• by Chris Cunningham , Op-Ed Contributor, September 30, 2011

The future of media is activity. For far too long now media and advertisers have littered the web with ads around the experience that don't work. The future is focused on what people are doing, not where they're doing it.

Most importantly, advertising based on people's activities works - outperforming standard display ads by a double-digit multiple. Today, activities include sharing content, checking-in and setting statuses, collecting, sending and earning virtual goods, polls and contests, and completing a level within a game, to name a few.

That is just today. The internet has created a plethora of tools for sharing, consuming, commenting and communicating and the adoption of these tools has only just begun and so have people's web activities. Big media's job will be to enable this activity. In turn, advertisers will look to leverage this activity to connect with audiences. Just as people are no longer sitting and waiting, but rather active participants, as to will the advertisers need to step off pages and into the action of activity.

This all leads to, not only, making advertising better, but transforms display advertising from an around the content format to one that is part of it and, most importantly, one that people don't ignore and actually increases the value of the overall media experience.

Chris Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of appssavvy, a social activity company