This is the time of year for reflection and looking ahead. Looking at the important trends in 2009 can give us an indication of what's in store for the New Year. Here's my perspective on the trends in digital advertising that will require brand managers, marketers and agencies to rethink their approach and strategy.

A key trend that will be transforming advertising next year is Consumer Mobility.  Today's consumer lifestyles are undergoing revolutionary change; in the past two years, people are spending significantly more time on-the-go. PQ Media reported earlier this year that on average people spend 44% of their time outside both the home or office; yet during this time they increasingly want to stay connected.
 
Mobility will have a transformative effect on the media and advertising market, as both traditional and digital media adapt to an increasingly mobile audience that consumes media on a progressively broad range of portable, personal devices such as laptops, smartphones, kindles, gaming devices, netbooks, etc.
 
How will this re-shape our thinking about reaching audiences? Here are four ways:
 
1. Audiences Will Replace Channels
The proliferation of technologies and devices gives us more ways than ever to connect to a growing mobile audience. As marketers look for ways to reach specific audiences when they are on-the-go, the traditional media buying channel segmentation will cease to be as effective as it once was. Agencies will seek to create more compelling campaigns that converge and blur these new communication channels. Media buys will need to stop being organized around distribution paths like out-of-home or online or mobile, to being organized by audiences. Agencies that can move quickly and flexibly in this regard will drive media innovation early in 2010.
 
2. Mobile Evolves Beyond Devices
As mobile marketing matures, advertising campaigns will be planned around lifestyles and audiences, and less about specific devices. Mobile advertising's market share will be small in 2010 relative to overall Internet spending, but will grow faster as the mobile audience grows and new approaches and formats mature to drive better engagement.
 
3. Contextual Location Emerges
Location-based advertising will become more mainstream for brands in digital and mobile marketing, but it will not be focused solely on 'where' with regards to a pinpoint on a map. Rather, location will be seen as another form of context. It will be a filter that will indicate a tremendous amount of information about an audience based on the type of place a person is in at that point in time. Location will become a form of interest and intent, equally as relevant, if not more, than content is today. When a person shares that they are in a café in Boston, this reveals a great amount of rich data that can make advertising more relevant. The combination of location, audience, and context of that location will be a powerful tool for advertisers.
 
4. Engagement as a Metric
We're seeing consumers responding less to ads that talk at them, and more to ads that give them engaging, meaningful experiences. Marketers will need to emphasize brand engagement as part of the advertising experience. While click-through-rate will not go away, cost per engagement will emerge as an increasingly important metric for success. The ability to create and measure brand engagement has improved with technology, and will increasingly define the conversation around campaign design and objectives. The growing focus on social media and making an audience part of the brand conversation is part of this trend. Similarly, offering the consumer something of value in exchange for engaging with a brand will grow in importance. For example, out-of-home may become an attractive channel in this new environment, but the big focus will be on how to measure engagement when a click-through is not even an acceptable a metric.

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