At February's iMedia Brand Summit, OMD's Joe Uva described what may unfold in the future of measured media.

Joe Uva is President and CEO of OMD, one of the largest and most innovative media communications specialists in the world. OMD had the distinction of winning more honors at the 51st International Advertising Festival than any of its competitors, taking home the Grand Prix and three Media Lions.

OMD U.S. was formed in 2002 through the media consolidation of three of the most creatively awarded advertising agencies: BBDO, DDB and TBWA. OMD's powerhouse domestic network delivers unmatched creativity and media innovation to Cingular, Bank of New York, Visa, FedEx, Georgia Natural Gas, PepsiCo, Wrigley, Chicago Tribune, Dell, Hormel, LensCrafters, JCPenney, Sterling Jewelers, Hershey and Hertz.

Uva presented the keynote address at the iMedia Brand Summit in Coconut Point on February 8th. Read the first third of that speech here. In the second third, read about what awaits marketers and how to work and sell in this new environment. Today: examples of who's leading the way.

Joe Uva: Now the digital revolution that continues and the media concierge won't only require more creative messaging solutions, it'll enable us to gather more data and know what works and what doesn't. But how is that going to happen? The media concierge's management of interactive TV is a good example to look at. 

Enhanced television, or broadband, via cable modem, allows access to additional layers of information and truly personalizes the television and broadband experience by allowing this interaction. Viewers might be able to participate in more multiplayer games, in trivia shows. As a consumer you may be watching a show, you may see an item, a device that somebody is using, a product, a service, a car, a piece of apparel that an actor is wearing and you may be able to roll your cursor over that, click on it, and it'll take you to a place where it can tell you how and where to acquire it. And interactive television and broadband are also going to allow advertisers a way to communicate directly to those who are interested in finding out more about their product, how it affects their lives, where they can acquire it.

So, there are some advertisers out there today who are already hoping on the bandwagon and are leading the way in interactivity by using it to enable consumers to learn more about their goods and services in generating qualified leads. But everybody in this room knows better than most, it's really only the tip of the iceberg, and from here on out it's where life starts to get more interesting for us all.

The concept of the media concierge arms consumers and empowers them like never before. They choose which messages to accept. They decide when and where you are allowed to speak to them. They'll tell you what they want to know, when they want to know it, and how they want to know it. The media concierge is going to allow consumers to set new criteria and then tell you if you got it right when you talk to them.

I believe that consumers will actually welcome marketers into their lives in this new environment, provided two things: there is value to what you provide to them in information and in the goods and services you offer; and that, they don't mind you to monitor their behavior, but you've got to protect their privacy and there's got to be some controls over it. How we use that data to our advantage is really going to be the key to all of our successes. This is the new world order and the media concierge is going to sit front and center in it.

So who's doing it right today? Well, there's two examples from the physical world today that I believe can help shed some light and give us a path in this new world we're talking about. Target Stores and McDonald's have done an exceptional job of mastering the way of segmenting their customers and aggregating audience just in the current media space that we all live and play in today. And they've been rewarded over the past couple of years with tremendous business success. Because they've been able to do this, it's really a refinement of mass marketing into relevant consumer segments that they can now focus on and use the media that's available today, to help shape those relationships. They're the first advertisers that I can think of, in addition to the Dells of the world and some of the successful direct marketers, who have absolutely figured out how to talk to which group of consumers on which media platforms, and have successfully leveraged those media platforms to enhance their business results.
Translating this kind of innovative thinking to the new digital world order will be the challenge that lies ahead of us. It's a challenge I welcome and look forward to as the world continues to change for us in the years ahead.

Thank you. And now I'd like to open the floor up for any questions.

Andrew Susman: What do you see as the top two or three ideas today, to get more creative?

Uva: Specific ones that have been done or things that should be looked at?

Susman: [Inaudible]

Uva: Well, I think, right now, there's a big opportunity to stress using broadband as a true learning tool for branding. I think clients should get much more aggressive in this area. I think that you need to exploit those users who have adopted it and really it's become a fundamental part of their media consumption. I think we don't know enough about it today. I don't think we should just be taking it for granted that we're going to repurpose video commercial messaging from television and put it on in a broadband internet environment. I think there's an opportunity to do things more uniquely.

At the same time I think people should be exploring more of the TiVo platform. I don't say that because I'm on the Board of Directors of TiVo, but I say that because I really believe there are some unique opportunities embedded in that DVR and VOD world that advertisers need to get more aggressive with. And I think that is the low-hanging fruit. And I think if clients can get their heads around and develop the intestinal fortitude to take just a little bit of calculated risk, the upside and the reward will be tremendous because it will help them understand how consumers are navigating this new digital environment, and how they're managing those platforms for consumption.

Audience Member: How do you feel about the up front as it relates to the broadband?

Uva: I don't understand why anybody, in their right mind, would want to take a model that's been broke for 50 years and impose it in this medium. First of all, when you think about the model, it was developed at a time when there were three networks, with very limited commercial inventory, and it made sense to lock those precious units in, in positions and programs that were the most desirable and most relevant for you as a client. Today in the world that we live in, it's not only irrelevant for broadband; it's probably irrelevant for television as well.

Audience Member: [Asks a question about structure planning in regard to DVRs].

Uva: Well, first of all, I really don't think any of this -- what we talk about here today, and even TiVo -- I don't think any of that is a threat. I really look at it as a big opportunity for marketers. I think it's going to really result in a renaissance in creativity at the agencies. One of the things that I can tell you -- and I know there's quite a few clients here -- that myself and others have been evangelizing for awhile, is it's incumbent upon all of you who are on the new media side, and associated with new technologies and new platforms, not only to talk to us at the media agencies, but also go talk to the creative directors at the advertising agencies. Get in to see them. It's not the account managers who are going to make those decisions on how exploited these new platforms get and when they get exploited. It's the guys who drive the creative process. You'd be surprised when you sit down and talk to some of the creatives that they're fascinated when you tell them there are 15 things they can do in a broadband world, or online, or in VOD, or on a DVR that they can't do in an analog world. It really acts as a catalyst to get them to thinking about new creative messaging and new ways to address it. And while many of them are not technophiles or early adapters, they are definitely interested in trying to do new work. And you see that much more with the younger generation of creatives.

I had a conversation with somebody who is a creative director -- not at one of the Omnicom agencies, but happens to work as a creative director on an account that OMD does media with. And we were having the discussion and he was telling me that he can't get his young stars to work on traditional television commercials anymore. They don't want it. It's not about the reel. They're more committed to and more interested in and more focused on working in this environment and being able to exploit it -- because that's their media consumption. That's the world they live in. They're consuming this stuff. They're the ones who are the adapters to all this new technology, early adopters and have adapted it into their lives as a primary source of media consumption.

Rebecca Weeks: Thank you so much, Joe.

Uva: Thanks Rebecca.