Technological change has irrevocably altered the behavior of customers. Today people are approaching the tasks of planning a vacation, buying a car, shopping for clothes or choosing a restaurant in ways where they can have instantaneous access to service information – online.  They are also powerful influencers of others as they are embracing the use of social media technologies at an astounding rate.

For marketers the challenge is to capture the hearts and minds of the new feisty, in-control consumer. Apart from finding new ways to participate with them in their online world, web analytics has jumped to the forefront putting a focus on the importance of segmentation and the business intelligence gathering of actionable insights. The old measurement tools of the past have gone by way of the buffalo. Today its about real-time metrics that meet the need for marketing efficiency, accountability and profitability.

In fact Marketing is all about ROI. It can be determined. It is the engine of organic growth if aligned with corporate objectives. (Though, it is important to note that creative experimentation will always lie at the heart of the discipline).

We are living in a new frontier that is ever-changing and the race is on as I type. Impression metrics, message metrics, attitudinal metrics, behavioral metrics, transactional metrics…if your head is spinning it is perfectly normal. Determining what metrics are right for you is not an easy task. However, the best way to cut through the clutter is to reduce the noise by focusing on well-defined marketing objectives and the measurement of ROI. The interactive nature of new media offers a perfect environment to calculate ROI because customer’s actions can be tracked along the funnel. ROI is transforming the effectiveness of the marketing cycle.

Determining the journey down the ROI funnel is not an exact science. Gathering the correct data at the onset is a challenge and requires continuous testing. But, the good news is that in the digital environment testing is real-time so determining “insights” is possible. From there you can develop the creative, communicate to the target, and measure success. While there is no black box that spits out answers, the journey to collect and fine-tune data is worthwhile as it in turn fuels sophisticated analytic models that can ultimately predict ROI results.

The new Marketing Mindset is here. The discipline is no longer based solely on “intuition, art and what may stick” but in turn is based on data, analytics and factors that deliver profitable growth.

Making choices are sometimes hard  because the thoughts of others get in the way. You might expect others to be angry or disappointed. You might feel small in the face of opposition or concerned about making waves. But the interesting thing about making a choice is that if it is the right one the other areas or your life start working. I believe a lot in my dreams. Steven Spielberg once said ” I don’t just dream at night, I dream all day, I dream for a living”. Its making the choice to turn a dream into a reality that matters the most. And to do this requires a lot of faith. “Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see”. (William Newton Clarke)

Driven by a new generation of consoles and sophisticated handsets, and by increased penetration of broadband and wireless technologies, the global video game industry is expected to grow from its reported 31 billion in 2006 to 48.9 billion by 2011 according to Price Waterhouse Coopers in their released report “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2007-2011″

Demographic information provided by the NPD Group indicates 65% of North American Households play computer or video games. 49% of gamers are 18-49 years old, 25% under 18, and 26% are 50+ in years. The average age of a gamer is 35 years. 60% of gamers are male, and 40% are female. Almost 60% of gamers play with other gamers in-person. 36% of North Americans play games on their mobile devices – which is up from 20% in 2002.

As more people spend time playing video games advertisers are discovering innovative ways to reach their target audience through Advergaming – an in-game,high quality, engaging user experience. This next big thing in digital marketing is fast becoming an effective way to sell a product, create brand awareness or increase existing value in a brand. And, the community of game developers understand this is the way to fund their creative passions.

Advergaming has replaced the more traditional in-game advertising of billboards, posters, and other 2D/3D representational ads because it is more engaging to interact with your target by creating an experience with the brand within the game. Mountain Dew did this in a skateboard game creating a thirsty avatar who was empowered to greater heights in activity by drinking or “dewing” a Mountain Dew. A brilliant example where branding takes place by creating better user experience through “exclusivity”.

But brand marketers are not the only ones to take advantage of emerging in-game advertising opportunities, insurance and finance companies, and even the U.S. military, who traditionally were very conservative, have jumped into giving video game advertising a whirl. From recruiting to training these companies are having success. In fact, the American Army indicated that in-game advertising was the best recruitment tool they had ever used and the Pentagon indicated they planned on spending 100 million on Advergaming.

Brace yourselves…. According to Comscore smartphone users play a wider variety of games and three times as often so with 60% growth reported in smartphone sales Advergaming is going mobile. What a challenge the digital revolution is for us marketers. To compete effectively we must deploy our deep creativity and imagination, strategic and analytic thinking, decision-making, excellence in planning and execution, and still maintain flexibility to adapt on a dime to rapid change.

Google has recently partnered with Intel, Sony and now Logitech to create an Android-based platform that will bring the internet right into your living room.

This means that you will be able to stream online YouTube videos and search capabilities and keep up to date with all your social networking friends from yet another device – your television. The question is though, since the internet is a text-heavy medium, will reading Tweets and your favourite blogs while sitting ten feet away from the screen be comfortable?

And, do we need another set-top box to add to our growing collection of cable, DVD players and gaming consoles?

Then there’s the whole Google ads issue. Google just wouldn’t be Google without Google ads.

According to a New York Times report, the motivation behind Google TV stems from ensuring that its “. . . search and advertising systems play a central role.”

Could it be that Google is trying to create a more “user-friendly” environment; as in use Google TV welcomes more ads into your home?

Another opinion states that the real driving force behind Google TV is not ads but Smartphone-inspired applications. According to the New York Times, Google TV-related products could be on the market as early as this summer.

We cannot ignore the fact that bringing the internet to living room televisions has been attempted before; albeit unsuccessfully. Now Google is up at bat. Will they be a game changer? One only has to look at Google’s track record to be both curious and optimistic.

With so few details available on exactly what Google has in mind, there’s at least one question we can answer in anticipation: where to put that new set-top box!