Carat makes a bold and timely move...

I predicted a long time ago (I'm talking 5 years) that one day, the new wave of leadership in the marketing/media space would come from within the digital space.

There is absolutely no conceivable way that the leaders of tomorrow can possibly come from anywhere else than the digital realm. That doesn't mean they necessarily have to *be* in digital at the time, BUT they're going to have to be deeply and intimately versed in the interactive space in order to stand an iota's shot in hell of being considered.

I might take this one step further and add in a layer of new marketing knowledge that extends beyond the media (online advertising, video, search) business, but for now...it's all digital.

To that end, I want to congratulate two friends/colleagues, Sarah Fay and Scott Sorokin, who have been tapped by that man Verklin to LEAD the newly formed, integrated or is it compressed "Carat". Out goes the old guard and in comes the new generation. It's ballsy. It's obvious. It's a bold experiment.

On one hand, you could say what's old is new again (much like agencies that unbundled and are now reconsidering rebundling), what has emerged is a whole, as opposed to a part of sums. However in this case, the fact that the leadership (and bias?) is coming from the interactive arena sends out a loud and clear signal where Carat's focus will be aimed in the future to come.

David Verklin is a pretty astute marketer. Make no mistake. He is opportunistic and very eagle-eyed when it comes to being where everyone else has yet to consider.

I'm very impressed with this move and I wish Sarah and Scott only the best in this new challenge.