This lead-generation expert and iMedia contributor longs for an interactive marketing dictionary to help solve communication issues.

Greg Morey is EVP at G.R. Wyse & Company, LLC, which specializes in online customer acquisition strategies for consumer-oriented companies that can be tied back to a cost per customer acquired. Morey has been involved in interactive marketing since 1995 with a focus on lead generation campaigns that feed into a pre-determined path to acquire the customer. 

iMedia: It's near the end of the year. What would you say was your personal and/or your agency's biggest triumph this year?

Greg Morey: I guess being brand new at G.R. Wyse, I would say surviving the year and still having happy clients. 

iMedia: What are you still struggling with or frustrated with that you thought would be history by 2006?

Morey: T's & C's... haven't we beat that to death by now?

iMedia: How has the role of your agency changed to meet the needs of clients in a world of fracturing media habits?

Morey: I'm not sure I completely understand the question, however, our agency is very focused on online accountability. We certainly have seen several new media sources that say the same thing as the old sources, but we love to see proof in our client's bank accounts first.

iMedia: What are some of the latest ways your agency is integrating different media to achieve client objectives?

Morey: You mean other than search, email and site-based placements...

iMedia: What emerging media have you tested/are you using for clients?

Morey: I'm not sure I would call it emerging, but more of a convergence of theories... viral-IM has proven very promising on trials to provide lift in CTR.  

iMedia: What are clients most afraid of (either device, like cell phone or technique, like blogging)? Why?

Morey: I guess purist blogging portals like MySpace are the ultimate scary front where age verification is like speaking Russian in Spanish Harlem and content is truly left to the consumer.

iMedia: How is marketing/working with a small company different from working with a large company -- in terms of openness to innovation/experimentation/use of emerging platforms? Any industries more innovative, willing to take risks than others?

Morey: I think that depends on the team you partner with on the client side. I've talked with large online auto manufacturer marketers who are very enterprising and smaller guys who are scared stiff to move and of course the inverse. All in all I prefer the entrepreneurs wherever they live simply because we speak the same language… let's test it and find out together.

iMedia: If you develop an innovative campaign that is successful for one company, can you use that success story for companies in other verticals? How can you pitch it to convince other verticals that these results might apply to them too?

It's morally significant for anyone in our industry to honor proprietary knowledge especially as it pertains to a client's product vertical. However, to state that knowledge cannot be applied in other non-competitive verticals is akin to saying "I don't remember getting you pregnant" to your wife. 

If we are retained to implement a test, we are essentially paid to apply what we already understand and know to the set-up of that test environment. If an "A-ha moment" occurs then I do not develop amnesia simply because someone wrote me a large check. As a matter of doing business, we won't seek nor accept a competitor's business until outside the statute of limitations set in our agreement and by then any learning we may have gained is likely irrelevant. So in the final analysis it's better to hold hands and say "I can't wait to have this baby, love of my life."

iMedia: What's the interactive campaign over the last 12 months that you wished had come from your agency? Why?

Morey: I can't say as I have just one that qualified. I judge campaigns less on their "cool" factor and more on their ability to move product for clients. Of course, I remain inspired by Kate Everett-Thorp's crew at AKQA and the way they have become a blend of how to make brand and retail work together in an online environment. 

iMedia: What's the biggest communications problem that you have in your work -- either internal within your company or external with clients -- and what strategies work best for you in tackling this sort of problem?

Morey: Is there a dictionary for our business? Acronyms and definitions still seem to get in the way -- a lot -- so if I have an important conversation occurring that day, on the way to school in the morning I ask my 13-year-old daughter to interpret what she hears from me. My eight-year-old of course thinks I sound like the school teacher in Charlie Brown, however, if my teen can't understand what I'm trying to say, then I have to think harder on how I can simplify my statements. We all have to mean the same thing when we use labels. This is not to say that my clients or my team is juvenile... well immature... mmm, perhaps uneducated is what I meant....  I think I need a thesaurus to go with that dictionary.

iMedia: What are your goals for the coming year?

Morey: This year I'm really hoping to get my arms around why instant replay isn't used in baseball. Our goals are likely no different than any other shop's -- keep our clients happy enough to trust in our decisions so we can experiment enough to form solid decisions for our clients.