Jack Griffin, the new CEO of Time Inc., announced last week that Randall Rothenberg, the president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, has been hired by to be Time Inc's first Chief Digital Officer. Like many of you, I received this news with mixed emotions.

Our business is VERY detailed. There are more data sets than there are pixels on my MacBook, and these data sets are part of what complicates the business so much. We try to make every decision down to a single degree of absolute perfectionism -- but some of the best campaigns and efforts I've seen in the digital space are those that accept a basic margin of error, embracing the absence of a perfect science!

It has been an enlightening year. While media spending has bounced back, especially in the digital space -- making the Internet the second largest advertising medium by spend (after television) -- digital marketing opportunities have seen a fair amount of shakeout and consolidation. So what will be around in 2011 for marketers looking to make an impact through digital channels? Mobile, for one, will likely get more complicated before it gets easier. Here are a couple things marketers should look out for in 2011 in digital and mobile.

This is the time of year for predictions and resolutions. We'll skip, read or share bits, columns, and books according to our threshold for saturation, and outright interest or curiosity. Standing in Barnes and Noble this weekend, I perused a book or two that asked questions that ran the gamut from "What is a Person?" and "Is Global Warming Real?" to "Is Bi-partisanism Possible?" "Is America Ready for a Gay President?" and "Are We Safe?"

A beginning: my first official column at Online Spin, following on from three years as a Search Insider, with a couple of cameos over at Social Media Insider. It's nice to meet you. An end: my 49th, and last, column of the year.

Listen up, because this is important! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, the reader, to gain insight into one of the most fundamentally strategic concepts in all of marketing. In this article, which will hopefully be a bright spot in your otherwise mundane day, you are going to be exposed to one of the consulting world's biggest secrets. It's actually the best-kept secret in the history of branding!

It was easily the quote of the day -- or maybe the month. SVnetwork's Chris Rooke must have been reading one of countless articles on the latest and greatest new targeting/DSP/social ad networks hoping for something new, when he just exclaimed to the office "They are just putting lipstick on a banner!" I am not even sure which article he was reading at the time, but besides making me laugh, those words got me thinking about how the digital advertising industry seems to be avoiding problems rather than solving them.

While stepping up to provide market intelligence, strategy and the like, you may also be asked, or offer to, help a marketer client vet and implement various third parties. Today these parties may include rich-media providers, or bid management, Web analytics, buzz monitoring, ad-serving, or research companies, among many others.In most cases, these providers are crucial to your work -- so you've a vested interest in helping out. While this may seem like a rare opportunity to shape the direction and outcome of your client engagement, playing this intermediary role is rife with potential issues.

It's been nearly five years since I first contributed to the weekly OnlineSpin. It's been rewarding in many ways. First, I've had a savvy audience with which to share my observations and analysis about online marketing. I don't seek attention, but I've valued the connections. I've used this column as a vehicle to explore completely new topics that I wanted or needed to get smart in.

There is no question that Facebook is the hottest destination on the Web today. So, the king of the Web must be the king of all media? Not so fast. Facebook is certainly a massive media property, but it's not yet ready to go toe-to-toe with major TV networks.