What impact could something called "zoom-tones," a trend called "podcasting" and a 10-minute ad embedded in an adult movie web site have on the future of advertising? They are just three examples of marketers' latest attempts to create and distribute content in the digital environment. Conventional advertising never used to deal with content creation outside of ads and marketing collateral, but it does now. Ad agencies didn't worry about inventing new media channels, but they cannot survive today if they don't. Most important, they never had to worry about micro-targeting, since advertising was stuck in the mass communication model with an intravenous tube hooked up to the media. Now, micro-thinking is all they do.

I don't need to tell you that people hate ads. They will do anything to skip, block or bypass them altogether. But the truth is that advertising pays for most of the communication we consume, and there is a very slim chance that ads--at least in the mainstream media--will simply go away. However, there are several indications that ads will begin to look less like the insulting pitches for cars and beer that we skip over or mute. Translated: Advertising is under repair. And the reason? Think of it as the Internet dividend. The Internet opened marketers' eyes to the power of networks outside the broadcast ones. But it turns out the web is not the only marvelous distribution system.

New distribution networks

Advertisers today are looking for other networks and discovering there are quite a few good ones around. Think ATMs, cellular networks, TV set-top boxes, video game consoles and even cars. When marketers start looking for narrower distribution systems for their ads and content, they find interesting environments that give them two huge benefits: They can micro-target--something they couldn't dream of in the mass media--at a reduced cost. And they get great feedback and measurement--the ROI pot at the end of the advertising rainbow.