The question "Did the ad campaign work?" sparks fiery debates, because we all have different takes on what "works" means. I contend advertising always works to a meaningful degree. Advertising is an investment that can be shaped into various instruments to accomplish multiple goals. Influencing the consumer is in that mix, but not the only ingredient to a successful communication plan, and not nearly the most important.

Anyone who has sold both print and digital advertising can tell you that there are differences between how each is bought and evaluated. As a rule, digital media is numbers and results-oriented, while print has traditionally relied on a more conceptual sell....

How social do we really want to get? It's a question I've been wrestling with as it relates to our company Web site and one that Jerry Seinfeld wrestled with as well. In a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Kiss Hello," Kramer decides to post the photos and names of every tenant in the building to foster a friendlier living environment. The social experiment goes too far for Jerry's liking when he is greeted by a kiss on the cheek from every female in the building, and a solid lip lock from Kramer himself. Whether you're Cosmo Kramer in an apartment …

Ad networks are a tax on lazy publishers. They are a cancer that slowly eats away at you from the inside, doing severe damage even though you feel fine. They are a cancer that has spread to nearly every publisher, and threaten to do irreversible damage to our industry.

At an IAB conference two years ago, an executive at Microsoft took the stage and flashed a slide to the audience showing the ecosystem in which MSN competed. AOL wasn't listed on the chart. Later that afternoon, then-CEO Randy Falco reminded the room AOL was in the portal business too, and should be ignored at "your own peril." I never worked for Randy Falco, but I did work for Tim Armstrong at Snowball.com -- and oh, man, are MSN and Yahoo in for a fight from this sleeping giant of a portal and its new giant of an executive.