Well dear readers, I officially write to you as an ex-agency person. So much for the Darwinian theory as it applies to my gig as a VP, Director of online media. Yep, I've joined the bandwagon of casualities; I've been laid off.

Quincy Jones wrote that "Everything Must Change." In my book, change is a good thing. It keeps life interesting. And given that everything is a little different in California, interesting times is a blessing, not a curse.

"The more a man can forget, the greater the number of metamorphoses which his life can undergo, the more he can remember the more divine his life becomes." - Either/Or Soren Kierkegaard

In the online world, as in the offline world, the value of the Sponsorship is sometimes overlooked. Sponsorships surround the target and ensure relevant reminders that the brand exists. Soft Drinks and Beer advertisers alike have taken full advantage of these models as supplements to their more traditional forms of advertising, but there is one model that has surprisingly not been pursued and that would be the sponsorship of WiFi.

There's been a lot of talk about the Ad:Tech 2003 event last week. As I'm sure you've heard the attendance level reached a staggering 2,000+ people. It's Murphy's Law, I guess, unfortunately I was stuck on the East Coast (more on that next week) unable to attend. Nonetheless, that's an unbelievable turnout for an event when times still feel pretty tough out there.

RTFM - This is Internet shorthand for "Read The Frickin' Manual." (I'm using a less offensive word for the "F" here. I know you'll understand.) RTFM is one of the older cutesy-pie Internet acronyms and it originated in online tech support communities.

At the iMedia Summit in Scottsdale last month, Andrew Heyward, President, CBS News spoke about a number of interesting and enlightening topics. One thing stuck with me greater than all of the others. He said that teens and kids (and probably others) have a new way of taking information in. They don't get all of their information from a single, linear stream such as reading a complete analysis or watching CBS News every night.

I just want to take a few moments to run a thought by you all that I'm going to guess might come in handy. When you are talking to your clients, pitching a piece of business, or discussing amongst yourselves the myriad virtues of online advertising, chances are you most often refer to the medium's unprecedented accountability as it compares with other media. Like no other vessel for carrying advertising messages to the public, web-based advertising lends itself to a 'connect-the-dots' approach to its effectiveness that more accurately reflects a causal relationship between and advertising event and its impact.

One of the fundamental concepts taught in any marketing class deals with the Four P's of marketing. The Four P's stand for Product, Price, Placement and Promotion. These are essential to the development of a marketing campaign, but I would like to highlight a concept that John Durham (of bowtie fame) recently brought up. The concept of a fifth "P" which applies to any campaign in today's marketplace exceptionally well, especially due to the growth and integration of the Internet community. The element of Passion.

We've always known that what consumers do and what they say they do are often two completely different things. That's why direct observation of a consumer's consumption habits tends to be more accurate than using recall-based surveys. That's why it's tough for me to fathom why observed behavior of online consumers doesn't play a larger role in the targeting of online advertising.