Just when I think I've heard of just about every form of advertising, I realized I was wrong. I got an e-mail announcing the launch of advertising at airport security checkpoints. Yes, you heard it right. New media company SecurityPoint Media works with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and partners with local airports to provide and end-to-end security checkpoint solution in return for the right to utilize the SecureTray for promotional campaigns. In a nutshell, ads on new security trays.

Frankly, I'm not sure if anyone deserves to be agency of the year, because nobody really knows what's going on in this turbulent phase of marketing and advertising. At best, an agency can be humble, adaptive, speedy and experimental; those factors represent today's ultimate competitive advantage. Anyone who claims mastery and full confidence is either misguided or disingenuous. And that is a major reason why "nobody" should be named agency of the year.

The new year begins and online advertising continues to boom. All is right with the world, right? Not really. If even a modest number of the top 1,000 consumer marketers woke up tomorrow, realized that they have been under-spending on online relative to offline advertising, and decided to double their online spending to bring it more in line with the amount of time that consumers spend online, it's very likely that their agencies could not find any appropriate places to put it.

Video is obviously a hot topic right now, but there is a debate raging whether advertising in a video environment will be effective. The debate ranges from "video advertising is just as effective as TV," as was stated in a report from HP and MSN, to the outlook for video advertising being dim as it "fails to resonate with consumers," as was cited by Forrester recently. L

While Google may not be considering the agency neither friend nor enemy as it continues its mission to organize the world's content, who does keep Google up at night? My guess is that if you had to ask Eric that question, somewhere near the top of the list (distantly behind Bill G.) would have to be MySpace. I know what you're saying: "Google and MySpace just signed a huge deal to work together." But think about it....

What's up with brands bashing advertising? And hell, yes, I am quite biased when I ask this question. Well, have you heard the recent hoopla with craigslist? Founder Craig Newmark always said he wouldn't offer advertising or accept advertising. Just take a quick glance at the site. The ugly blue text geometrically placed on its pages is just that--ugly. However, it works.

A debate in the blogosphere and trade press over the relevance of the Web page-view metric picked up steam in the latter half of 2006. While many argued the metric has never been more than a rough proxy of impressions, it is the universal currency of online media buyers and sellers, and it's making publishers increasingly, if secretly, anxious.

One of the perks of being a columnist in this industry is that I get to write about what may be in store for 2007. Apologies to those already tired of all of the 2007 predictions. In deference to you, I will keep mine brief....

Welcome to 2007. This year it's all about Internet TV. No more focus on user- generated content. Nope--this year it's all about the evolution of television.

New Year's resolutions are funny things. OK, maybe funny isn't the right word; mine are more often then not clear demonstrations of lofty goals I should work hard at but almost never achieve. In that spirit, and with similar expectations, I present the lofty New Year's resolutions that a couple of the social media players should be making to themselves.