Here at MEDIA magazine we like to shake things up from time to time, kind of like Naked Communications did when the U.K.-headquartered communications strategy firm announced in January the opening of a New York hub. Paul Woolmington, formerly head chef at the Media Kitchen and regular "New Next" columnist, was tapped to open Naked's New York outpost with M.T. Carney, formerly senior partner/worldwide planning director at Ogilvy & Mather, New York. The pair are already busy working on multiple pitches, servicing existing multinational clients like Nokia, and partnering with like-minded marketing service companies. Tobi Elkin checked in with Paul …

With the cost of TV advertising increasing nearly 20 percent during the last two years -- up 12.3 percent in 2003-2004 and up 6.4 percent in 2004-2005 -- the media industry is eager to identify new ways to improve the effectiveness of the medium. Gross rating points are no longer an adequate metric, and advertisers have begun looking for alternatives.

As we analyzed our clients' 2006 media plans, we noticed that sponsorship and digital marketing are two of the hottest areas for marketing investment. We're seeing clients across industries starting to make significantly bigger bets on digital marketing this year. Even consumer packaged goods clients are planning on spending up to 15 percent of their media budgets on digital initiatives after only spending only 3 to 4 percent in recent years.

I have a mass product. it sells everywhere. I need to reach everyone. Why should I target? It just makes my CPMs more expensive." This common perspective has created the bottom feeder -- the media manager whose primary mission is to procure low-cost mass media. But it's a good question: Why target? The answer comes in three parts.

We have talked many times over the past year about finding consumers' marketing apertures -- the places where media usage, message receptivity, and product need meet. Uncovering those moments brings us closer to achieving the goal of being media agnostic, selecting communication channels based on their ability to achieve message receptivity and generate consumer action. This month, we'd like to widen our own aperture to consider a broader spectrum of U.S. consumers, specifically, Hispanic consumers, who wield an estimated buying power of $630 billion.

The internet has matured into the most important medium since television. But the Internet is still evolving, and the latest "killer application" is social engagement, a development paralleled by the rising interest in connection throughout society at large. These days, the best way to get people's attention is not to engage consumers with a brand, but to host or facilitate a context for people to engage with one another. People don't want to see ads; they want to see their friends. And while they're doing so, they'll do business as well.

My young wife is the last of what appears to be a dying breed: She not only feels loyalty towards the broadcast networks, she associates specific programming with them. Some of this is likely a counter-response to my incessant channel-flipping. Some of it is probably that she's not yet attuned to the TiVo revolution. Some of this, however, is that she associates a certain level of quality with these brands' programming.

Those of us decrepit enough to have grown up with vinyl records and cassette recorders should have recognized that the 2005 sales figures for the music industry represent something akin to full circle for the music business. Back in the day, when I was still struggling with the trials of containing teenage hormones and living with older siblings and parents who just didn't get it, the music industry thrived. How?

It was born as a buzzword and it became gospel. Now every agency claims that it, and it alone, has unlocked its secrets. No self-respecting advertising professional leaves home without it. Of course I'm talking about creativity.