• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, September 6, 2007

Vacations are over. Labor Day is just behind us. School has started across the country. The U.S. Open tennis tournament will be wrapping up this coming weekend. And most of us in the online advertising business are getting ready for our Stretch Run.

For many of us, the next three months will be our busiest of the year. No only will we be busy closing out fourth-quarter business and focusing on delivering great campaigns for our clients, but we'll all be spending a lot of time planning for 2008.

One thing is for sure for all of us in online advertising: This coming fourth quarter and next year are going to be huge. We've been waiting a long time for traditional advertisers and marketers to embrace the Web, and it is finally beginning to happen. If we manage the business and their newfound trust well, we'll take substantial steps in positioning interactive to not only be a critical part of the overall media and marketing mix over the long term, but the central driver for all advertising and marketing over the next five to seven years.

With traditional media hurting, the online business booming, and with a lot of froth in the public and private equity market for tech companies, it's easy for folks to get a bit cocky about the future. However, make no mistake about it -- winning will be hard and is by no means predestined. We have a lot of work to do if we are to win the central spot in client marketing plans currently held by the television folks. Here are some of the things I think we need to focus on. These topics are all ones that I have written about previously, but their need for our attention is only increasing.

• Results. Our success will rise and fall with the results that we actually deliver for advertisers and marketers. As Joe Paterno, the longtime football coach at my alma mater Penn State, says, "You either get better or you get worse. You never stay the same." We have to get better every day at delivering results for our clients, whether they are branding objectives, direct marketing or sales. When we stop improving, we will start losing.

• Scale. Clients need to be able to get the same kind of results with their last dollar that they got with their first. Proving that we can do a great job with small budgets by no means guarantees that we can do well with large budgets. We have to be able to make our businesses scale.

• Simplicity. Managing interactive advertising is complex and confusing, even for folks that have been in this business for more than a decade. We must make it simpler. Television is simple.

• Supply chain. One of the reasons that interactive advertising is complex is that most of our industry's supply chain has been pieced together ad hoc over the years. It is understandable how we reached this point, but we can't allow it to continue. This is a big priority at the Interactive Advertising Bureau and is something that we all need to focus on.

• Consumer trust. We hear it and live it more and more every day, but consumers are now in charge. We serve ads to them at their pleasure. If we abuse our position, if we don't give them value with our advertising, if we don't protect their privacy, we will lose our position and our businesses. The telemarketing industry was practically destroyed by the Do-Not-Call List. Let's not let this happen to us.

• Humbleness. Things are going well for our industry at the moment. But before we get too cocky, let's not forget that we've been here before. Things will not always be so easy. We're going to have plenty of challenges and setbacks. While confidence and swagger can be good, we have no place being disrespectful, arrogant or obnoxious. We saw lots of this behavior from colleagues and ourselves back in 1999. Let's hope we never see it again.

This is going to be a great Stretch Run. Lots to do. Lots to think about. What do you think?