Every year around this time I sit down and try to play Nostradamus for next year. I'm batting about .500 over the last 10 years, but it's worth a shot and gets me thinking proactively rather than reacting to what I see day in and day out. So, without further ado, my predictions for 2012:

We hear the proclamation of the death of the campaign regularly these days. The charge is primarily led by the hoards of self-proclaimed social media gurus, but underscores a similar mantra -- from a larger swath of the marketing community -- of the death of the "big idea." Make no mistake about it; the media and marketing world is changing in some fairly dramatic ways. However, the pronouncement of the material displacement of the old by the new has more hyperbole and shock value than reality. Traditional media and the fundamentals of marketing are alive and kicking, and evolving right …

While our national unemployment rate hovers at around 9%, the rate in our industry is much lower. In fact, some people I speak with now believe that the unemployment rate in media and technology is effectively zero. They may be right. Recruiters in New York tell me that they are having challenges finding talent across the board, whether it is for sales, analytics or programming positions. The talent crunch is highlighting our industry's limited progress in becoming more diversified in terms of gender and race, especially in sectors like advertising technology.

I confess: I have lowbrow taste. I'm in the midst of "A Song of Ice and Fire." I've read every Twilight. I've read every Jack Reacher. And, of course, I've read every Harry Potter. And so, when I noticed that many of my Facebook friends had read an article titled, ""Harry Potter's Secret Is Out After PR Slip Gives the Game Away,"" my curiosity got the better of me: I clicked. What I got was something you've probably seen by now: the permissions dialogue from The Independent, "A new social reading experience." This app shares articles I read with the …

Last week, six people died when a private plane crashed into Superstition Mountain near Phoenix, Ariz. Tens of millions of people have since watched a video of the crash that was captured, by coincidence, on a local resident's webcam. Within hours, it was being played on virtually every television news show in the country and was also distributed to millions on the Web.

Virality. This is the single most overused and meaningless term in digital marketing today. With virality, content is being shared by a great mass of people -- which can happen either spontaneously, through great planning or dumb luck. Virality is what we all want, and it's something many of us will never get. You need a few key ingredients to create something that could go viral:

In most organizations, there are those who assume leadership roles and others who assume management roles. It's generally accepted that finding individuals with exceptional skills in both leadership and management is a rarity. However, navigating the fast-paced and complex world of digital marketing requires individuals in senior management and leadership roles, to a degree, to possess hybrid qualities.

Back in October I predicted that 2012 would be the Year of Television. At the time I believed that Apple would soon release a revolutionary, all-in-one television. I had no empirical evidence for this prediction, and Apple is famously secretive about its product roadmap. Instead, I just had a gut feeling that after tackling other consumer technology devices like the computer, MP3 player, phone, laptop and tablet, Apple would naturally set its sights on the television. Since the publication of my column, there have been a few tantalizing signs that an Apple television product may, in fact, be coming soon.

Have you ever noticed that everyone wants to be perceived as "innovative" -- but no one wants to actually be "first"? Think about it. How many times have you filled out an RFP where someone asked you for "ground-breaking, out-of-the-box, new ideas" that haven't been done before, and statistical support or analytics to support why this is a great idea for their brand. If the idea was so ground-breaking and it hasn't been done before, then how could you possibly have data to support it?

It's that time of year again. Retailers have been planning the following six weeks for the last 46. For those who are unaware of just how big the holiday season is for ecommerce: It is common to generate 25%-40% of marketing-driven revenues during the next six weeks. The ramp-up starts this week of Black Friday. Most ecommerce marketers have their biggest day on Cyber Monday, followed by Green Monday, and the more recent Free Shipping Day. Here's what it takes to have a killer holiday: