Omnicom Media Group's Page Thompson believes in five years all buying and selling is going to be transacted electronically, like Wall Street. Always quick with a quip, GroupM's Irwin Gotlieb shook his head and said, "Oh please, not like Wall Street."

“There is a trading currency that is always going to be the subject of negotiation. And I for one, don’t like to negotiate that publicly,” GroupM’s Irwin Gotlieb said, adding, “Just because a market currency isn’t based on ROI, doesn’t mean an agency shouldn’t be held accountable for the ROI.” OMD’s Page Thompson countered that Madison Avenue still needs to try to reset the TV marketplace currency. He noted that agencies already utilize ROI measures for direct response media, and for digital media, pleading, “Why can’t we accelerate this thing.” And if agencies fail to accelerate it now, …

OMD’s Page Thompson opened the “Five Families” panel with a call for change in the upfront marketplace, asserting it is time to shift to an “ROI currency.” While he said it’s unlikely Madison Avenue will be able to actually negotiate a “performance” based or ROI oriented upfront currency this year, he said agencies could at least start that conversation before they “plunk down $9 billion” in the network prime-time upfront again. GroupM’s Irwin Gotlieb countered that an ROI currency is the wrong model for the upfront, because there are far too many variables â€" things like “creative â€" …

MySpace executive Heidi Browning says Carat is a pace setter in social media marketing. “We always look to Sarah's team as being the leader in best practices in the social media space,” she said, referring to the agency's chief, Sarah Fay. Fay, sitting with Browning on a panel, said key is setting up a community on a MySpace or Facebook page and then to "keep it refreshed." "It’s a simple best practice," Fay said. Intuitively, she said, marketers need to listen to what consumers are saying on the sites and react in kind. It's pull marketing rather …

SocialVibe’s Joe Marchese: “Respect what people want, Realize that they are your sources of media. And then reward them.” Aegis Media’s Sarah Fay: “I think it’s a little bit like science. A little drop can make a very big explosion â€" hopefully in a good way.” “I think you have to think of it as woven into the overall fabric of your program and not something that stands on its.” MySpace’s Heidi Browning: “it’s insights.” Nielsen’s Pete Blackshaw: “Erase the buzzwords, and reinforce the consumer fundamentals.” “Let’s not get lost in this new vernacular.” …

MySpace executive Heidi Browning says a 2008 McDonald's campaign on MySpace as an example of a successful campaign on a social network. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Big Mac, McD's launched a contest on MySpace for consumers to offer their own version of the famed jingle: “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun.” Judges chose semifinalists and the winner was selected via an online vote and was part of a Big Mac TV spot. Ads online, TV and print promoted the contest. Browning said 1 million people "interacted" with …

“The question to be asked at this conference is how is the nature of this relationship going to change,” Marchese said, referring to the evolution of social media, and of the advertising agencies that are trying to figure out how to manage it for marketer’s brands. Marchese’s theory, which he’s opined on via MediaPost’s “Online Spin,” is that lead social media agencies will emerge as “the agency of record for social media,” and that they ultimately will end up just becoming the overall “agency of record.” His rationale: That all media content will eventually become social, and therefore …

Josh Bernoff, vice president and principal analyst, Forrester Research, says research shows people are open to advertising -- and may engage with it -- while they use social networking sites. Some stats: 32% of people ages 13 to 18 said they would definitely be interested in engaging with their favorite brands in that environment 53% of adults said they would be open to it

“I think the best social media campaigns begin with community, and elements of the program will build that program,” Aegis Media North America chief Fay said during this morning’s opening Four As panel discussion. “You offer a benefit to bring people to bring them closer to a brand, or to each other.” Fay also spoke about some of the findings of Carat’s benchmark study with Myspace a couple of years ago, and moderator Bernoff noted that the research paper is actually still available online, but you have to access it through its Myspace page. This is the …

This time, it was the moderator introducing himself. Following Bob Schieffer’s opening keynote, Forrester Research’s Josh Bernoff segued to his “Can Social Marketing Be Monetized Without Screwing Up the Consumer Experience?” panel, noting, “We’ve gone from Bob Schieffer to somebody who was once interviewed by Mike Wallace.” I’m impressed, Josh (not!).