DM News: @D:Tech Show Loses Some Of Its Swagger

"I'm seeing a return to the idea that we are a complementary medium," said Tim Sanders, chief solutions officer at Yahoo, during his second-day morning keynote presentation titled "Brand 360: It's all About Net."

Two years ago, someone in Sanders' role at an Internet-related trade show might have talked about the Internet creating "disintermediation," or possibly replacing traditional forms of selling. However, Sanders discussed such integrated tactics as sending e-mail advertising during the workday notifying people that a catalog will be in their mailboxes when they get so they're less likely to throw it out.

He also cited the so-called cross-media optimization study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Marketing Evolution and Dynamic Logic, which reportedly showed that various measures of brand advertising are more efficiently boosted when online advertising is added to the media mix.

"The Internet is perhaps the glue that holds everything together," Sanders said.

And:

"…vendors are even using phrases like "back in the mix," said Annette Tonti, chief marketing officer of Bluestreak, Newport, RI. "Back in the hype days, they thought they were the only thing."

This article portrays the mood at @d:tech as a humble one. As an industry that thought it was once king of all media. But was that really the case? Did any of you interactive planners and sales people really think that the Internet would replace anything rather the compliment it? I don't think so. And if you did, you were dreaming. It's a great medium. It can accomplish many things. It will not, however, eliminate other media anytime soon.