The change-agent panelists seem to concur that the iPad, whether its more of a connected or "untethered" device than a mobile device is off to a sold start, especially as a vehicle for delivering a higher level of apps, but it's still early to call it a bona fide game-changer. Ball State media guru Mike Bloxham described the ipad as a "fantastic reading device" but noted the 3 or 4 million early adopters so far amount to only about 1% of the population. "We just don't know enough yet," he said. Of course, that hasn't stopped analysts from predicting 8 …

Initiative's chief strategy officer Eric Bader kicked off MediaPost's first Mobile Summit event (in sunny Lake Takoe) with the message that mobile marketing isn't about devices or platforms but about consumers, or as put it, focusing on "consumers who are mobile." A slide show of failed or forgotten devices including the Newton, the Segway, and more recently, the Kin, helped to drive home the point. And since it's all about consumers, bread-and-butter tactics including creativity and consumer insights apply. But content and context in mobile advertising should be used drive action rather than just brand awarness. "Action is where …

I never knew such a thing existed until someone mentioned it from the stage at OMMA Metrics & Measurement. And apparently, it's the chatchke being given out by event sponsor Crowd Science. And since I've never seen an analogue, non-USB bottle opener before, I moseyed on by the Crowd Science booth where sure enough, some cool looking gadgets were on display. "Did I hear that right, you're giving out some kind of analogue, non-USB can openers," I inquired. "Actually, they're just can openers," the Crowd Source rep manning the booth replied, adding, "But they look like USBs so …

"If Erwin Ephron is the father of media planning," says comScore's Josh Chasin, then Albert Einstein is its grandfather. To prove his point, Chasin quoted from the genius – Einstein, not Ephron: "Everything should be made as simple, but not simpler."

Want to know what sticks inside the mind of comScore research chief Josh Chasin? Well, he's telling us right now during a keynote at OMMA Metrics & Measurement in San Francisco. Actually, Chasin just cited two quotes that have stuck in his mind all these years, and have influenced how he thinks about measurement. The first one was from a P&G "media executive, circa a 1990 TV symposium: "I don't care about targeting," she said. "Everyone uses toilet paper." The other was from one of Chasin's pals at Chiat/Day circa 1996: "A banner ad is like, if …

Starcom MediaVest Group's Andy Fisher is getting, in his own words, "a little bit cranky" on the OMMA Metrics & Measurement Cross-Channel Measurement panel. And he's got good reason to be. Recalling the progression of advancements that have taken place in the analogue marketing world's ability to model data over the past half century, Fisher said the digital marketing world has a lot of catching up to do. The progression, of course, began with the rise of marketing mix modeling in the 70s and 80s, and exploded in the "Me Decade" with the rise of scanner data panels …

Why should analogue measurement firms care about the digital marketplace? Andy Fisher, executive vice president-global data & analytics director at Starcom MediaVest Group has a great metric for explaining that: Dollars. The combined value of all of the analogue measurement tools sold to date, have "sold for less than DoubleClick," Fisher said during the Multichannel Measurement panel at OMMA Metrics & Measurement this morning. Fisher, of course, was referring to Google's 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

Eric Peterson, senior partner at Web Analytics Demystified, and the opening speaker at OMMA Metrics & Measurement in San Francisco this morning brought new meaning to the term "surfing the Web." Showing an image of a tropical paradise, Peterson asked if anyone in the audience new where it was. No, it wasn't Fiji, and it certainly wasn't the bone-chilling coastline surround San Francisco this week. It was, according to Peterson, Hawaii. And why was Peterson flashing us an image of the Big Island – other than to make us climatically jealous? Because Hawaii, he said, "was the birthplace …

OMMA Groupies, er OMMA Metrics & Measurement MC Judah Phillips, opened the show up with an improbable bit of humor. "I'd like to start with a joke," Phillips, whose day job is senior director of global site analytics at Monster Worldwide, said, setting up a bit about an "analytics and research team" that was recruiting a new analyst. Three candidates came in for the interview: One with a degree in math, another with a degree in marketing science and analytics, and a third with a degree in statistics. The hiring team asked each candidate one question: "What's one …

Yep, if you've been to three or more of the OMMA conferences taking place in California this week, you officially qualify for this new category, according to MediaPost Publisher Ken Fadner. Referring to the week as the "Everything's Coming Up OMMAs West Coast Tour" (OMMA Ad Nets in Los Angeles, and OMMA Behavioral and OMMA Metrics in San Francisco), Fadner said, "I'm amazed because I've actually seen half a dozen people who have been to all three." "We have a new category," he quipped, "that we call OMMA Groupie."