We asked some of our Amelia Island Agency Summit attendees to address buying challenges and to name their favorite campaigns.

What is the biggest challenge for online media planners and buyers in 2006? Any advice for dealing with this issue?

Bryan Wiener, President, 360i:
Two significant challenges exist:
 
The first is the integration between digital media campaigns and "traditional" advertising campaigns. Whether or not the same agency or holding company is handling digital and traditional, digital campaigns are rarely integrated adequately into the broader strategic marketing mix. Clients need to elevate the digital agency relationship to the same level as traditional agencies. Insights gleaned from search and digital marketing campaigns can be leveraged to better inform offline campaigns on how consumers are interacting with their brand and category.

Second, the increased fragmentation and innovation in the online space, while leading to new opportunities, is making it a harder place to plan and buy media efficiently. Consider options for video, RSS, local search, social networking and other channels. Buyers and planners can potentially get bogged down putting a lot of effort into a niche, hyper-targeted campaign. Our advice is to section off an ample testing budget for new initiatives but make sure that the team does not lose focus on the vehicles that can provide delivery today.

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:
I fear it will be burnout. We have had a hard time replacing the generation of media planners lost during the bubble burst. As the volume of work continues to pick up, so do the hours for those who remain in the media business.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media:
The biggest challenge for 2006 is dealing with the influx of traditional advertisers who are driving up online ad rates and eating up several of the high volume opportunities.

Advice: If you can't afford to compete with the GMs, find ways to target your advertising to more relevant content. Quality can't completely make up for quantity, but it will help to mitigate the shortage.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:
The increase of user-generated content. Advice: Educate clients and work with reputable sites.

Mark N. Dorf, Managing Partner, Acuity Media Group:
An over-abundant choice of media vehicles, many providing the same service. For example, working with ad networks today, there are many offering large reach (many publishers), optimization technology, behavioral technology, remnant pricing, et cetera. If you buy ValueClick, do you really then need to buy Advertising.com or vice versa since they duplicate often times the same publishers serving your ads-- which can hurt your campaign.

My advice is to develop consistent relationships with a few, rather than the many, so you can be assured of top client service and attention to your campaigns. Volume speaks loudly, and in a congested marketplace, even more so. However, you need to maintain a balance because putting all your eggs in one basket can be detrimental as well.

Jack Goldberg, President, Windy City Advertising, Inc.:
Recently online ad networks have been getting a lot of press about having sites in their networks that have not been properly cleared for their content. A major advertiser was unknowingly running their banner on a terrorist site; I heard one story about Disney having their ads on a porno site; and you hear about new problems every day. A majority of the ad networks do offer the large reach numbers but unfortunately are blind. In many cases the inventory is often sold and re-sold by brokers. At the end of the day, you don't really know exactly where your impressions are being shown.

My only suggestion is to use the bigger networks that are transparent and disclose their entire site list. I would really avoid networks that buy remnant inventory from other sources because you will really never know what you are getting.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
The constantly changing landscape challenges buyers and planners to stay on top of trends and options. Staying abreast of happenings within SEM alone requires full-time dedication.

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:
There are two major challenges facing online media planners/buyers for '06 and '07.

The first is limited talent in our field. The agency space is desperate for strategic thinkers with experience and knowledge of online advertising. There is a shortage of talent here, and schools aren't pumping out talent in the numbers our industry needs.

The second is increased demand and decreased inventory availability. While not the best news for buyers, I think this is great news for the industry as a whole. It shows that our space has matured to the point where more and more dollars are coming into play, buying out premium inventory at a premium price. Planners/buyers need to take steps to buy as far in advance as possible... while also preserving inventory by delivering media assets on-time.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
Biggest challenge = integration: making sure that your plan/buy is not executed in a vacuum. With media consumption so fragmented, it is important to make sure every possible touch point is taken into consideration.

From an online planning perspective, what's your favorite campaign in the last year? What made it unique, powerful?

Bryan Wiener, President, 360i:
Sony's Da Vinci Code campaign with Google was incredibly well integrated and addictive. The web creative was top-notch, it had a storyline, it required immense engagement by anyone participating, it benefited both the advertiser and the media property, and it inspired a wealth of buzz, including blogs, Digg posts, and entries on Wikipedia. As a runner-up, I liked the fun American Airlines "Keeping up with Jenkins" campaign, which had a good retention hook by offering daily instant win prizes of AAdvantage miles.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:
I liked the VW ads both on and offline-- the creative was spectacular.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media:
American Express' Wishlist campaign, follow up to the hugely popular MyLifeMyCard.com. It kept consumers coming back and had strong promotions that helped maintain the staying power of the first campaign that launched in November 2004. They were the first ones to do anything like this, and set the standard for this type of promotion. It would be hard for anyone to replicate their success without looking like a copycat.

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:
My favorite campaign from last year was American Express' My Wishlist/My Card program. Through this program, at peak spending times of the year, you could use your American Express card to purchase normally very expensive items for just a few dollars. As an example, you could buy a pair of Business/First tickets to Europe on Continental for $200. The catch was you needed to complete the purchase for the items within a few moments on specific days within the promotional period; quantities were limited, so you had to be there at the right time. I thought this was a great, integrated program. Throughout the promotion, simple online media creative crafted awareness for the effort on a variety of sites. Consumers were emailed reminders as the promotion went along. And because the effort, promoted in traditional media too, was all anchored around a simple ecommerce site, everything was seamless... and each channel was maximized for maximum impact. I haven't seen any metrics come from American Express or their agency for this effort, but for me the impact was noticable: I participated in the program daily, had American Express on top-of-mind throughout these peak shopping periods (like Christmas shopping season), and increased my use of American Express as a result.

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor, iMedia Connection. Read full bio.