Buying an emerging platform's offering shouldn't be difficult. Agencies and brands gain approval of resources, often with formulaic Excel spreadsheets, and emerging media companies' buying models should meld with buyers' processes. The models that fit in buyers' spreadsheets are CPM, CPA and CPC. That's not to say that another model cannot be sold but rather that unusual buying models are harder to sell.

Brands typically care a lot about impressions, clicks and buys. Naturally, some really good ideas may not be best measured in these three manners, so emerging platforms need not rule out serving up a new model. But they should only do so if necessary; making things harder is never a good idea.

Some emerging media offerings have introduced novel buying and reporting methodologies as a means of differentiation. While I can't say it never makes sense, I can say with certainty that a new model makes a company harder to deal with. Easy is good. Hard is bad.