Forget the elephant in the room, there is a rather large one sitting in the middle of Madison Avenue. Interactive, the Internet, broadband, mobile - call it what you will, the digital behemoth is in the process of wreaking havoc on the traditional agency models we have known for 50 years or more. The facts are simple. The Internet, in many and ever-evolving forms, has already profoundly changed the way people discover, understand, select and interact.

"Grow the list!" is a cry heard by e-mail marketers everywhere as companies face the never-ending challenge of expanding their e-mail marketing programs. But where do you begin? The best way is to start with a coordinated set of tactics proven to increase e-mail registrations. First, consider these three key points to help streamline the registration process:

If you're evaluating your options in behavioral advertising, then the issue of industry standards should concern you greatly. Standards ensure a common language and set of guarantees that advertisers can expect, allowing them to make apples-to-apples comparisons when they're shopping for the best behavioral network. Without those standards, you simply cannot know if you're making the most intelligent buy.

When a carmaker designs a new car, one of the factors to consider is the weight and body size of the driver and passengers. At first blush, that might seem like a small component of the overall design of a new vehicle. But body mass index is becoming an increasingly important factor when it comes to marketing, design and advertising.

While tough times mean some brands hunker down and stick to the tried-and-true, auto marketers don't have that luxury. They have yet to catch up with the 70 percent of auto shoppers who research car purchases online. It's finally time to say good-bye to any illusion that they, and their outdated sales tactics, are controlling the car-buying experience. According to a 2007 DoubleClick survey, 53 percent of auto buyers used the Internet as their primary source for gathering purchase information.

Like paparazzi giving single-minded chase to a pantyless Britney attacking her pregnant sister with an umbrella, or a sloshed Lindsay swerving through LA on her way to an AA meeting or Nicole Richie eating a sandwich, performance marketers have often shown a tenacious penchant for pursuing clicks above all else. In this issue, we take a look at the dawning of the post-click era, where CPMs turn from red to green.

If you sent your kid to school and he came home saying that he wasn't the coolest kid, what would you do? You could dress him better, send him back and see what happens. Not working? Get him a better haircut, send him back and smile at your great parenting. Still not working? Hey, some things were never meant to be. This process of making your kid more hip and cool is kind like the way businesses with Web sites that need to be on the top of Google search pages approach optimization. Your site is the kid, but besides …

Soft-core porn has nothing on Axe body spray for men. Unilever's Axe took the men's grooming world by storm in 2002 and almost single-handedly created a new product - body spray - by focusing on a typical young guy's fantasy: that a single whiff will arouse attractive young women who subsequently won't be able to keep their hands off of him. Exaggerated humor makes the message campy, without diluting the core message.

Violent change always comes quickly. With all the new terms used in the lexicon of the Web, it can get kind of confusing to talk about. It wasn't long ago an executive at O'Reilly Media coined Web 2.0 to refer to the social aspects of the Web. By 2006 The New York Times had already used Web 3.0 to refer to the Web that offers meaning--where the sum of knowledge and behavior can be accessed. But the one I like best is used by industry pundit Doc Searls: Live Web, which is meant as an all encompassing term to refer …

Just a few months after Barack Obama announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for president, Mars, Inc. launched a campaign to remake the image of its iconic Uncle Ben, the face of the Uncle Ben's brand. The rebranding, which elevated the character from smiling servant to a worldly business executive, was clearly intended to blunt criticism the company has faced over the years that the 1940s character portrays a derogatory stereotype.