The real king of advertising is not Google but rather a mild-mannered 58-year-old media buyer by the name of Irwin Gotlieb, the CEO of media-buying company GroupM. The days of the charming salesperson convincing someone to make an unnecessary purchase are declining. It is all about the numbers now that digital media is at the center of the action, with the likes of Google, Facebook, and Microsofts blockbuster bid for Yahoo!. The $59 billion man Irwin Gotlieb is the one bookish media buyer who reigns supreme, however. In 2007, the CEO of GroupM, a division of the ad conglomerate WPP Group, quietly directed more than 16 percent of the worlds global ad expenditures. Gotlieb not only understands media better than most people but also has the power to convince the industry to embrace his vision. His vision involves old media taking lessons from the Web. Traditionally, according to Gotlieb, you purchase a commercial on television or run an ad in a magazine, making behavioral assumptions and inferences built on viewer demographics. In the digital world, however, ad buyers do not need to make assumptions because they have the data with which to work. Online marketers track actual behavior, so rather than purchasing a type of audience, they can purchase a click, an inquiry, or even a sale. Each time a consumer takes such an action, it becomes part of their clickstream following them around the Web. Gotlieb and GroupM decided that the business also needs a venue with the reach of old media and the data trail on the Web. GroupM now places, tracks, and measures billions of online impressions, tracking behavioral data, thanks to the strategic Gotlieb. Google has been trying to tear down what GroupM and Gotlieb have been building, yet the companies have also worked together.