I am at the tail end of a media mix modeling panel at the New York Times Building by the 212 Group.

The summary seems to indicate a need for Standards for user measurement and a need to price an impression exactly. The free market doesn’t always serve us.

In an agency there is a disconnect between analysts and clients (tell me about it!). If you can figure out what the goals of your client (not as easy as it sounds) you can move the needle of your client.

Interesting panel @ Times Center this morning which highlights the future of media, as part of Advertising Week. No Wireless in here, so I’m posting this using my iPhone.

The first theme is The Atomization of Content. Martha Stewart is on the panel and says she’s still using the same business plan she developed 17 years ago, and it worked out ok … But as far as the monetization of content, it was far more challanging.

Martha rattled off a few blogs she has used a social media content strategy, along with parterships, and mentioned this strategy is different (and currently a challange to make money on) than her quite profitable merchantdizing business) (forgive my spelling … I’m on my iPhone)

Another speaker is saying the Internet is old school, cited the Gients vs Jets game and the gient 6 story screen that no one who could take their eyes off of … It costs 40 million dollars today .. What will cost in 5 years? 10 years? Will it be Freenium.

So, from this point of view, and I agree (since little new was discussed at OMMA Global and other conferences I attended in the last few years that is actually ….NEW) but the platforms are maturing and many of the fears of Madison Avenue, are now here.

Chris Anderson, on the far right, says we’re still figuring out what the Future of Media is going be. Another speaker says Craigslist and the Internet as destroyed the Newspaper Industry, etc (same stuff we’ve been hearing guite alot of for a few years).

Another speaker, Milton Glazer, brings in the uninvestigated relationship between media outlets and their advertizers – the even handed news coverage (for example, about 1/3 of advertising in newspapers is by Pharma, and they don’t like President Obama’s health care plan, so would newspapers want to go out of their way to provide full, even handed coverage when it might mean losing the good will of main sources of income).

Chris Anderson thinks there is a silver lining as Journalism will now be connected to their actual customers, the readers, through micro payments.

But what comes out of this is you can put out the best content but it’s almost impossible to get people to pay for it.

Chris Anderson says this is the Golden Age of Analytics, citing the Adobe Omniture deal – and while there is a lot of difficulty in setting up analytics so there is both actionable information AND protection of privacy; another speaker chimed in that this is the most interesting time she’s ever seen because of insights we get that defy conventional wisdom and isn’t predictable.

Another brought up the music awards recently where Kayne West did his thing, was well prepared for, beforehand (iJustine eas out side Radio City Music Hall, Perez Hilton was reporting on the Awards like it was the Cuban Missle Crises and deals were done with Twitter beforehand), etc.

The ripple of news coverage was favorable and brands / advertizers were happy.

Is that attention “monetizable”? It might be, but it’s not yet clear how that attention (which the music awards and controversy around it) can be tracked so you can prove it, as Chris Anderson points out.

My takeways – First, I’m glad I’m deeply into analytics, and known for it, as Chris Anderson says “This is the Golden Age of Analytics”.

Second, the Future of Media isn’t all that clear, with a haze over who is going to pay for it, and how.

Third, the measurement of content across multiple screens (third screen), and should be added into some rating systems by the end of next year.

Forth, in order to take full advantage of controversy around events, like the Music Awards, last week, being “enabled” beforehand.

I believe, and this would extend to Public Relations, that Enablement, beforehand, needs to be established, planned for, payed for (in some way) and metrics evolved around those capabilities, Pre event and Pre engagement.

Finally, i apologize for spelling and grammer errors due to posting from my iPhone and not having the names of most of the speakers beforehand.

At the beginning OMMA wondered if a show on Behavioral Targeting made sense, but it turned out there are a set of disciplines, according to Steve Smith, who invited me, and is in the bottom photo. Wish I can stay around longer, but I’m only here for the first hour or so.

Jeff Hirsch, CEO of Audience Science ( used to be Revenue Science till a few weeks ago).

First, a video about TelePapers back 20 years ago, then fast forwarding to the future, which is today, which has sexy music, but I don’t get all hot over technology, unless the content is there, and often, it’s not.

Jeff Hirsch talks about the value of Behavioral Targeting and strategies built around audiences more than the technology, which it had, up to this point.

The idea of Behavioral Targeting, Internet spend will surpass TV Spend.

And while Search is important, and often the last click before a buy, Behavioral Targeting is examing the entire funnel and, as a matter of fact, Paid Search only accounts for 5% of your online time spent.

Even President Obama realizes the importance of Behavioral Targeting (but he didn’t say how).

NAI (Network Advertising Initiative) and IAB are creating the forum for Behavioral Targeting, but standards haven’t really been set.

At this time there is so much online data available to target on, but….who owns the standards.

However, Jeff Hirsch feels there need to be standards for growth to continue. We have the data we need, right tools, right ads (Yahoo Smart Ads, for example).

It’s felt in 2020 targeted ads will be everywhere.

Question about Search Ads getting over credited due to Push and forever Cookies. Jeff thinks we haven’t gotten close to figure out this issue, it’s very Ad Server related.  Also Jeff was just at the IAB Conference last week and mentioned the issue with Standards came up there as well, as did Sara Lacy at TechCrunch, who was also present – see Online Ads: Even the Evangelists Turning Bearish she writes:

Plenty of attendees at this week’s IAB conference pointed out that problems like reliable audience measurement are no closer to being solved than they were during the industry’s last identity crisis in 2001. Some people argue, it’s gotten worse. There was also plenty of worried chatter that desperate times would lead to desperate measures, causing advertisers to play fast and loose with user privacy in an attempt to make a sale.

Jeff Hirsch thinks we need standards, first, and then, education. I asked a question about using Behavioral Targeting used for other things, like content!