• Ad Networks Make Money But No Sense
    My two cents is worth less than yours is some areas, and just as much in others. I can prove it. I dumped my brand new air conditioner out the window while installing it. Thankfully, I was smart enough to attempt this installation in the back of my apartment, two floors up and over a courtyard that hasn't courted anyone in years. As the machine fell to the ground, it caught the back of the air conditioner protruding from the window of the apartment below me, busting that one too....
  • Not Dead Yet
    If you are familiar at all with "Monty Python" movies, or know someone who is--and that person incessantly repeats their favorite quotes in their worst British accent--you've heard the line, "I'm not dead yet." Attending OMMA Video and OMMA Publish earlier this week, there was a great deal of discussion focused on which old or existing technologies, methods and media platforms aren't quite dead yet--to borrow from "Monty Python."
  • The Devil In The Details
    Every time an ad guy uses the absurd example of your mobile phone displaying a coupon when you walk by a Starbucks, an angel loses its wings. This is one of those incredibly stupid ideas that only sound good when you ignore all the details. The mobile advertising industry needs to grow up, get realistic about how to drive revenue, and damn it, pick a better example.
  • Opening A Door You Can't Close
    Today's social networking executives seem hell-bent on making history repeat itself. MySpace, Google, Facebook and others are trying to "out-open" each other by giving third-party developers access to their users, their platform, and their data. While opening your network may be popular in the media, it could have devastating results.
  • The Engagement Story As Epiphany
    In "Dubliners," James Joyce developed a sequence of short stories that redefined the genre. One feature common to each story is an "epiphany" at the end, a moment of deeper awareness. At the end of "The Dead," the central character, Gabriel, looks into the falling snow and suddenly sees his relationship to his wife in perspective, powerfully moved by how disconnected he has been from her. I am reminded of Joyce and the epiphany in our discussion of engagement. For publishers, all of this needs to lead to marketing insight. Otherwise, we may end up like Gabriel, looking out our …
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