Continuing on theme of the agency's role in the ever-shifting digital environment, a group of Madison Avenue executives on the afternoon's final panel pointed to a focus on areas like research and analytics, consumer insights and more consultative work to help clients sift through myriad technologies and platforms emerging as media outlets. Carat CEO Martin Cass argued that consumer understanding will increasingly be the key value-add of agencies. "You're going to see agencies much more focused on consumers and what motivates and drives them," he said. Providing that kind of deep expertise in market research will keep agencies relevant. …

Behavioral ads aren't going away, but the increasingly video-centric online landscape is creating "a natural reason to go behavioral," according David Kenny, Former Managing Director, Vivaki and CEO, Digitas; now President of content delivery network Akamai Technologies. "This will change ads," Kenny said of the Web's changing landscape. "This will change ad models in a big way." In the next 3-to-5 years, Kenny is expecting a 500x increase in the amount of content being shared and consumed online. "This will change people's professional lives and personal lives," he said. Coming from my years on the agency side, Kenny has …

Factoring the growth of online video consumption – both in terms of numbers of users, and the amount of video they consume – Akamai chief David  Kenny tells the OMMA Global New York crowed that there will have to be a 540-fold increase in the ability of the Internet to serve that content. "That's a 100% increase a year for five years," he said. That increase is happening, he said, but it's happening in a "bizarre way." "Running faster than the cloud is key," Kenny asserted, adding, "And the cloud is running fast." By cloud, of …

That's what new Akamai chief says is happening to the ability of the Internet to convey content – more or less. Actually, he is telling the OMMA Global New York audience how bandwidth and speed are accelerating and making the online experience "instant" and "more like a television experience." To illustrate his point, Kenny said that a few years ago, Akamai was relaying content at six gigabytes per second, which he said was "not quite enough to make the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show work quite right" – online, anyway. Since then, he said Akamai's backbone has grown "3,000 …

Actually, Ben Lerer, co-founder of Thrillist, made a really insightful observation about the "generational divide" – you know, the one that says Millennials like Facbook, but Xers and Boomers are all about email. Lerer's ephiphany about Millennials, is that they are likely to confront some new life stages that may change their media consumption habits in favor of, well, email. "These people are going to get jobs someday. And when they do, they will be sitting there on email all day." Duh! Lerer

That's how OMMA publishing track moderator Dan Ambrose opened things up this afternoon, noting that, "A lot of people are focused on social media" these days as a way of spreading their content and message. But Ambrose, a digital publishing veteran who is currentlyManaging Partner, ambro.com, corp., says email is really the "original social media." Why? "Because it is so easy to email to friends," he explained. His panel seemed to agree. Nate Richardson, president of Gilt City, pointed out that it does have its "generational" limitations. "The millennials are probably more likely to be …

Can the confusion around Web video ad models be solved? That's one of the goals of VivaKi's Pool initiative to come up with a standard video ad format that connects with users. At a video panel at OMMA Global Tuesday, VivaKi's Beth Doyle demonstrated the digital hub's ASq format that allows viewers to choose an ad from one of three advertisers. If someone doesn't choose and ad after 15 seconds, a default ad runs. In testing, Doyle said after the fourth or fifth time, viewers choose an ad within 2 seconds and response rates are roughly 30% higher than …

Well, at least Terrence Kawaja understands the natural flow -- and evolution -- of markets. In conclusion, he said the "profiteering" dilemma would ultimately be solved by an even more powerful market force: "consolidation." "I think things will rationalize," Kawaja predicted, noting that online display technology consolidation would likely happen two ways: "M&A and failure. Both are options." Kawaja

I'm hearing a note of desperation that I hadn't heard before about the online display advertising mess. This morning's OMMA Global New York panel – the one moderated by mess maestro Terrence Kawaja, is using the word "profiteering" to describe the array of technology companies that have sprung up to help manage and provide structure to the online display advertising marketplace. The word – "profiteering" – was mentioned more than once. Several times, in fact. I get it. Yes, these middlemen and third-party intermediaries are extracting significant tolls – as much as 30% margins on the cost of …

Yup, and Magna's Brian Wieser seemed prepared to whip it out too, when OMMA moderator Terrence Kawaja introduced him on this morning's panel. "My chart has 300 icons," Wieser noted, adding, "I'll share it with you later." Wieser was referring to the highly-circulated industry players chart that Kawaja put together some time ago showing the incredible complexicity anad fragmentation of the advertising technology landscape.