We agree that an independent company will probably innovate better than an
agency acquisition. I say they might even be able to educate better as well,
since a company whose revenue is tied to successful adoption may develop
better education modules than the agency's internal resources would.

I agree that Search gets the last click attribution and therefore the
highest ROI – but people have not lost faith in branding, banners, and
pre-rolls as the budgets are still higher in other mediums outside of
search.

I also agree that not all agencies should build the technology, but this
leaves a knowledge gap in their native workforce of understanding the
technologies they are licensing from everyone else. I have seen first hand
what that can lead to.

Perhaps its partnerships with true understanding – but no acquisitions, so
they can always work with the latest and greatest to come along.

We agree that an independent company will probably innovate better than an
agency acquisition. I say they might even be able to educate better as well,
since a company whose revenue is tied to successful adoption may develop
better education modules than the agency's internal resources would.

I agree that Search gets the last click attribution and therefore the
highest ROI – but people have not lost faith in branding, banners, and
pre-rolls as the budgets are still higher in other mediums outside of
search.

I also agree that not all agencies should build the technology, but this
leaves a knowledge gap in their native workforce of understanding the
technologies they are licensing from everyone else. I have seen first hand
what that can lead to.

Perhaps its partnerships with true understanding – but no acquisitions, so
they can always work with the latest and greatest to come along.

Once a company has integrated response data (clicks and actions) for each creative ID, the next challenge to gather and consolidate cookie-level user data. You might find that search is driving better ROI than display in terms of actions, but what if an individual watches an pre-roll on Hulu, then interacts with a rich media ad on the Yahoo homepage, then finally clicks a sponsored link on Google and buys a phone. Integrated reporting in Atlas would show that search drove the conversion, but in fact the pre-roll video and rich media ad probably had a lot to do with it.

Tracking the ROI of separate channels on a user level is a big challenge, both in terms of collecting the data and understanding it. Microsoft has tried to solve the problem with their Atlas Engagement Mapping product, but I think the solution will come with in the reporting elements of buying platforms like InviteMedia, AdBuyer, and MediaMath. Getting the holistic reporting data is good, but isn't it even better to have the reporting and buying tool integrated, so that optimization can be automated?

I don't believe that agencies will be disintermediated by integrated reporting, but as marketing becomes more data-intensive it will change agency culture. The best thing agencies can do is build strong partnerships with technology providers. They don't need to build the technologies themselves to avoid disintermediation. Agencies exist to provide sound, disinterested advice on media strategy and, now, media technology strategy, and they can continue to deliver value by providing that advice.

Unlike the telco's, internet companies do not have to deal with bricks and mortar. Within the internet industry, the barriers to entry are much less, and the velocity at which things can change is super fast. With that said, the “last mile” problem, or solution rather, should come because all it takes are a couple of smart engineers with a computer, instead of a couple dozen laborers to rewire buildings.

“Finally, putting these tools, concepts, and specialty at the brand and company level makes the new super agencies obsolete.” – should be interesting to see if the “super agencies” become obsolete.” I would argue that they most certainly will evolve and adopt technologies (either built in house, or acquired) and will use those technologies to complete the last mile. Too bad by the time they do, the industry will have evolved yet again…