In a wonderfully reasoned column this week, Al Ries says that there have been five mass media evolutions that have created enormous upheavals in society: the book, the periodical, radio, TV and the Internet. It seems to me that there have been interim mass media developments that should be on his upheaval list…

In 2007, the Internet accounted for around 8.8% of global advertising expenditure, with growth of more than 20% expected in 2008 as client budgets follow consumers online. Key events in our industry in the past year have been: the rapid growth in usage of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, though advertising revenues still lag as clients struggle to find ways to engage consumers; the blurring of industry boundaries with the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google and of aQuantive by Microsoft; and the focus from technology companies on building advertising platforms and media exchanges, such as Platform A from AOL, as ways to trade digital media.

Violent change always comes quickly. With all the new terms used in the lexicon of the Web, it can get kind of confusing to talk about. It wasn’t long ago an executive at O’Reilly Media coined Web 2.0 to refer to the social aspects of the Web. By 2006 The New York Times had already used Web 3.0 to refer to the Web that offers meaning–where the sum of knowledge and behavior can be accessed. But the one I like best is used by industry pundit Doc Searls: Live Web, which is meant as an all encompassing term to refer to 2.0, 3.0 and everything in between.

There are no guarantees when it comes to planning a viral marketing campaign, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to improve your chances of success. Here are 10 things to keep in mind when it’s time to begin your next project.

Not long ago, a major newspaper devoted its advertising column to the well-known online LowerMyBills.com “dancing cowboys” ad. The article ruminated on a seeming contradiction: An advertising campaign that had annoyed the daylights out of Internet users was also deemed a “surprising success.” How could this be?

Sent out your resume lately in response to ads for “Media Supervisor” or “Associate Media Director”? A week later, “Mr. Recruiter You’d Been Waiting On” calls, and simply wants to know one thing: “How much digital experience do you have?”

“Agencies and advertisers are growing more interested in neuroscience–measuring brain waves, galvanic skin response, eye movements, pulse rates and the like–in their never-ending efforts to improve effectiveness,” Stuart Elliott tells us. But since in the real world people are multitasking while they watch TV, it might be smart to not only hotwire brains, but also have a webcam on top of the TV so that when researchers see the needles jump, they can check out the viewers on video to see if there are external circumstance other than the ads that produce galvanic skin responses or spikes in brain waves.

“Agencies and advertisers are growing more interested in neuroscience–measuring brain waves, galvanic skin response, eye movements, pulse rates and the like–in their never-ending efforts to improve effectiveness,” Stuart Elliott tells us. But since in the real world people are multitasking while they watch TV, it might be smart to not only hotwire brains, but also have a webcam on top of the TV so that when researchers see the needles jump, they can check out the viewers on video to see if there are external circumstance other than the ads that produce galvanic skin responses or spikes in brain waves.

Goodhousekeeping.com, collects a few recipes, reads up on the latest product reviews and spends over 23 minutes playing Mahjongg. She returns the next day, the next, and the next to do the same thing. It’s no secret that the role of gaming in the media plan is something that many marketers are beginning to clearly understand. Games are no longer a marketing afterthought, but rather an integrated part of an entire campaign.

Recently we have questioned the effectiveness of metrics, but have we considered that it could be how we’re using the metric–not the metric itself–that is negatively impacting campaign performance?