Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Jonathan Gardner is director of communications at ad company Vibrant Media. He has spent nearly two decades as an innovator at the nexus of media and technology, having worked in communications leadership roles and as a journalist around the world.

The egg nog’s been drunk, the bells are done jingling, and the mistletoe has been taken down. It’s time to ring in the new year with resolutions that’ll make 2012 one to remember — online and off. All signs point to an exciting year, with the arrival of new (and inevitably covetable) Apple devices. The expanding digital industry is destined to affect what we discuss, buy and watch, who we friend, what we Like, and how we share — all year long.

Plus, eMarketer projects a 14.4% increase in U.S. online ad spending, and Google says that video ads improve offline campaign results. Digital will certainly take on added prominence in the new year.

Even so, let’s resolve to keep our heads on straight and stick close to the best practices that have been winners in the past – they’ll be the ones to see us through a stellar 2012. With input from my colleagues and other experts in the digital ad industry, I’ve come up with five “resolutions” for marketers in the new year.

1. Own Your Voice, Don’t Share It.

These days, we’re talking “word ownership” for online branding. Especially in hyper-competitive categories such as consumer electronics and auto, these emotive and topical keywords are the name of the game.

But you’d better get there first — key terms such as “football” and “Valentine’s Day” are sure to be hot tickets in the weeks to come. Act fast, and the keywords will do the work for you. Have a smart contextual plan at the core of your strategy, and you’ll help your brand gain ownership of its voice around the web.

2. Resolve to Be Relevant.

Relevance reigns in 2012. More than ever, people will be in the driver’s seat. Therefore, keep consumers’ desires, hopes and aspirations central to your marketing and you’ll stay on top. This is especially true of groups like Millennials, who are dominating the digital space. Matt Briton, CEO of social media agency Mr. Youth, says, brands must address five “need states:” utility, entertainment, information, rewards and recognition.

In 2011, we also saw consumers become more spending-conscious as opposed to simply price-conscious. So, now is the time to make the strongest possible case for your product’s value.

Finally, tune in to what kind of content engages your audience and create advertising that aligns with what they watch and read. Take advantage of technology that matches ad content to the context of the page and delivers hyper-relevant ads to people who actually want to see them.

3. Context is King, and Content is Queen.

Steve Jobs showed that to create value in the 21st century, you need to connect creativity with technology. With all the focus on the amazing tech that enables our new era of advertising, it’s easy to forget that what’s in the ads matters too. You can roll out a remarkable initiative to find consumers, but how will you engage them? Time and again, the most successful in-text, toolbar and display ads bring relevant content within the context of the page. This year, like the last, the best advertising will be dynamic, providing provide useful information from weather reports and traffic updates to recipes and sports scores.

4. The Data is Smarter. Are You?

As industry guru Peter Horan told us, “Counting clicks for branding is flawed. Marketers know TV works even though viewers can’t click on a commercial.” Beyond the click, the revolution in data will continue. Marketers can now look more closely at consumer behavior to get more mileage out of campaigns. As technology gives us a clearer view of reader engagement and retention, we see that all content is not created equal, and that despite the recent increase in content volume, quality is what drives results.

5. They’ve Changed the Channel.

An incredible 98% of 18- to 24-year-olds use social media. While debates continue to rage around ROI and how to quantify Likes, we’ve seen brands develop new ways to make their social media assets deliver, specifically, by bringing social content to new ad formats that push Facebook pages and Twitter feeds to the consumer in a relevant context. We can all learn from Best Buy, which connected consumers with its “Twelpforce,” Twitter-based help desk. And Axe is using an innovative social toolbar to push its clever content to consumers around the web.

Happy New Year! I hope that in 2012 you resolve to take your marketing to the next level of success.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alikemalkarasu

Maintaining an empty Gmail inbox should be classified as a superpower. It’s just not something that most humans can do.

But the day when more mortals master the task might be getting closer. ActiveInbox, a Gmail plugin five years in the making, launched a product this week that organizes emails into manageable projects and tasks.

CEO Andy Mitchell based the product on David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) productivity philosophy, which aims to “transform personal overwhelm and overload into an integrated system of stress-free productivity.” Its first iterations were hence named GTDGmail and (after a letter from Google’s legal team) GTDEmail.

The first ActiveInbox product is a free plugin for Firefox and Chrome that adds a to-do list and project manager to the left sidebar of Gmail. Users can add items to the list using a task bar that appears at the top of each email. They can mark e-mails as “action,” “waiting on,” or “some day” and add them to a project, similar to the way that Gmail labels work. The plugin also adds new shortcuts, like the ability to look up previous email conversations by simply right-clicking a contact and a button that simultaneously archives a conversation and sends a reply.

ActiveInbox’s paid version, which costs $25 per year, includes the option to tack notes to emails and attach deadlines to messages. The latter option helps keep track of daily and upcoming tasks in the to-do sidebar.

“It’s actually a completely different way at looking at email,” Mitchell says. “What we’re doing is emails as tasks between you and your colleagues.”

Until 2009, he had been running the inbox as a side project while working with another startup. After more than 700 people donated $20,000 to the project, he decided to start working on the project full time.

Through various beta versions of the product, the startup already has collected about 15,000 users, 1,500 of them paying customers.

Christopher S Penn wrote a great post about marketing and how it starts with audience. What’s great about it is that it’s exactly what was on my mind since yesterday. I’ve been thinking about who my audience is at chrisbrogan.com and furthermore, I’ve been looking around at other people’s blogs and wondering who they’re hoping to attract with their writing. Do you know the answer about your blog? My guess is it might be different than you think.

Who Are You Writing For?

This part, you should at least think you know. When I write, I’m writing for professionals who want to understand how social tools change business. Sometimes, I’m writing for larger companies to read and consider. Most times, I’m writing for smaller companies and solo business types. Heck, plenty of non-business types read and take things away from here. It’s fine by me. That’s who I’m writing for, in my mind. How about you?

But Who is Reading?

When I look at the comments, the people who are reading are a mix of people. Most of the comments come from people I believe who represent small or solo businesses. Lots of you are from smaller agencies. So many of you are lurkers that I have no idea who you are, where you’re from, or what matters or doesn’t to you.

Why It Matters

Are you writing for your colleagues or your buyers? I’m going to tell you right now that I suspect I’m writing more for my colleagues than my buyers. This is generally okay. I like having conversations with my colleagues. However, I’m in business, and part of my efforts revolve around creating useful information that will encourage buyers to consider me in their solution set, depending on the product. With that in mind, you should be thinking about this for your own site. Are you writing for your colleagues or your buyers, and what effects does this have for how you write?

A Little Survey

I’m genuinely curious about these answers. I’d love your thoughts on this very little survey I’ve put together. I promise to share the data once I’ve pulled it all together. Please take a moment and fill this out.

And thanks! I’d love to hear from you.