For those who don't speak Scottish, the headline is from Robert Burns' epic 18th Century poem. It translates to "go often askew," and that's pretty much how I feel about the effect the pandemic has been having on all our plans. Even our best laid ones.

I've covered many crises impacting the advertising and media industry over the past four decades, but never one rolling out like this one in real-time, and potentially, impacting so many people individually. I'm not sure why we weren't more prepared, and why it seems we were caught flat-footed, but I suspect it's human nature to deny a threat until it's on your front step. "We have been surprised that more companies had not gone through the 'war room' planning and meeting discussions we highlighted two weeks ago in our note," Pivotal Research Group analyst Michael Levine writes in an advisory …

Advertising, media and technology industry "scapes" -- the kind of graphically organized charts delineating vital industry ecosystems popularized by investment banking firm Luma Partners -- may seem like they're a dime a dozen these days, but a new one created by an industry ethicist may be the most important one Madison Avenue will ever use.

Since we originally launched this blog with a real-time data tracking index -- the now dormant RTB500 -- MediaPost has collaborated with a variety of sources capable of producing unique views of the advertising and media marketplace. Today, we are launching one that is a little more self-reflecting: an index of the key words and phrases Madison Avenue is most interested in.

There were some important indicators disclosed as part of The Trade Desk's earnings call late last week, especially the growth of connected TV, and on a related note, the implications for data-targeted programmatic buys in a "post-cookie" world.