Cory Treffiletti, president and managing partner of Catalyst: SF, at the OMMA Ad Nets conference, questioned whether too much automation in the digital world may be creating a different role for digital media agencies. "We a spend on labor; I don't see that going away," says Dave Martin, senior vp of media for Ignited. "I want my clients to need me -- whatever it takes." This means even if the agency doesn't always makes money on it. That also means meeting and learning many new technologies and platforms to give clients the most alternatives. "We want our …

Agencies have begun to rely more on technology. People hammer the agency business and say it's broken. They don't have enough expertise in technology. But what happens when the agency needs to hire technology strategists to drive these sophisticated platforms. How will the agencies step up, asks Cory Treffiletti, president and managing partner at Catalyst:SF. Dave Martin, SVP, Media, Ignited, says margins are slim enough already. He doesn't think Ignited will swap out a media planner for a Ph.D., and pay more for the expertise. "We charge for time and doubt our customers will pay more," but how do these …

That's been the fundamental debate taking place at OMMA Ad Nets in Los Angeles this morning. During his opening keynote, MDC's Brandon Berger seemed to suggest that the business was moving to a point where 80% of online media buys will be based on automated demand-side platforms, and that only 20% -- the most premium, contextual part of the buys -- are done on a high-touch, human, direct sales, and highly contextualized basis. You know, the way media has primarily been bought and sold for the past 100 years. Others aren't so sanguine. Agency Roundtable moderator Corey …

During the Agency Roundtable: Managing the Audience and Contextual Mix at Ad Nets in Los Angeles, Dave Martin, senior vice president of media at Ignited, told attendees there's a huge problem with creative in digital. Mostly because the industry creates brand ads that we hold people click and click ads that hope brand the company. There a huge opportunity to target consumers through better ads, whether the media focuses on the creepiness that the advertisers knows the consumers are shopping for a vacation or a red car.

That's what MDC digital chief Brandon Berger seemed to be suggesting when he did a recap of just how much the media marketplace has changed. "It used to be a great business," Berger stated, as his Powerpoint flashed to an image of an eagle-eyed GroupM global chief Irwin Gotlieb (aka the most powerful man in media) peering down from a Manhattan window sill. That was the old world, Berger seemed to imply, noting that the marketplace has shifted from buying media to "buying audiences." "The problem is reach is easy for us to get," he said noting …

"Our brand is back," said Tom, a representative from the AOL-owned ad network brand, which was the pioneer of the advertising network business, but has taken a little less of the limelight since being acquired by AOL years ago. The change was apparent during OMMA Ad Nets in Los Angeles this morning, if for no better reason than the fact that Advertising.com was sponsoring the conference as part of its high profile tack in the industry.

Foursquare is now experiencing 40% growth per month, says Eric Friedman, Director of Client Services at the popular location-based social network. It now has 1.6 million members, so, if our calculations are correct, the company plans to add 640,000 members this month. Guess all those big partnerships with Bravo Media, Zagat, Warner Bros., and HBO are paying off. Back in April, top VC's were valuing Foursquare at $100 million, according to Business Insider -- but not because they thought it would be the next Twitter, or that the location-based social network can crack the local advertising nut. On the contrary, …

So, is all the fuss over Facebook's privacy and sharing issues way overblown? Yes, says Andrea Harrison, VP of Strategy at Razorfish, who likened the media firestorm to the uproar over Britney Spears shaving her head. No, says Martin Green, COO of meebo, who admits that an "overwhelming majority" of consumers don't care, but, as a society, we should. "When what a user thinks is private data becomes public ... that's where the problem exists." Meanwhile, Mike Germano, President and Co-Founder of Carrot Creative, says Facebook is a private company, and that it doesn’t own anything to anyone. …

So, what do we think about Twitter's Promoted Tweets program, which lets advertisers insert messages into users’ streams? As it stands, it's hard to take it seriously -- at least as an ad model -- because it's "so granular," says Derek Rey, VP of Sales & Marketing for Ad.ly. Also, if marketers don't already tweet, they’re going to have trouble because of the "resonance score," which Twitter is using to judge the value of tweets. Well, "They're just rolling [the program] out, in fairness to Twitter," said Eric Oldfield, Co-Founder & SVP, Sales & BizDev, LiveIntent. Furthermore, "What I …

Ideally, content should play well the moment it's released, and retain its value over time. So says Karen Cahn, Head of Sales of YouTube Partners at YouTube. Perhaps surprisingly, half of all videos watched on YouTube are over 6 months old, says Cahn. "It's important to think about content living on," she said. Creating evergreen content is hard for some to contemplate amid the evolution of the "water cooler effect" -- which used to occurred the day after, but now happens in real time -- notes Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus.