Mobile marketing has been on the precipice of becoming a viable medium for a number of years now, but one of the many implications of last week's Apple iPhone announcement is that the future is now rapidly approaching, and mobile will likely take a major jump forward within the next year.

Ask almost anyone to name the one device they won't leave home without, and nine times out of ten they will tell you it's their cell phone. But despite the ever-growing role of cell phones in everyday life, the so-called "third screen" has yet to deliver on its much prophesized advertising potential. This has left mobile ad networks and would-be mobile advertisers alike to ask consumers: can you see me now?

Just when I think I've heard of just about every form of advertising, I realized I was wrong. I got an e-mail announcing the launch of advertising at airport security checkpoints. Yes, you heard it right. New media company SecurityPoint Media works with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and partners with local airports to provide and end-to-end security checkpoint solution in return for the right to utilize the SecureTray for promotional campaigns. In a nutshell, ads on new security trays.

Frankly, I'm not sure if anyone deserves to be agency of the year, because nobody really knows what's going on in this turbulent phase of marketing and advertising. At best, an agency can be humble, adaptive, speedy and experimental; those factors represent today's ultimate competitive advantage. Anyone who claims mastery and full confidence is either misguided or disingenuous. And that is a major reason why "nobody" should be named agency of the year.

The new year begins and online advertising continues to boom. All is right with the world, right? Not really. If even a modest number of the top 1,000 consumer marketers woke up tomorrow, realized that they have been under-spending on online relative to offline advertising, and decided to double their online spending to bring it more in line with the amount of time that consumers spend online, it's very likely that their agencies could not find any appropriate places to put it.

Video is obviously a hot topic right now, but there is a debate raging whether advertising in a video environment will be effective. The debate ranges from "video advertising is just as effective as TV," as was stated in a report from HP and MSN, to the outlook for video advertising being dim as it "fails to resonate with consumers," as was cited by Forrester recently. L

While Google may not be considering the agency neither friend nor enemy as it continues its mission to organize the world's content, who does keep Google up at night? My guess is that if you had to ask Eric that question, somewhere near the top of the list (distantly behind Bill G.) would have to be MySpace. I know what you're saying: "Google and MySpace just signed a huge deal to work together." But think about it....

What's up with brands bashing advertising? And hell, yes, I am quite biased when I ask this question. Well, have you heard the recent hoopla with craigslist? Founder Craig Newmark always said he wouldn't offer advertising or accept advertising. Just take a quick glance at the site. The ugly blue text geometrically placed on its pages is just that--ugly. However, it works.

A debate in the blogosphere and trade press over the relevance of the Web page-view metric picked up steam in the latter half of 2006. While many argued the metric has never been more than a rough proxy of impressions, it is the universal currency of online media buyers and sellers, and it's making publishers increasingly, if secretly, anxious.

One of the perks of being a columnist in this industry is that I get to write about what may be in store for 2007. Apologies to those already tired of all of the 2007 predictions. In deference to you, I will keep mine brief....