his year, Google ranked number one in a survey of brand professionals. These folks estimated that the Google brand had the most influence worldwide - more than Apple, Toyota, or any other. Now Honda is demonstrating the potential impact of that lead position by headlining its own site with the Google brand. Go ahead, search for "Honda Used Cars" on Google. You will see a geographically targeted mash-up of a local map with pins on it representing available cars in your area, paired with a list of those cars.

Yesterday on Marketing Pilgrim, Paul Bennett described an Online Search Behaviour Study that found that 67% of searchers were driven by offline channels, and 39% of those will go on to make a purchase. When I've been in that 67%, I've found that sometimes companies do NOT coordinate their online and offline messages. Take the saga of the baby present...

My professional life is spent straddled between online-centric publishing ventures and the well-groomed hallways of traditional publishing organizations. The differences between the two are as noticeable as an orange cone for those driving through. And yet the residents of either side treat these stark differences as nuances -- as if neither can stand to look long enough at the other to learn from one another.

If advertisers deliver value through the ads</ >, then consumers have a motivation to pay attention. The trick is to make sure the giveaway is intricately linked to the product or service.

Browsing engadget.com, I saw a lovely, new, multimedia ad for the BlackBerry Pearl. Beautiful phone, compelling ad, lavish splash page. It is now my poster child for lousy advertising on the Web. Here's why.

Nielsen and comScore's recent introduction of new forms of Web site measurement to their products has spurred many in advertising and marketing to debate just how to measure Web sites, their mostly impression-based business models and consumer engagement. There's no doubt the new standard measurements are steps in the right direction for Web properties -- but why is this the only media channel seeing this type of ongoing progress?

I wonder a lot about our industry from that proverbial 40,000-foot level. What I see worries me. I see two heavily charged currents traveling in opposite directions, causing our industry to feverishly tread water while appearing like we're moving forward. And I wonder if click-through yields for display advertising have diminished because consumers are tired of clicking ads closed they never asked to be opened? Is it possible that consumers are revolting from clicking on ads because we continue to serve revolting ads?

Earlier this year, one of the most anticipated 2008 presidential campaigns was launched with a videotaped online message. The event was a good reminder of the power of online video to transform the way we communicate. The adoption of video by the typically slow-moving world of politics also tells us that the transformation has moved well beyond the early adopters and is touching all parts of society.

This past Sunday, I watched one of the greatest heavyweight fights of all time. I witnessed crisp exchanges of powerful bombs and perfectly timed counter-punches delivered equally well by each fighter. The resiliency shown by both participants made Rocky look like a slacker. The intensity of the drama drew silence from a packed house and in the end, the reigning champion's arms rose above his head while tears rolled down his face.... Anyone else catch the Wimbledon final?

If creative selling is driving your business of online publishing, the wheels are made of math. Not the return on investment kind of math that comes to mind first when talking about online advertising metrics -- but rather, a more natural-fitting math connecting your own revenue goals and how close or far you reside from them.