The industry needs to focus on finding good ideas, lowering expectations.

Maureen Hummon is vice president, manager at General Motors Mediaworks (a unique consolidated media negotiating unit). GM Mediaworks serves all divisions of General Motors in the print, broadcast and interactive media arena. GM Mediaworks also acts as a dedicated resource on broad media issues to NAO Marketing and Advertising staff and to the GM divisions.

iMediaConnection: What's your biggest frustration these days?

Hummon: That the Internet industry focuses so much attention and energy on what percent it’s getting, rather than focusing on getting good ideas.

iMediaConnection: What's easier this year than last?

Hummon: Our proprietary campaign management system continues to evolve its end-to-end solution making tasks easier and increasing opportunities.

iMediaConnection: Can your company point to evidence that suggests online advertising and marketing are contributing positively to branding metrics?

Hummon: Our sophisticated back-end solutions measure across multiple metrics to monitor campaign success on numerous levels.

iMediaConnection: What’s one of the most successful direct response campaigns your company has executed recently, and what made it successful?

Hummon: We have run integrated, cross media campaigns on DR and CRM platforms, increasing consumer response for several divisions.

iMediaConnection: Have any of your clients successfully utilized any emerging technologies, such as IM, wireless, iTV, etc.?

Hummon: We have experience in all emerging technologies and are monitoring consumer adaptability to determine future use and applications.

iMediaConnection: Are you working with search and local search for your clients? Why? And how's it going?

Hummon: We have used both capabilities for different campaigns. They show promising marketing applications for the near future. We continue to monitor these segments and our performance to develop future applications.

iMediaConnection: What are you telling your clients about rich media?

Hummon: As with many applications in marketing and specifically the Internet, newness of an application doesn’t make it successful. Scalability, effectiveness, consumer receptivity and efficiencies are critical to the equation.

iMediaConnection: What can't the Internet do, as much as we wish it could?

Hummon: Household-level geographic targeting is still a ways off.

iMediaConnection: How is the agency-seller relationship these days? How could it be better?

Hummon: Internal sales teams’ communication needs improvement, poor proposal management is deteriorating seller trust.

iMediaConnection: Are you having issues with Terms and Conditions?

Hummon: No problems.

iMediaConnection: What's the one thing you wish clients would understand?

Hummon: That as long as the industry over-promises and underdelivers, it will need to lower expectations.

iMediaConnection: What's the one thing you wish publishers would understand?

Hummon: Full disclosure is the only means to get full understanding of the opportunities and magnitude the industry holds. Without this, spending will not increase dramatically.

iMediaConnection: What remains the industry’s biggest stumbling block?

Hummon: While there is improvement, inventory management is a major hurdle as well as a consistent definition of "impression."

iMediaConnection: What are you reading these days?

Hummon: Too many Internet newsletters to list here, including iMediaConnection, of course. Adage and Media Week provide a good balance with the advertising industry as a whole.

iMediaConnection: And finally, tell us something we don't know yet, but that we will this year.

Hummon: We are continually working on ground breaking ideas, so stay tuned…