Platform A President Curt Viebranz goes behind the headlines to see how today's news impacts the industry's future in this Q&A.

Curt Viebranz, president of Platform A, shares his insights with the marketing community, lending his wisdom to the stories that shape the digital world.

iMedia: By all accounts, there are some pretty gaudy predictions for growth in online advertising. But how do you see interactive responding to the possibility of a recession?

Viebranz: Economic downturns are never good for any sectors of the advertising industry. Given the strong measurability and ROI that interactive delivers, it should do better than others, but let's hope that any slowdown, if there is one, is short.

iMedia: Every few months, we hear about another small startup trying to break into the search market and take down Google. Do you see a real opening for a new contender in the search field?

Viebranz: Ten years ago, we would not have imagined that a new search player could enter the market. AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AltaVista and Infoseek were all too powerful. Then Google came along. We learned that even the mighty fall to innovative new applications. I suspect that it will happen again.

iMedia: Online video came on strong at the end of 2007, and it looks to be getting bigger by the minute. Do you think we'll finally see long-form, professional-level video develop on the web in such a way as to rival TV for ad dollars?

Viebranz: We expect web video and a number of other digital display advertising formats to continue to successfully compete with television for brand ad dollars.

iMedia: 2008 has seen a few deals already, and it has seen its fair share of rumored deals. Do you see the M&A frenzy that characterized 2007 continuing?

Viebranz: We just announced our acquisition of Buy.at, a leading affiliated network in the U.K. I think that we will expect to see companies like ours continue to make prudent additions to their companies as we grow our businesses, particularly outside of the United States.

iMedia: What do you make of Google's decision to collaborate with Publicis? Will this lead to the birth of the so-called new agency model?

Viebranz: We expect to see agencies and the large ad platforms, like our own Platform A, form much closer collaborations and partnerships in the future. It is the only way that we can deliver the kind of scaled solutions that clients are looking for. I would expect to see many more like that.

iMedia: We constantly see new online advertising technologies and strategies emerge. While experimentation is a good thing for the industry, are there ideas out there that make you simply shake your head?

Viebranz: I've been around digital media too long to be too dismissive of any new ideas in this space.

Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.