Recently, I had a conversation with a person from a traditional agency who was holding off on running an online campaign because there wasn't enough information about some very specific aspects of targeting, behaviors, etc. The marketer had all the information that anyone could possibly deliver, and admittedly had more information available about the potential online campaign than on anything else running offline. And, in fact, the online buy was cheaper and had greater reach than the offline effort. While on a gut-level the marketer knew the online component should run, it was felt that more was needed; the marketer needed a guarantee that the online campaign was reaching exactly the right people.

Maybe the problem is that we have overused the defense that online is "better" than offline because of its measurability. Because clients can get so much from us and our fancy analytics, they want more. They want a Matrix-like dashboard of metrics such that they can build a virtual world of perfectly targeted consumers with zero waste. Ultimately, their goal is to possess a crystal ball.