The director of this search-only agency's paid media division says his pet peeve is the words "real-time reporting." Find out why.

Ethan Hagerty is director of IMPAQT's Paid Media division. He brings creative thinking and a strong background in data analytics to the creation of IMPAQT'S Paid Management technologies. Having worked at IMPAQT since 2001, Hagerty brings the management of Paid Placement buying and planning to a new standard through the integration of state-of-the-art performance metrics and analytics. Prior to joining IMPAQT, Ethan was employed by 3W Interactive as an Applications Developer -- working specifically on enterprise-level data marts and custom application design.

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?

Ethan Hagerty: What I am most proud of is that our agency has maintained our position as a leader in the search industry. With each passing week, there seems to be continuous press releases about a new agency being launched, a blockbuster acquisition or new technology introduced; and for our agency to stay at the forefront of all this is extremely gratifying.

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

Hagerty: Data. Every day, I am perplexed at how poor the data situation is within this industry. From the search engines, to the back-end analytical packages, to the agencies themselves, many consumers and clients are unaware that our processes and methodologies are challenged at times by the lack of updated data and information. One of my pet peeves is the words "real-time" reporting. Very few marketers are in fact using up-to-date information to manage their clients' campaigns, and this can have an effect on the outcome of their results.

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

Hagerty: One of the more common requests our clients have is a way to compare/contrast their search campaigns versus other forms of online marketing such as banner advertising or affiliate marketing. We have developed a number of customized applications for clients using these models to prove the overall value of search marketing. Clients are very interested in seeing which form of online advertising is most effective, and want the ability to quickly act upon this data. I love these types of comparisons because more often than not, clients soon realize the great value that search provides and decide to shift more ad dollars to search.

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

Hagerty: We are currently developing a solution that integrates both paid search and rich media which combines the direct marketing aspect of search and the interactivity and engagement of rich media into a seamless application that we call an "Intelligent Landing Page".

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

Hagerty: As a search-only agency, this is a difficult question. However, I think search will become enormous on PDAs and cell phones in the near future. I remember how gradual the growth of SMS was in the United States. Now it is so commonplace. I think this will be the case with mobile search too. I find myself using search more and more on my Treo, and it will only be a matter of time before we see a major shift in advertising to this media.

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

Hagerty: Within the search marketing space, I would definitely say contextual advertising. Clients are still very hesitant to spend their ad dollars on media that they have very little control over and even less idea where their ads are being displayed. The challenge as an agency is how to prove that contextual advertising can be used as a direct response channel, rather than a branding channel as it is most widely used.

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?

Hagerty: Personally, I love working with small companies. They are very agile, innovative and open to new ideas that it makes me more creative. It's refreshing to have a conference call with a client, throw some new ideas out there and be able to act upon those ideas immediately. If you want to see creativity in online marketing, take a look at some of the small to medium companies in the auto insurance space. However, with the larger companies come the larger budgets. And this allows for much more flexibility when creating and expanding upon a search campaign.

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?

Hagerty: Absolutely. This occurs all the time. One of the cornerstones of IMPAQT has always been technology and data. Names, faces and campaigns change all the time, but in the end it is really about data analysis. What works, what doesn't work? We constantly apply this analysis across all our client's campaigns. By doing so, all our clients benefit.

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

Hagerty: There was one MAJOR search campaign that was up for grabs this summer that I wish our agency had been fortunate to receive. However, they elected to keep it in-house.

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?

Hagerty: With clients it is definitely education. Although search has been mainstream for years now, I still find myself educating clients and really having to sell how valuable search can be for their company. I think the best approach to this problem is showing the client or potential client what the competition is doing online. If a client can visually see themselves compared against their competition, especially in search, it brings out a competitive spirit, especially knowing that they are losing share of voice.

iMedia: What are your goals for the coming year?

Hagerty: As an agency, our goal is to remain at the forefront of the search industry both technology wise, and with increased growth. We find that within this industry, the ability to be adaptive, flexible, scalable and innovative always wins out in the long run. And we are in a prime position to continue on this path well into the future!

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor for iMedia Connection.