Advertisers are constantly looking for ways to get their messages in front of consumers. In a world where everyone is publishing content in text, images, audio and video, we all need to be a little wiser to who is being paid what to say what.

As marketers, we are embarking on a reinterpretation of what it means to do branding. And as part of that, mobile is not just an evolutionary change in behavior, but a revolution in the way consumers get satisfaction from the brands they choose to do business with.

Content marketing is one of the greatest assets of any marketing organization. But get a clue: if you're pushing your business and your product, it's not content marketing. It's promotion.

Some might argue that you should just do the right thing and not make a fuss about it. Some are put off by cause marketing, so they get involved with local community projects or global concerns and neglect to offer the same opportunity to customers and/or employees. This is missing the purpose of marketing.

The insurance company for which I'm CMO took steps to shift our conversation with customers from one that was centered on a product to one that was centered on people. That strategy produced a multi-faceted advertising campaign that gave us the ability to connect with consumers on a local level.

For years, marketing people and PR folks wore separate hats—had different skill sets, different agendas—even though they share a common purpose. The birth of digital communications made it worse by adding another silo, but social media shows us why it is vital to string it all together.

I loved Chrysler's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad, and I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of the tens of millions of people who saw it felt similarly. The buzz about its political bent produced millions of free media mentions. The problem is that it didn't have anything remotely to do with Chrysler's brand.

Our regional insurance company's campaign has been named the “Best Local Ad Campaign We Never Tire Of.” To get here, we developed a detailed branding strategy rooted in a series of decisions all brands can make (and the smart ones do), which has helped pave the way for our campaign’s success.

Publishers’ inability to convince a majority of print readers to cross over to any of their digital content is a troubling sign.

How many marketers or agencies can look themselves in the mirror and say that they truthfully understand the right media mix for their business? Unfortunately, most media allocations are based on intuition and debate under the guise of collaborative channel planning, rather than a systematic approach to media mix modeling.

Although marketing possibilities on the internet are myriad for those who have the time and budget to exploit them all, small businesses should focus mainly on organic search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising, web site content creation (which is actually a subcategory of organic SEO), and social media marketing.

People often operate what I call "Garanimal" cause marketing. (Garanimals are children's clothes that are easy to match because different animals show you what goes together.) They like things to match, including their cause marketing. But just because something matches doesn't mean it's a good fit.

Starting October 1, consumers can go online and sign up to send a "Share Package" to a friend. (Note how this sounds like "Care Package"). This campaign is being brought back to life after a million people sent friends these free packages last year. A million people sent each other Kleenexes - - I mean facial tissue? Really?

Executive skepticism about social media seems to be rooted in the remarkably persistent idea that it is not worth their time, a fad, or not for serious business. I'm here to argue that their position is not only foolish, but also irresponsible. Here are three common misconceptions that I encounter with almost all new clients.

Integrated marketing has absolutely nothing to do with how many things a marketing department does. It has more to do with developing a fluid plan on how to best achieve the strategic intent of the organization, usually with a set of priorities. Does anyone appreciate the difference?

Everyone has an endless To-Do List, and for many businesses social media marketing is on the list. But add, add, add doesn’t work -- you need a "Stop Doing" list to figure out how to make room.

Marketers shouldn't think of attribution as an end goal. What marketers need to embrace is the concept of Connected Marketing, within which attribution is just a part.

In the fifth Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, Douglas Adams broached the idea that the universe is a just a "whole sort of general mish mash," and each of our own realities is just a ‘slice’ though it. To me, this sounds a lot like modern marketing and brand communications.

When I speak with CMOs and marketers about their communications programs, the first question I ask is whether a program is “triangulated” in its execution. What I mean is there are three principle elements of media today: Blogs, Social Media forums, and Traditional Media.

The context of an overall business and marketing strategy is often missing when people are preparing to jump into social media. They have effectively decided to take a professional leap of faith, something they wouldn’t do in any other aspect of their business decision-making, because they're overly focused on technology and specific services that are growing at a very rapid speed.

I owned several agencies that did “online marketing.” And ultimately, we stopped selling “online marketing” and started selling what companies specifically needed. When companies start asking for particular services, rather than general expertise, it’s a sign of market maturity. We’re mostly not there yet in social, but it will happen.

For starters, expect to see the rise of a meme called "The Web Reborn"--a response to the idea that mobile and apps have killed the Web as we know it.

It's the beginning of January, so before things start to pick up and all of your New Year's Resolutions for 2011 become things you'll think about (once again) this coming December, why not commit to a Digital Marketing Reboot? Here are the 6 questions you should answer and then act on as soon as possible:

Last week I attended and spoke at the Integrated Marketing Summit, co-presented with the Online Marketing Summit, in Dallas. The event offered a full day of 16 sessions and 29 speakers. Following are some highlights and key takeaways.