Nigel Morris: The brand as a product is now going to be severely limited. All brands have to look at themselves as service, offering genuine service to consumers. One big way to do that is through digital media. Because of that, it's more important what you do than what you say. In the old world of mad men, the brands were the ones who told best story about themselves. In the new world, ithe brands that win are the ones whose consumers tell the best stories.

Nigel Morris, CEO, Isobar had bad news for the ad industry, while exhorting the crowd to shape the future. His message:Â ever since 1980, the advisory role of ad industry has declined because mad ave., the ad industry generally has failed to respond to digital, failed miserably.

It's a big day for Sarah Fay! She'll be honored at lunchtime as an OMMA Online All-Star, plus it's her birthday! I'm particularly clued in to that, because it's also MY birthday today. I hope to head on over to OMMA once I've finished the care and tending of my virtual world MinyanLand, which teaches kids all about earning, saving, spending and giving. Can't start the financial literacy in early enough these days. We'll hit 200,000 registered Critters today, which is a great birthday present for me!

This is a fascinating hotel we're in for OMMA New York. It was built in 1985, I'm guessing part of the Times Square clean-up. The most interesting feature are the elevators. Imagine glass pods on the OUTSIDE of the elevator shaft. All day long, pods going up and going down scores of floors, much of it open. But watching a pod descend seemingly INTO the floor is fascinating. Even odder but highly efficient is the way you call the elevator. You punch in the destination floor and it tells you, by letter, which elevator to head for. Some …

Interesting turn of events here at the "Can You Really Brand With Search?" breakout session. The Orkin Man, or rather Rob Crigler, director of Interactive Marketing at Orkin pest control, is quizzing the Microsoft lady and the Google gentleman on why it might be that they found that paid search is better value than organic search. Part of the answer was the industries studied and part was that it isn't always the case. Is the Orkin Man a cynic? Perhaps. Crigler says about Orkin's presence in paid search: Our trick is to be there regardless of whatever their …

What's the brand value of residual impressions that aren't clicked on? Jon Diorio, group manager, AdWords at Google, says he is often asked this question. They do focus group studies to find out.Here's what happened in the food/snack category. Brand lift rose depending on placement of the test brand, at the top of the organic list or on the side, for example. And, he says in agreement with Pavan Lee of Microsoft, Google was able to see how competitors' brands suffered by the search advertiser's presence! So a good offense really works here! Diorio advises, "Don't buy paid …

Pavan Lee of Microsoft Advertising is talking about the difficulty in studying Sony because of its high favorability rating, in the 90s, among consumers. However, it did find that branded terms were more effective in driving brnd lift than generic terms. Sony got a 9-point lift in "intent to buy" and a 5-point lift in "likely to recommend." Interesting point here: Exposure to search drove a less positive attitude toward competitors' brands, she says, which Microsoft found "surprising." Lee says they found a 10-point difference between the ROI of paid search versus organic search, adding that she thinks …

Panelists agreed that mobile differs from other platforms not only in its ubiquity but in its utility; Berman said the mobile phone is becoming everyone's "alarm clock, wallet, music player" among other things. "It's becoming the dominant utility," he said. B/c the cell phone is such a powerful and personal device, Nokia's Jeremy Wright said it would change agencies that figure out how to tailor marketing and advertising to the medium would be able to charge more for their services. But while mobile phones may be a highly useful utility for people wherever they go, it doesn't necessarily follow …

Asked about when mobile advertising other than text-messaging will scale by moderator Steve Smith, Webster Lewin of MS&L Digital, instead emphasized the strength of mobile for niche marketing campaigns because its the most personal device that people have, compared to PCs and TVs. "It's about reaching influencers, said Lewin. Larry Harris, president of Ansible said reach isn't really a discussion at the company. He stressed the measurability of mobile media and the benefit to brands of reaching people who have typically opted in to receive marketing messages. AT&T's Jordan Berman, not surprisingly, focused back on the ubiquity of cell …

How does Avenue A/Razorfish deal with the matter of social media metrics? “With a great deal of humility,” said Shiv Singh, the agency’s Vice President of Social Media & Global Strategic Initiatives. “We’re all learning as we go along.” What does Avenue A say to a client when it’s become clear that they’ve made a mistake, or, perhaps worse, when no clear campaign response can be measured? “Look on the bright side,” Singh says he tells the client. “We only used a small portion of your overall budget.” (Measured laughter from the audience.)