Media businesses can’t tell if they’re selling brand or direct advertisements. Many others who wish to buy these advertisements are also undecided.
The brand marketers are the ones who go first in most forms of media. Brands having a budget to spend on new media that was valued by early adopters were the first to buy banner advertisements, podcast commercials, or Facebook ads.
Direct marketers, on the other hand, aren’t concerned with the medium; they’re concerned with the reaction. As a result, there’s a significant disconnect, a friction, between what the medium desires (a fantastic podcast, an authoritative website, a social network with personality) and what the direct marketer desires (measurable clicks).