Dave Morgan is doing TV?!

I’ve been Twittering quite a bit more lately (@aclion for those of you who haven’t seen it – and personal is @seanwacl). One of the beauties of Twitter is it makes some of the most interesting/ well-known/ notorious/ cool/ awful/ whatever people accessible. Even with over 100k followers there’s something intimate and engaging about reading Tweets from folks like Jimmy Fallon (I’m a recent fan, been to two taping’s since he started – how lame is that?)
Anyway, came across Dave Morgan’s handle and thought I’ve got to follow this guy (@davemorgannyc for any of you other stalkers out there). Dave’s got kind of an iconic place in New Media as the founder of Real Media AND Tacoda, both of which sold for more money than I’m ever gonna see. Most of his Tweets are of the mundane sort (if you’re reading this Dave – sorry, but it’s true) but then this one popped up:

@davemorgannyc I’m back in the start-up world: http://www.simulmedia.com/press
7:47 AM Mar 5th from web

Here’s a brief synopsis on Simulmedia for context:

Simulmedia, Inc. (simulmedia.com) is a New York City-based marketing services company dedicated to improving the relevance and effectiveness of program promotion on television. Simulmedia is developing pioneering predictive models and technology to help television companies deliver the right promotions to the right viewers at the right time. The company’s founder and CEO is Internet entrepreneur Dave Morgan.

First response: What the..? Dave Morgan is doing TV? Dave ‘the most web 2.0 guy in the room’ is doing TV?
And it got me thinking…
All I hear all day is about how much better the web is. It’s hipper, cooler, more measurable, more actionable, cheaper etc. To the point that many of the people I speak to in the space think it’s just silly to be advertising anywhere but the web. And I’ve assumed they’re right – but are they?
I was walking past one of those phone booth billboards this morning on my way to work and it had an ad for the re-release of Pinocchio on DVD and I thought, hey, that’s be a great gift for my nieces. Last night I was listening to Q104.3 and they ran an ad for some upcoming shows at BB Kings that I didn’t know about, I went to the website and bought tickets. On Saturday I was reading The New Yorker (before anyone nudges my obvious pretentiousness right there, let me point out that my sister bought a subscription as a gift for my wife…and they have great content…but I’m still a little pretentious). The New Yorker had an ad for a museum opening I didn’t know about that I’d really like to go to.
That’s 3 different so-called ‘dead’ mediums that drove action.
Now, it’s likely none of those advertisers will know that those ads in particular worked, and that of course is the issue with non-web based media, but those ads DID work.
All of those mediums also offer distinct advantages you don’t get from the web. Phone booth ad: uncluttered environment. Radio ad: Active listener. Mag ad: I’m spending time on the page. TV has its advantages too; much bigger reach than the web. A certain amount of guaranteed viewing. Tends to be higher quality etc.
Maybe what Dave and Simulmedia is doing makes a lot of sense….
Let’s not kill old media – let’s make it better.
Thoughts?