Some of the biggest names in the interactive marketing world gathered in New
York on Thursday to discuss how agencies, advertisers and content providers
could work together on the Web.
The meeting, sponsored by the ad industry's Coalition for Advertising
Supported Information & Entertainment, brought together top executives from
CKS Partners, Modem Media, Grey Advertising, DDB Needham Worldwide, General
Motors Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., The New York Times, Starwave Corp., the
American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National
Advertisers and other companies.
Of primary interest: the comments of P&G's Darrell Sims, who is spearheading
the marketer's Web advertising drive. P&G's actions have been closely watched
since the marketer started buying ads on the Web but demanding payment on a
click-through rather than a per-impression basis. Several Web sites have
refused to work with P&G on its terms.
Mr. Sims, said one agency executive who attended the closed meeting, said
"exactly what P&G has been saying all along."
Also a topic of heavy debate: whether measuring eyeballs, or impressions, is
even important in Web advertising. A sizeable contingent, mainly agency and
advertiser executives, argued that eyeballs are "among the least important"
measurement of Web advertising effectiveness, said one executive attending the
meeting.