Global technology leader IBM released highlights from its second annual digital media survey this week. The company surveyed 2,800 individuals around the globe on their media consumption habits and asked specific questions tailored around video advertising. The full summary can be read here. While I read every published study regarding online video, this one was particularly interesting since it was consumer-based and asked very relevant questions.There are three key findings that I zeroed in on as critically important as the online video ad industry enters what could be a true breakout year in 2009

Broadband isn't TV -- it's better. And we're wasting our chance to reach engaged users by recycling the same, long creative. Let's rewind. It's 1999, and the "Bud - Weis - Er" frog commercials are still fresh in everyone's minds. As a young, idealistic media seller, I'd often pound my fist on an agency buyer's desk and declare "you can do this for your client, too -- except since it's online, it'll be better! We can sequence creative, so we don't just keep showing users the same static image. We can tell an unfolding story over time."

Why should corporate America take notice of a small household appliance maker? Because that company is a prime example of a small but growing group of businesses that have cracked the code on the video-centric Web.

Doom and despair are the watchwords for the advertising and publishing industries as our economy nosedives into a recession. In times like this, it is easy for advertisers (dragging their agencies with them) to simply retrench and wait for better days to market themselves. It's also easy for advertisers to stay away from "newer" ad types like online video -- ad types that could be deemed risky or peripheral to a core media campaign....

Amidst the gloomy prognostications of '09 advertising budget declines, one area that's due for certain course correction is online video CPMs. We've heard everything from big media's projections of 20% across-the-board declines in overall ad spending to the more optimistic flat spending in broadcast while magazine and newspaper tumble further. But one thing's for certain: digital budgets are in for a wakeup call in 2009.

In 2006, Pepsi's Frito-Lay pushed the marketing envelope by challenging users to create an ad for the Super Bowl. The contest was successful beyond everyone's expectations, resulting in over a thousand submissions, millions of views and a hilarious winning commercial that won "best ad of 2006" honors. This occurred right around the time of Google's acquisition of YouTube. Many thought that this was the peak of the user-generated content (UGC) boom, but in many ways it was the beginning. UGC has continued to enjoy substantial growth via YouTube, blogs and other outlets that allow ease of content creation and distribution.

In 2006, Pepsi's Frito-Lay pushed the marketing envelope by challenging users to create an ad for the Super Bowl. The contest was successful beyond everyone's expectations, resulting in over a thousand submissions, millions of views and a hilarious winning commercial that won "best ad of 2006" honors. This occurred right around the time of Google's acquisition of YouTube. Many thought that this was the peak of the user-generated content (UGC) boom, but in many ways it was the beginning. UGC has continued to enjoy substantial growth via YouTube, blogs and other outlets that allow ease of content creation and distribution.

As digital specialists, we've been trained to continually search for "the next thing." Ten years ago we were looking for the next banner ad and we thought that we found the next "cool" sites (R.I.P. Boo.com, Pets.com, Kozmo, Flooz, and many others that have fallen). Today we're looking for the next MySpace, Facebook or Youtube, the next Quarterlife or the next "In the Motherhood" (for my brothers at Mindshare). We've become wired to constantly change; to be dynamic and nimble and react to consumer interests and concerns in real-time with goal of "innovation."

We've been talking, reading, and are inundated with so many promises of a world of digital media content that is or will soon be at our fingertips. True enough, there is an amazing amount of audio and video content to be sought and sifted through. But, let's face it-- finding what you want in, say, an hour-long television interview is still really, really hard. First, you have to watch the video (yes, I know, what an inconvenience...). If you're fortunate, someone has tried to make it easier for you by indexing the interview with selected keywords that you can jump …