Isobar's Nigel Morris agreed that Chris Anderson's concept of "freemium"--giving away content or services for free in order to upsell consumers on higher value products--will become a widespread model for media owners. The question is, how do they get enough people in with free content and then how do they monetize them, especially in a digital environment? And Ad messages supporting free content can't just be pushed out there. "All advertising is only going to be relevant if it adds some value," he said.

Isobar's Nigel Morris agreed that Chris Anderson's concept of "freemium"--giving away content or services for free in order to upsell consumers on higher value products--will become a widespread model for media owners. The question is, how do they get enough people in with free content and then how do they monetize them, especially in a digital environment? And Ad messages supporting free content can't just be pushed out there. "All advertising is only going to be relevant if it adds some value," he said.

What makes your head explode in brain spray of awesome? Matt Freeman, CEO of GoFish: "We have gone from diictatorial marketing to meritocracy." Consumer adoption opt in becomes much more forceful part of the equation. We started Tribal it was based on philosophy of saying, It's much less about scale and control over distribution and controls of last fifty years and much more about having talent to earn your way in the market. Not having advertising be a barrier between consumers and content they seek but fluid part of that equation.

"We have to get away from campaign-based thinking and into continuous communication. Away from outputs to what really happens, and from controlled communciation to organic conversation because the consumer owns the interface," says Nigel Morris of Isobar. "People spend countless amounts of time and energy how to integrate on horizontal basis. we have to think about how to integrate on vertical basis," he says. "It fundamentally means different way of planning.  Most agencies are still stuck with old planning models.  How many agencies still plan around campaigns? They need to be stimulated into continuous communication.  There's an enormous …

Brands as a service tops brands as a product, says Nigel Morris, worldwide CEO at Isobar. "The real holygrail is to understand what people do and when they do it, understanding the heart of the consumer as well as the rational side." Create communication that people actually want to spend time with, he urges in "The New Madison Avenue" session here at OMMA NY. He's got a great visual showing how paid for media is a pretty straight line, brand media gets a little fuzzier and social media just blossoms across the screen.

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 …