Earlier in the year, most wouldn't have guessed it. The tone in the industry was pretty dismal -- headlines were peppered with bleak economic outlooks, shrinking marketing budgets and widespread layoffs. Report after report forecasted the recession would force those already advertising online to funnel the lion's share of shrinking ad budgets into search, ditching display in the process. However, the economic downturn only magnified the Web's perceived weakness as a branding vehicle. Already, the rise of social media and its encroachment on traditional publishing and marketing models had complicated its promise for numerous brands, painting the Internet as a volatile place with no clear cut formula for success.

Be that as it may, consumers continue to spend an increasing amount of time -- on average 12 hours per week, according to Forrester -- with digital media. Ignoring it isn't an option. So is the Web destined to be a pure direct response ad medium, rendered too "experimental" and "hard to measure" for brand advertisers? Or have the tides recently started to turn for brands online?

I would argue the latter. In fact, it looks to me like we're witnessing the elements coming together in a proverbial "perfect storm" for advertisers looking to build brands online.

Don't Call it a Comeback: Display Gets Its Due
Once considered the red-headed stepchild among its paid search brethren, display appears poised for a revival. It started last year at this time, when Microsoft launched its Engagement Mapping product and released a related study indicating display did a fair amount of heavy lifting - but received none of the glory -- in driving online users to make purchases. The study revealed that search clickers exposed to display advertising were 22 percent more likely to produce a sale than those who weren't exposed.

Fast forward to this year: comScore and the OPA have also come out swinging with research findings that illustrate those exposed to branded ads spent around 34 more minutes per unique visitor on the advertiser's site, and spent 7 percent more money than those who were not exposed. So, display increases the likelihood of your target audience buying your products and helps increase how much they spend? Sounds like a recipe for success to me.

Display 3.0: From Banner to "Experience"
It's clear there is real value in investing in an online branding strategy. But to truly realize that value, we have to innovate beyond the banner. Luckily, that's exactly what the industry is doing. We're seeing networks innovate with persistent ad formats that allow creative to move with consumers as their eyes scroll down the page. Other players are looking to port social media-type features (including blog posts, Twitter feeds and Facebook Connect functionality) into ad units themselves. This is all in an effort to go beyond pushing a message, and instead create a branded experience on the Web -- a medium that is uniquely able to facilitate an active relationship between a brand and its audiences.

Conversational Media = Catalyst for Brand Impact
Despite the fact that many brands are still gun shy about social and conversational media, the growth and maturation of this kind of content only strengthens the Web's value proposition as a branding platform. The fact that, according to comScore, 20 percent of all display is now being placed within social media is not by accident. Advertisers have learned that aligning a brand with the kind of trusted peer media that ultimately drive purchases is a very smart move.

Conversational media can be especially powerful in helping consumers form preferences and establish which factors to consider when purchasing a product. Consider this: the fact that 92 percent of people in a recent survey say they trust product information from a blog more than they do a salesclerk means that consumers are looking at peer media to form an opinion before walking into a store. That means, if I walk into a Best Buy after reading a killer review of the latest Nikon camera, I'll unlikely budge, no matter how hard the salesclerk tries to sell me a Sony. That's the dynamic conversational media captures -- and brands have discovered that, by aligning themselves with this powerful content, they can influence potential buyers during an important phase in the purchase process.

The "Measure-lution": Beyond the Click
Everyone knows the click is not the best tool for helping advertisers track engagement or determine success. And the truth may be that a standardized metric (or single "catch all") may never emerge. In a way, that's the beauty -- and irony -- of what online advertising has become. Because advertising online is increasingly morphing into a brand "experience," it makes sense that success metrics need to be customized. The key is establishing these pre-campaign and ensuring a solid mechanism for collecting and reporting on that data.

Though a singular metric may never materialize, a significant amount of work from players and organizations is moving all of our collective thinking forward. Microsoft is now providing frequency and reach data at the ad placement level, and industry groups like the IAB are exploring blog metrics like conversation size and density to better understand the landscape of conversations for placing media and measuring the buzz generated by overall campaigns.

Online advertising is a mix of art and science, and we've got a lot of work to do as an industry to iron out the kinks. But there's a storm of possibilities brewing for brands that are ready to make the move online. The elements are aligning to make it the perfect time to map out an online branding strategy -- are you ready to ride the next wave?