Nice little side debate breaking out between MediaCom's Chris Pyne and Omnicom's Jeff Minsky on the "Video Neutral Planning" panel. Pyne says that MediaCom is finding, "increasingly that context doesn't matter anymore, in terms of business results. "We're finding just the opposite," says, Minsky, adding, "You can't scale with context, but you can start with context And what we're finding is that if you start with context it drives a much better ROI than if you start with behavioral." Moreover, he noted that given the regulatory and consumer advocacy environment, and the fact that "consumers are getting more …

Is the Web still waiting for its “I Love Lucy” moment, i.e., that single blockbuster content brand that blows the industry wide open? Yes (sorry, sneezing panda), but when it does hit it’s going to be a wakeup call to a lot of people, says Jeff Minsky, Director of Emerging Platforms at Omnicom Media Group. What’s more, when it hits it’s going to take a big, experienced agency -- rather than a single vendor -- to make sense of the show and its advertising potential. So says Chris Pyne, Chief Strategy Officer at MediaCom. “When we approach the marketplace we …

Good question coming from someone sitting on a panel called Video Neutral Planning. It was raised by Jeff Minsky, Director of Emerging Platforms, Omnicom Media Group, during this morning's Re:Vision conference in New York. Minksy's point is that not all video is created equal, and that currently, there may be enough differences in the way consumers experience and use video across platforms – from conventional TV to online, mobile and everything else – that maybe, just maybe, Madison Avenue shouldn't be trying to reduce it to some lowest common denominators – at least not yet. Minsky noted that …

That's the way MediaCom Chief Strategic Officer Chris Pyne described the conversations surrounding "video neutral planning." Speaking on the Media Neutral Planning panel at MediaPost's Re:Vision conference in New York, Pyne said that while the industry can debate whether a "video is a video is a video" across platforms, regardless of whether they are "lean forward" or "laid back" video experiences, it ultimately is the consumer experience that really determines what advertisers and agencies should be doing. He said Madison Avenue has don't a neat job of fitting all media into nice little silos, but that the "consumer …

So, with advances in TV targeting, why aren't marketers going after "high-end" households? "We are," insists Seth Haberman, founder and CEO of Visible World. "Those things are going on." Indeed, Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia, said he helped CBS effectively market Hawaii Five-0 last year to, if not exactly high-end households, at least the right homes. Of the 25 million consumers CBS reaches, they determined that Hawaii Five-0's target audience was made up of about 6 million-to-7 million consumers, which they were able to target by their preferred shows. "That's addressable; that's scale; and that's results," said Morgan. More broadly, …

Television ad spending continues to grow, but new wave analytics are troubling for marketers.   "It is getting increasing difficult to keep track of all these entities," says Anne MacDonald, executive vp and chief marketing officer, Travelers, in a keynote address at the Re:Vision conference. "This revolution is probably more of a evolution. Real change in television happens more slowly." MacDonald says she gets hit with new TV research services all the time, promising much. But there is too much to sift through. Here's the good news: eMarketer estimates a $60.9 billion in TV advertising sales in 2011; …

But it will change it. That's what Re:Vision opening keynoter, and Travelers' CMO Anne MacDonald reminded attendees this morning. "New media doesn't kill old media," she pointed out, citing the impact TV had on radio, as an example. "It just changes it."

That's what Re:Vision conference opening keynoter, Anne MacDonald, just pointed out in this morning's remarks. MacDonald, who is CMO of big TV advertiser Travelers, noted that as much as the ad industry obsesses on digital media advertising, TV is still the big Kahuna, and is growing fast. In fact, she cited a recent forecast by her agency team at GroupM that predicted TV ad spending in the U.S. will grow to $68 billion this year, nearly twice the size of the $34.8 billion "digital advertising" marketplace. Her point is that you can't obsess with the latest shiny objects, but have …