I've always been fascinated by the connection between the marketing intelligence world (ie. Madison Avenue) and THE intelligence world (ie. intelligence agencies like the CIA, former KGB, etc.). From what I understand, it really began during World War II when the U.S. military enlisted Madison Avenue to help with propaganda, and that extended into intelligence work that extended post-war, into the Cold War, etc. Of course, nobody actually talks about this for explicit reasons, but my first real exposure to the connection started with a precursor to social media monitoring and tracking – the public relations measurement business. An …

“Is the Social Media Bubble About to Pop? Or Is It a Bubble at All?” That’s the title of OMMA Social’s morning keynote presently being presented by Antony Young, CEO of Optimedia International U.S. In light of Anthony Weiner’s socially-enabled “sexting” scandal, however, Young said he considered going with the title, “Is Social Media’s Enormous Growth About To Be Exposed?” (Alas, he demurred.) Alright, back to the bubble thing. Well, Young said it would just be “rude” to open OMMA Social by “throwing cold water” on all the social media excitement. Also, he didn’t want “to risk being blasted …

That's what MediaPost publisher and chief Ken Fadner did to kick off OMMA Social in New York this morning. Retelling a conversation he had last night during the OMMA Video cocktail party, Fadner said he bumped into an industry executive who had been making the rounds at other Internet Week events, and he inquired how the other shows were doing. "Well, it's all social crap," the exec said, according to Fadner, who noted, "Well, we're putting our OMMA Social on tomorrow and it's not crap." Social Media Insider and OMMA Social program chair followed Fadner's remarks with her …

Rich Gagnon, Chief Media Officer, DRAFTFCB, has a problem with today’s video ad marketplace. “There’s too much complexity,” he said on an afternoon panel, adding something about “those algorithms,” before trailing off. Oh, “There’s also a lot of risk about where you’re ad is placed,” Gagnon added. “No one wants to be seen with something that is just so off-brand.” Otherwise, “From a planning perspective, it’s a great time,” Gagnon said of the broader marketplace. “There’s so much opportunity.” By the way, what’s the best defense against poorly placed ads? Stick with top tier publishers, said Steve Minichini, President …

That's right, the OMMA Video content syndication panel is hedging on Nielsen vs. comScore – or even a new player altogether. "If you were to pick, from my perspective, the people who make the decisions in the agencies, they know Nielsen, said Ed Haslam, senior vice president-marketing at YuMe. "Most of them complain about Nielsen, but they use it because it's the standard. If I had to bet, Nielsen is the frontrunner." Which prompted some audience outreach from one of our favorite industry researchers – Olympic Consulting's Tony Jarvis – who suggested that there is indeed another option: …

Leave it to Social Insider and 360i digital media guru David Berkowitz to get the OMMA Video content syndication panel off on a lively start. His set-up: A travel-related video to promote the Galapagos Islands. The video: Two tortoises going at it. The panel quips: "No. 1, it's not brand safe." "This looks like it's going to be long-form." (Get it, tortoises are pretty slow.) "It looks easy to syndicate, because it's quite compelling."

Should agencies fear branded entertainment producers like Funny or Die will usurp their role in creative and media work for clients? No, says Ed Wise, VP of ad sales for FoD. He and colleague Chris Bruss stressed that they view themselves as comedy experts and agencies as the brand experts, and like collaborating with Madison Avenue. Depending on campaign goals, FoD can also tailor the marketing effort. So if a brand wants to generate "likes" it can focus on driving interaction of Facebook as well as more traditional goals like brand awareness.

Funny or Die's head of branded entertainment, Chris Bruss, and vice president of advertising sales, Ed Wise, took the stage to continue the discussion of branded video. Talking about the key role social media has played in the site's growth, Bruss noted FoD has focused on not just creating but "activating" its online community by inviting them to participate in the site rather than just tweet out new content. By the numbers, FoD has 2.2 million (up 50% y/y) followers on Twitter, more than 3 million  Facebook fans (along with co-founder Will Ferrell; up 1200%), and 40K followers on …

The last guy you’d expect to make a surprise cameo at OMMA Video just did. Yep, Wanye Newton dropped in on an afternoon presentation hosted by Funny or Die ad sales VP Ed Wise and branded entertainment President Chris Bruss. To be clear, Newton actually popped up in a bit of branded entertainment that Funny or Die made for Xbox and Halo. “When you work with a cool brand like Xbox and Halo you can bring on some cool talent,” said Bruss, noting that the FoD team actually had to …

The Funny or Die team of branded entertainment chief Chris Bruss and ad sales chief Ed Wise are updating the OMMA Video crowd on the Web video site's social media strategy as it relates to branded entertainment opportunities, and they say it's a highly optimized one. Okay, so that doesn't sound funny, but the video they're showing right now of Snoop Dog and LL Cool J playing Halo on Xbox is hilarious. In other words, the content speaks for itself. And if it's really good – like the kicker to the video, that an anonymous multigamer player who beats them …