In a discussion at my office last week, Steve Baker, author of "the Numerati," described a day when there would be services widely available to help people optimize themselves in the new digital world. He underscored there have long been individual optimization services in the analog world.

It's been almost a year and a half since TACODA was sold to AOL, and just over a year since I left my role as executive vice president of Global Ad Strategy at AOL. It's been a wonderful year -- lots of travel, lots of time with my family, and lots of just plain relaxing after working on two start-ups back to back for the previous 14 years. Well, as you might expect, after having some time on my hands to think and ponder, I started working on a new business idea. It's now time to jump back into the …

The perception of in-cinema is of a static, inflexible, easily overlooked vehicle with minimal reach and a niche audience -- but I would argue that it represents a missed opportunity for a highly impactful, easily measured, supportive campaign that integrates digital in an obvious manner. The reality of in-cinema, and reality is not a mirage, is that movie-goers are a highly attentive, captive audience -- and almost all of them have a mobile platform easily accessible with which they will readily respond to the appropriate messaging.

What is the future of the advertising agency model? The crisis that agencies face is coming to a climax, with an advertising industry beset by a global economic recession, combined with a sea change in the way media, and therefore marketing, reaches people. It is with this backdrop that industry executives head to New Orleans to discuss key issues and share ideas at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Conference.

For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about micro-blogging a lot. Interested in how emergent social media gets its legs, I have had Twitter on my mind. Or, I should say, back on my mind. After a brief and un-gratifying trip around the block with the newly popular Big T sometime last year, as a consumer and a marketer -- it lost my attention. In fact, it shot my attention. It agitated and upset me. I dropped it for a while. But, it stayed in the corner of my eye -- a tool of choice for …

Truly great companies are possible only if their entire teams are great. And in this economy, you have to be the best because there's no room for the rest. A company of great people depends on the strength of the core management, the company culture and the hiring that ensues. The interviews and questions that decide new hires should closely reflect a well-codified cultural framework. Revisiting this topic with colleagues as my own company grows and matures, I've been intrigued with two interview questions that are both interesting and have potential for universal adoption.

Television has an audience problem, though not the same problem affecting most media platforms these days. Unlike newspapers, magazines and radio, the television viewing audience is actually growing.

In the last week I must have read at least six articles talking about the benefits of brand integration. According to a study from eMarketer, 66.8% of online marketers are looking at online video in 2009 and brand integration is surely on their minds. According to a similar study from Permission TV, 71.4% of marketers anticipate online video will raise engagement and awareness while 47.2% look for lead generation in online video. These numbers all tell a story of why marketers are looking at online video, but they don't break down the "how" and they don't get into the details. …

I am sold on engagement. No, I am not talking about the period of time from now until my wedding in September, although if @ChristeM (http://twitter.com/christiem) is reading this, I am sold on that, too! What I'm talking about now is that after a great conversation with Mike Barbeau, who has spent his career on the agency side and is now head of account strategy for SocialVibe, I am sold on engagement as a key metric for buying and selling branding online. Given the proper definition and standardization, engagement can provide the right baseline for marketers to plan, buy and …

This is supposed to a love story -- the digital brood and emerging media, always and forever. But something else has always been true about love: often, timing is everything. A marketer taking on emerging media is typically motivated by embracing innovation, testing, and exploration. However, in this economy, many are wondering -- do I have time to indulge this love? Does loving him make me too vulnerable? Will she hurt me? Are our priorities and values the same?