I am convinced that the key to TV Everywhere's long-term success will be its user interface. That point may seem obvious and common-sensical, but then again, obviousness and common sense are all too often forgotten when it comes to developing and implementing business strategies in large, multinational corporations. Here is why I believe that the user interface will be so critical to TV Everywhere....

The biggest trend in the digital electronics world has nothing and everything to do with the Internet. The trend is not that devices such as your TV or your telephone are connected to the Web -- they've been doing that for years -- but that the interface for these devices are becoming more dynamic and reminiscent of bleeding-edge digital devices like the iPhone and bleeding-edge platforms like social media.

People want to do good. By extension, people want their brand choices to reflect their desire to do good. Since its inception, the Internet has forced companies to reassess their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices by increasing people's access to information about "improper" corporate behavior. Social media, which simply increases the rate at which people can publish and spread information/content, has magnified the importance of CSR. However, it is not just avoiding the "bad," but harnessing the "good" that will lead to companies doing well financially by doing good socially.

When the world we inhabit battens down, and there is angst in the air, if not downright strife -- it's sometimes hard to know how to think about talent. Courting and hiring it; incubating and nurturing it; expanding our own and running with it. We don't really want our stance on talent to change; we advocate furthering it in every way. But we're often forced to operate differently. And, that can get uncomfortable -- squirrelly.

Why do people automatically and narrowly apply time spent in a given channel as a proxy for value and justified ad dollars? It boggles my mind. In terms of branding and customer acquisition goals, I will gladly pay a lot more for one channel with almost no time spent versus one with a lot of time spent -- if the former were to perform better against my objectives. And objectives and their achievement should factor in return on ad spend, including profitability to my business. It's that simple.

I spend a lot of time these days talking to folks in and around the digital media industry about career choices they are facing. As a result of both the impact of the financial crisis as well as the secular declines in offline media, more media people are facing more career issues with more immediacy than probably ever before. Here's some counsel for them.

In an economic downturn of such weight and impact as this, now being referred to as the "Great Recession" due to our love for branding our own historical periods, how does a mass-market consumer brand react to ensure success? I've been paying close attention to various answers to this question over the last few months, and I've learned there are two distinct camps of response. They are diametrically opposed in process and structure, but each can be successful in its own right.

Six weeks ago I wrote "I'm Sold On Engagement." In the post I proposed that, "given the proper definition and standardization, engagement can provide the right baseline for marketers to plan, buy and measure brand campaigns online." After reading Brian Morrissey's March 23 piece titled "Making More Than a Good Impression," and speaking with Randall Rothenberg, head of the IAB and author of the must-read blog on interactive advertising "I, A Bee," I felt there were a few points I wanted to reiterate about engagement as the future base metric for branding online.

When it comes to content, there are media bytes and information headlines that provoke and test our long-standing beliefs on consumption, currency and the very meaning of free press. Last week was an interesting time for such provocation.

The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital recently served me an unexpected banner across the top of the blog's entry page titled "A note about tracking cookies." It said: "Some of the advertisers and Web analytics firms used on this site may place 'tracking cookies' on your computer. We are telling you about them right upfront, and we want you to know how to get rid of these tracking cookies if you like." This is the first time I'm aware of a mainstream ad-supported publisher telling me "upfront" that it is placing tracking cookies on my computer. Considering cookies are …