Well, the overarching theme of OMMA Global New York is "hyper-connectedness." And just to prove how hyper-connected he is – and how much "the world has changed – afternoon keynoter Dermot McCormack said he was watching this morning's keynote by Union Square's Fred Wilson on his Android phone. McCormack, who as executive vice president-digital media at MTV Networks, knows something about being hyper-connected. But despite all the amazing technology that's available to connect us to things, he says, "There's still only 24-hours in the day." "I think Google is working on that," he quipped, "but there's still only …

Is social media making individual editors obsolete? Well, MTV Networks doesn’t think so, and, according to its EVP of Digital Media Dermot McCormack, MTV is the most social brand online. That’s why they recently brought back Matt Pinfield, host of MTV’s alternative music program 120 Minutes from 1995 to 1999. He curated content then, and -- albeit with more help from social sharing platforms -- Pinfield is curating now. McCormack thinks Pinfield’s reemergence is a great example of a smart media company (again, MTV) repurposing old resources to new ends. Still, what does Pinfield have that a million tweeters and …

So, given the nature of the new “connected” consumer (see previous post), how can marketers best help clients achieve their goals? First, “understand what a client is trying to accomplish,” says Paul Isakson, director of strategy at Colle+McVoy. Once that’s crystal clear, marketers had better have a good bead on the consumers they’re trying to reach. It’s about “designing strategies based on their behavior,” according to Isakson. As for measuring return on investment, well, that’s not so easy, Isakson admits. Marketers are dealing with clients who are trying to put dollar values on Facebook and Twitter interactions, he says. …

I don't think I focused enough on Faith Popcorn's belief that human DNA is being changed because of media. I say that, because the impact media has on human evolution is one of my favorite subjects, but for all the scientists I've spoken to so far, none has agreed with the notion that media has had any impact on our physiological evolution. But Popcorn, who is not a scientist per se, is convinced that it's happening, and she cited the addition young media consumers have to digital media, particularly pornography, and text messaging, as an indication that they are …

I just learned a fascinating new factoid to add to my treasure chest of folklore about futurist and cocooning-coiner Faith Popcorn. Popcorn has built an incredible consulting practice around mining pop culture as a lot of mystique associated with her name, her practice, and her theories. The new fascinating factoid that she just dropped on stage during the opening panel at OMMA Global New York is that her dad "was CIA." If true, that kind of makes sense that she'd be his progeny, because she's really good at taking intelligence and turning it into actionable information. The information …

What is technology doing to us? For one, consumers are much more inclined to scrutinize the world around them, says Sheryl Connelly, Manager of Global Trends and “Futuring” at Ford Motor Company. Along with politicians and business leaders, that’s making life a lot more interesting for brand marketers. Also, regardless of tax brackets, technology is making all consumers “time poor.” According to Connelly, “We all live with time poverty,” which is only being exasperated by mobile, tablets, faster connection speeds, increasingly connected social experiences, ever more rapid recommendations services… You get the idea. Meanwhile, there are more “things” competing for …

Do you sometimes feel like you need to be a geek inside a NASA control room in order to follow what's going on with online advertising and marketing business? If you do, you're not alone, says OMMA Global New York opening keynoter Fred Wilson, the Union Square Ventures partner who just rattled off a dizzying array of radical digital marketing platforms that are shaking up the world as we know it. But fear not, says Wilson, "There's light at the end of the tunnel, because this is a good thing." The dizzying array of digital change is a …

Fred Wilson is big on native monetization systems. Picking up the theme that the banner is a bygone ad format, the Union Square Ventures founder points to the development of ad systems in recent years that have been tailored to the kind of Web service or content they're on. That means search ads on Google, "Likes" on Facebook and promoted tweets on Twitter. Because these formats are specifically built to fit with the functionality of their sites, they deliver higher performance than traditional display ads. And things are only going to get more fragmented and more challenging for marketers. …

Wake up, marketers! It’s the fourth quarter, which brings new opportunities to leverage Wikia’s rich and various communities (not to be confused with Wikipedia’s) for your benefit! So said Jimmy Wales -- Chairman Emeritus, Wikimedia Foundation and its ad-friendly arm Wikia -- to conclude his morning keynote at OMMA Global. We’re “pushing on the ability to target,” Wales said, continuing his quick elevator pitch. “We see the ways the community interacts.” If a marketer wants to reach the really super geeky, super influencers, for example, there’s one message for them, explains Wales. If you’re trying to reach Moms, there’s most …

That's the way OMMA Global New York opening keynoter Jimmy Wales stated the difference between what Wikipedia does and the rest of online publishing. "We're not commercial, really for the same reasons why libraries, national arts, and churches aren't," he said, suggesting that the goal with Wikipedia was to give every single person on the planet a free encyclopedia. In fact, he calls it, "a temple of the mind." And since we know that most minds cannot tolerate advertising agencies in their temples, Wales said that's why he spun off Wikia, to create the same kind of passionate, community-driven …