The recent deals between Google and DoubleClick and Microsoft and aQuantive have placed a lot of attention on the top and bottom of the classic marketing funnel(Awareness -> Consideration -> Shop). The massive amounts of display inventory that the networks bring to the search engines has raised the possibility of integrated buys that follow the consumer from when they first realize a need for a product all the way through to the actual shopping phase. What these deals and the theoretical buy leaves out, however, is the middle. What appears when a person asks a community for their thoughts on a purchase or looks for more information online is more often than not a peer’s opinion. Similarly, the top links in a search result will often be a Wikipedia entry and peer review information. This community-generated content is viewed with more credibility as it is often based on real-world experience. While that is not news (hopefully), one needs only to look at the top of the funnel to see that most/all brand creative is focused on creating an emotional connection with an individual instead of starting a substantive conversation with a community. We monitor millions of conversations from film to pharma, and do you know what no one talks about online? How a brand makes them “feel”- they instead address how a product works for them. Until agencies and marketers address this, all of the efficiencies and data generated by these deals will fail to address the most powerful input for a consumer, Word-Of-Mouth.