IQ News: Insider – New Media, 24/7

David Moore has a true new media pedigree. He spent years in the “new” medium of cable TV, back “when cable wasn’t cool.” He developed Whittle-style special interest TV before Whittle. He was a television rep in the early years, “when there were 30 reps,” he recalls. “Now there are three.”
Moore, 45, still has an appetite for the unproven turf. As chief executive officer of 24/7 Media-the product of the merger of Petry Interactive (of which Moore was CEO), Interactive Imaginations and the staff behind Katz Millennium Marketing-he now oversees one of the largest ad sales organizations in new media.
24/7, which claims some 200 mid- to large-sized sites and 30 sales reps, is now ready to take on DoubleClick Network, considered the market leader with 80 sales reps, 60-odd sites and strong brand awareness among media buyers.
The difference between the two firms, says Moore, “is, we view ourselves as a media company; DoubleClick views itself as a technology company.” Moore says that 24/7 was almost named CLOOP, for closed-loop marketing. He expects to distinguish 24/7 with a direct marketing slant, using better demographics for more acute targeting online. “That will be the holy grail,” he says. And then, he predicts, the Internet will take “accountability” in advertising to a whole new level.
Moore has always brought this sort of bottom-line orientation to his new media endeavors. Following a brief stint at the now defunct TV rep firm PGW, Moore made his leap into cable, joining Turner Broadcasting in 1979. Moore was later recruited to lead the sales force at Viacom-owned Cable Health Network, which ultimately merged with Lifetime Network. Responsible for combining the networks’ sales teams, he remembers the experience as drawn out, less than graceful-and a drag on sales performance.
But that was 1984; this time around, things will be different. Moore plans to divvy up New York between two sales teams-a strategy common in traditional media, but not so in the leaner new media. Thus, in addition to challenging DoubleClick, salespeople will have each other to compete against.
Ultimately, Moore expects a convergence of media, where he’ll be able to identify users whether they’re using the Internet, reading a magazine, or watching TV.
“I’ll someday be involved in some octopus of media,” he says. “The ad sell of the future will not be media-centric. It will be audience-centric.”