. But I'm still surprised at the lag in thinking when these models are applied....

A lot's been written in the industry lately about indicators--what signs indicate when you should fire your agency, or when you should think about letting clients go. One thing I haven't seen discussed, however, is the notion of when you should cut your losses and decline an RFP for agency services. If you work at an agency, this is always a very difficult decision to make, but there are usually clear indicators that the potential client making inquiries is not the type of client you want on your roster. Here are some of them.

As Columbus Day weekend comes to a close, I can't help but think about consumer confidence. It seemed like no matter where I looked, from supermarkets to strip malls to traffic going up north for leaf-peeping, people were out and about. It looked like they were spending money, too.

If we presume marketing communications' ultimate aspiration is to drive and sustain sales--whether directly or indirectly through brand loyalty, awareness, involvement or direct response--then we need to thrust this engagement discussion further. It needs to go way beyond the margins of the traditional paid-for and interruptive attention models that we all seem to agree are broken or eroding.

Much like the FTC did ten years ago, it is bringing together a number of technologist, industry folks (disclosure: I am one of them), scholars, and analysts to present testimony on where we think consumer technology is going over the next ten years and if there will be issues that require some kind of consumer protection. Basically, the FTC wants to better understand how technological and business developments will shape the consumers' core online experiences.

Every week it seems that people ask the question of whether and when it will be "safe" or "appropriate" for advertisers to be aligned with content in the user-generated space (primarily user-generated video)--and the answer is surprisingly easy. It indeed will be safe, and it will be appropriate, and it will come very quickly--probably in the next 3-6 months.

Well, we've made it through yet another Advertising Week here in New York. We survived the maelstrom of advertising conferences, speaking gigs, clients in from out of town and meetings with new business prospects. Yet, as I put the week behind me, I'm left with a feeling that perhaps I didn't get everything out of it that I should have.

You've read it over and over again, "Web 2.0." The term has been around for a few years now. However, do you really know what it means? Well first off, there's a lot of disagreement on that. Some say it's a meme. Others call it a buzzword. But this writer thinks it's far more than a buzzword.

To commemorate Advertising Week and one of its top buzzwords--engagement--I'd like to share with you my recent video interview with Dr. Joe Plummer, chief research officer of the Advertising Research Foundation. Beyond a lifetime of contributions to advertising research, Plummer is largely responsible for leading the industry's efforts to make engagement part of the measurement and planning mix.