Economic cycles are a fact of life in the advertising business. It's been true since the beginning. But perhaps more predictable than advertising cycles are advertising forecasts. Hey, there goes another one....

You don't have to have been in the digital media business for a very long time to realize that we are in a period of extraordinary change. Over the past two years, there have been tectonic shifts in everything from enabling technologies to user behavior to business models to regulatory scrutiny. What is driving these changes? Here are some of the drivers....

Thanksgiving has passed and the holiday season is in full swing. It's time to sit back, relax and reflect on the year that was! One of my favorite things to do this time of year is reflect on all the news items related to our industry that were overhyped, over-discussed and way over-publicized. Let's call it "The Year in Re-Re-Re-Review" (or also known as the "You've been bitten by a Werewolf/Zombie/Whatever-Application-Is-Hot-On-Facebook" Awards)!

When it comes to social media, forget the concept of advertising to a captive audience and instead focus on creating branded content that people want to see and would choose to share with others: brand advertising as social media content.

Well, you know the writer's strike has been going on for about a month now. For those of you who don't, I'll give you the quick overview. The Writers Guild of America went on strike Nov. 5. The major issue fueling the strike is residuals to writers for new media. The producers (major studios and networks) say there is no way to predict the future and determine success. The writers think DVDs.

One of the most difficult tasks in life is to boil a complex idea down to its essence. Reducing noise and deconstructing a concept to its core enables raw value to emerge, and allows resonance with our most precious human assets: attention and time. Which is precisely the problem with online advertising and where it's taken us thus far.

I've decided to try to get a jump on prognostications for 2008. With the end of November upon us and fourth quarter revenue all booked, it's a good time to think about next year. What do I expect 2008 to bring? I can start with the easy things....

I've said it before and I'll say it again: to become a success in marketing, you need to know everything you can about popular culture and consumer behavior. Time magazine last week had a special issue devoted to the second part of this philosophy called "America By The Numbers." This issue was dedicated to examining how our consumer landscape is changing and what behaviors are exhibited by the modern American. The issue was fascinating, and I wanted to share with you what I feel the impact of this information will be on digital marketers.

All marketing is "word of mouth"; it's just a question whose mouth the marketing words/messages are coming from. Give a brand a chance and it will be happy to tell you all about itself. Brands have been using words from celebrities' mouths to spread their brand messages since there have been celebrities. It seems that the difference between the aforementioned marketing methods and the commonly accepted definition of word-of-mouth is that the mouth must belong to a.... what? Friend? Peer? Consumer? Influencer? Person? Most would answer all of the above -- and say that these people will lend you their …

Happy Cyber Monday, dear readers. Before we took a little break for Turkey Day here last week, I wrote about the anticipated sales of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.