Have you noticed all the comic book references creeping up in our daily lives lately? Comic books have been around for many, many years and are a truly American art form. They grew in popularity with the rise of the superhero genre and have exploded in the past 15 years.

Questions abound regarding the role of the traditional agency in the new media landscape: Customization vs. automation? Creativity vs. standardization? Professional vs. user-generated? What will become of an industry dedicated to planning, buying and creating media messaging as the medium and the methods shift to digital? The answer is in the technologies.

Although we've had a bout of unseasonably warm weather for this time of year, it's beginning to look a lot like... Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza. I guess it says a lot about our economy. Brick-and-mortar retailers are pushing and promoting their wares hard. And to no one's surprise, the e-tail world is poised in a full-court press.

Last week I presented a primer on consumer-marketing measurements to a diverse group of communications professionals looking to increase their digital and media savvy. Rather than dive into tactical minutiae, I presented 10 recent mega-trends that are collectively transforming media and marketing measurements as we know them.

I spent the better part of Election Day in Washington D.C. I went down to make a presentation at the Federal Trade Commission's hearings on "Protecting Consumers in The Next Tech-ade" and to attend a dinner at the International Association of Privacy Professionals. There's nothing like spending a day in Washington with policy makers--particularly Election Day-- to heighten one's appreciation for the role that public policy plays in business, especially one with heavy consumer interaction like ours.

At the beginning of 2006 I was chatting with some industry analysts who felt 2006 would be a calm and quiet year of applying the knowledge and the ideas from 2005, while 2007 would be the year of breakthrough and new ideas. I guess they were off a little on that one! This year certainly saw much growth and evolution in the Internet landscape--but I think 2007 is going to be one of the most influential years we will ever see.

I am often asked how a brand should allocate its media dollars to achieve the best possible ROI. This is a topic that media planners constantly think about. But just how does interactive factor into the mix?

Last Wednesday two consumer groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The groups want the FTC to investigate "invasive and deceptive" online advertising practices. This includes user tracking, Web analytics and behavioral targeting. They claim that users don't know we are tracking them.

As the social-media and Web 2.0 revolution continues, I've been convinced the traditional advertising and media establishment was alone in the debate over engagement. Well, I was dead wrong. Some major Web 2.0 and new-media insiders are facing similar challenges and stumbling into the same engagement conundrum.

Online advertising has been great at the intuitive stuff, such as finding and understanding the behaviors of "high handraisers"--people who are actively researching an imminent purchase. But what about low handraisers? What about folks who don't research via search and raise their hands that high before they buy? What about impulse buyers?