The General Manager believes there will be a call for larger ad units in the future, and for more pricing based on performance.

Paran Johar is the General Manager of the Los Angeles office of Tribal DDB Worldwide, where he works on campaigns for such clients as Ameriquest Mortgage, Epson, Infogrames, and Arizona Public Services (APS). His background includes consulting and marketing experience - both for traditional and online media -- from such leading companies as iXL, Poppe Tyson, Bate USA, Saatchi and Saatchi and BBDO. Here Johar talks to iMedia Connection about what it will take to move the industry forward.

iMedia Connection: What's one of the most successful campaigns you've executed this year?

Johar: We have had many successful online initiatives in many categories. The one that stands out the most is the ongoing campaign we have for Ameriquest Mortgage. In the course of six months we have increased the number of leads ten fold.

iMedia Connection: What did the campaign consist of on the online side?

Johar: E-mail, banners, text links, buttons, pop ups, you name it. We used a variety of ad units and are about to test rich media.

iMedia Connection: What measurements are you using to deem it a success?

Johar: Customer acquisition costs for a pre-qualified loan application.

iMedia Connection: What's the best integrated campaign you've seen recently?

Johar: The Anheuser-Busch campaign that won a Cyber Lion for the Wassup campaign, which was done by Tribal DDB in New York and Chicago. To compliment the TV commercials Tribal DDB built a wassup translator viral piece -- a game in which people could click on another language and hear wassup in a different language. It won numerous awards.

iMedia Connection: What sort of new models can we expect in the future?

Johar: From the creative perspective, there's going to be a push toward the larger ad units, be they full-screen pop-ups or something else. I also think there's going to be more rich media.

In terms of pricing, there's going to be much more pricing based on performance, maybe CPA, maybe CPC, but much more pricing based on performance and pre-agreed-to metrics of success.

iMedia Connection: Is there a sane way to do CPA so everyone wins?

Johar: Absolutely. As long as you work with the publisher and explain the metrics for success and the publisher understands to optimize the campaign on their end. Essentially a CPA campaign is a CPM campaign in which you utilize conversion metrics to back out a CPM. As long as your publisher is optimizing the campaign, they can recognize a net CPM at a higher rate than normal. It's a publisher's responsibility to optimize the campaign to recognize the highest value for their inventory.

iMedia Connection: Why is it better for a traditional marketer to go with an interactive agency than to advertise direct with publishers OR take the entire workload in-house?

Johar: The variety of services. It's hard to have creative, technology and online media buying/planning all in-house. I think an outside perspective that can lend best-of-breed practices and learning across multiple clients can be advantageous. In addition, having an interactive agency allows a client the ability to leverage its media dollars with other clients to push publishers to try new online advertising opportunities.

iMedia Connection: What remains the industry's biggest stumbling block?

Johar: Accuracy of measurement and an understanding by traditional marketers what can and can't be done.

iMedia Connection: What should agencies do to help clients overcome these stumbling blocks?

Johar: Integrate as much as possible, integrating from every level, starting with the content and being media neutral.

Another major stumbling block has been the bad press the Internet has received since the meltdown of the dot-com, leading many marketers to believe the Internet is dead. To counteract this, we need to show them results, making their cash registers ring. If the Internet is generating revenue for them, they know the Internet is alive and well.

iMedia Connection: Is there enough branding research to satisfy clients?

Johar: Not at all. I've recently seen some new studies from AOL and MSN that support branding and product marketing online but it's still in its infancy compared to other media.

iMedia Connection: Who needs to lead the charge for more research?

Johar: We all do, but specifically the IAB and online research firms.

iMedia Connection: What are your clients' reservations about spending more money for interactive media?

Johar: ROI. If they're going to invest money online, they want to know how it's going to affect their business or advertising communication, either in terms of sales, or reach and frequency.