Why did Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia -- and the founder of such online ad firms as Real Media and TACODA -- leave online advertising for TV? Well, consuming “video” on anything other than a big, hulking living room TV just isn’t TV, Morgan insists. For the 19 years he was involved in selling online adverting, during which time Morgan was focused was on mass awareness, he never felt that a banner on a Web page could even come close to competing with a 30-second spot in a lean back environment. Online “can’t drive the same emotional response,” says Morgan.

Why's everybody always pickin' on behavioral advertisers? That's what David Jakubowski, CEO of Aggregate Knowledge, wants to know. Traditional media and marketing leaders have been far more, er, inquisitive, for years without ever having to apologize for their consumer tracking efforts. "What we're going to see is the offline world teaching the online world how to do business," Jakubowski believes. For his part, MediaPost's Joe Mandese suggests that the fear stems from "scary science," which "reduces everything to data points."

As it get closer to an initial public offering, LinkedIn today announced reaching the nice round number of 100 million users. In a blog post, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said the professional network is adding members at the rate of 1 million a week, "the equivalent of a professional joining the site at faster than one member per second," he wrote. Weiner also noted the site is used in 200 countries, with half more than half its users coming from outside the U.S. LinkedIn filed for an IPO in January, reporting revenue of $161 million for the first nine …

Amid looming threats of government regulation, how do marketers secure access to online consumer behavior? Ask, says Carl Fremont, EVP and Global Media Director at Digitas North America. “We need to ask permission,” Freemont insists. He also suggests ramping up education efforts -- because the IAB’s recent initiative wasn’t enough -- and engaging in a “dialogue” with consumers. “If we do, some of the privacy concerns will [lessen] over time.” Meanwhile, needless to say, “If we don’t self regulate, [the behavioral advertising] will be regulated for us,” says Fremont. Yes, he’s well aware that it might be too late to …

Kicking off OMMA Behavioral, head honcho Ken Fadner is asking that someone -- anyone! -- suggest a new name for the long-running conference. "The subject has gotten so much bigger [than cookies]," says Fadner. Feel free to send any and all ideas to ken @ mediapost.com. Looking back, Fadner notes that MediaPost has been covering behavioral advertising since late 2004, which he calls "a heck of a long time to be talking about behavioral adverting!" (As a side note, conference MC and MediaPost columnist Steve Smith claims that Ken has been asking for behavioral name alternatives since 2004.)

Austin, Tx. -- Young-targeted grass roots marketing can be a difficult job - but not impossible. Speaking at the 4A's Transformation event, Coltrane Curtis, managing partner of influencer/youth-targeted entertainment marketing company Team Epiphany, and ex-VJ of MTV, says one needs to figure out how the strength and direction of influencers and covert that into big brand results. "How do you engage influencers? You have to talk about the flow of information," says Coltrane, who's clients include Nike, Pepsi, Diageo, Gillette, Range Rover, among others. Good news, he says, influencers "are people who are bursting with the seams of …

Austin, Tx. -- Mass collaboration on creative marketing ideas? You are talking crowd-sourcing. "Ten people working together is better than working than two people," says Ignacio Oreamuno, president, GiantHydra, who run IHAVEANIDEA, a large online advertising community, speaking at the 4A's Transformation event here. GiantHydra pushed the idea of crowd-sourcing -- grabbing bigger numbers of creative professionals to work on a project. Some people believe crowd-sourcing, which also can include fans of a specific brand, can be cost effective. "You can get labor of at a cheaper cost," says Tim McClure, co-founder, GSD&M, and founder/CEO, of Mythos …

Austin, Tx. -- How big is technology? Big and growing even faster than some basic human worldwide needs. Unilever's Keith Weed, speaking at the 4A's Transformation event says there are "500 million mobile phones in India. That's more phones than toilets. You can see the pace of technology." On the note, later in the morning, Fareed Zakaria, contributing editor at large, Time Inc., noted: "When I was growing up in Mumbai, we had toilets. Don't worry about that." Zakaria worried about the uneven globalization of the world. For instance, the U.S. still has its problems -- economically. …

Austin, Tx. -- The bane of some marketing companies existence is the growing influence of those bottom line procurement officers. Unilever worldwide marketing chief, Keith Weed, speaking at the 4A's Transformation event, doesn't like it. He says, "some marketers have been hiding behind procurement." Weed says procurement executives should be responsible for signing off on big decisions -- but only after all meaningful and thoughtful decisions have been made by marketing executives. "We don't work in the commodity field," says Weed. "You want to use them in the right way."

After some bad years, there is good news for advertising agencies. In an opening remarks at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Transformation 2011, Nancy Hill, president and chief executive officer of the 4A'sclients with clients looking to spend more on media, things are looking up. Key evidence: This year's Super Bowl was the quickest sold event to advertisers in years, with some 111 million viewers watching, a record -- and one which witnessed 4064 tweets in one second, during the final drive of the game. The Oscars witnessed its highest price per 30-second commercial spot, $1.8 million. …