The industry must deliver more for less in a world where consumers hold that less is more.

One of the most egregious flaws of days gone past was the “technology for technology's sake” mistake. Or as one of the media planners who worked for me at TBWA\Chiat\Day so eloquently put it, "solutions in search of a problem."

This cart before the horse approach typified "the just because you can, doesn’t mean you should" life lesson, and I think for the most part, we’re in a good place now, having firmly put this chapter in our lives behind us.

Except that right now, there is a problem. It’s a rather huge problem and if it were the size of an elephant in the corner offices of broadcast, agency and marketing execs, there wouldn’t be much room for mahogany tables, mini-bars, designer sofas or Herman Miller Aeron chairs (still going cheap on eBay).

The problem, of course, is that mainstream media’s business model is broken. Thanks to DVRs like TiVo, prime time is becoming "my" time. Time shifting is becoming more pervasive, insofar that appointment viewing is being replaced with on-demand viewing. The shift from push to pull isn’t just confined to the world of search anymore -- it couldn’t be more apparent right now than in the world of TV.

This being said, we’re all familiar with the adage, "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." One of the main reasons why the television model continues to limp along is cultural rationalization. While television advertising remains arguably the most intrusive and disruptive of all forms of advertising, it is still accepted because it represents the status quo. We were all born into this format and we’ve come to accept and deal with it over time. The consistency of its execution and delivery has conditioned us to internalize and integrate it into our lives. It’s not all good though, as many (if not most) of us have self-programmed ourselves to head for the little boys' or girls' room when ads come on. But for the most part, there’s still the willing or unwilling acknowledgement that this is the way things work.

And yet, facing an ever-fragmenting landscape, with explosive choice and the continued hardening of consumers towards irrelevant messaging, the networks’ hands have been forced with a "damned if you do and damned if you don’t" Catch 22 scenario. TV is being forced to seriously re-look at the way they’ve done business in order to assess and ensure that they can continue to do business.

There’s a fine line between innovation and desperation if you ask me (and you didn’t). Ford is one such advertiser that seems to be continuously experimenting with new approaches -- such as its '24' blanket sponsorship and 'American Idol' support. The former is intriguing, but relatively easy to telegraph by suspecting consumers. The latter has promise, but the saccharine-scripted Ford moments are pretty unsettling to the stomachs.

So what’s an automotive client got to do these days to get noticed? (Go ask Ian Beavis.)

But what really takes the cake is the move towards revising the way networks introduce season premieres and new series to America. The transition away from a fall blitz to a more evenly-distributed schedule over a wider period of time has got the Big-L written all over it. It’s taken decades upon decades to indoctrinate middle America as to when they should watch TV and now in one bold move, we’re going to try and convince them that they shouldn’t be watching baseball or playing out in the yard with the kids or doing whatever it is that they do when their brains are not being peppered with gamma rays.

It isn’t readily obvious to me that we’re in any better position than our counterparts in TVLand. For starters, we have the unfortunate handicap of beginning our quest on the back foot. We’re still perceived as the medium of spam, pop-ups and more pop-ups. There isn’t any cultural acceptance of the necessity for advertising; there certainly isn’t any mainstream awareness of a vaguely similar value proposition of advertising for content.

Does this mean we should wave the white flag and surrender? Certainly not. Again, there is the fine line between innovation and desperation and we’re seeing a healthy number of new approaches which strive towards the former camp, as opposed to the latter.

Ultramercial has its "pay with your time or your money" quid pro quo. Unicast has its TV’s-R-Us full screen video commercial. PointRoll does it with permission. Google has recently announced a pretty robust free email service, which will contain relevant text links. Tacoda and Revenue Science use registration and behavior to fine-tune their own particular sweet spots. WhenU and Claria attempt to take the guesswork out of targeting.

All in all, there’s no slowing down in an advertising industry that is only speeding up in intensity, overall challenge and degrees of difficulty.

Whether you have both feet in offline or online, or one foot in both, as long as you continue to fund your 401(k)s by bringing together buyers and sellers through the matchmaker of messaging, you’ll need to figure out a way to deliver more for less in a world where consumers hold that less is more.

Next week, I’ll walk you through 10 pointers I believe may hold the key (or at least point the way) towards how the business model (or lack thereof) evolves.