And how- pray tell- will changes in the info-sphere impact marketing promotional & advertising strategy. This is something I began to speculate on 10 years ago in the book:

  Interactive Marketing: The Future Present. Edited by Dr. Edward J. Forrest and Dr. Richard Mizerski. NTC Publishing and The American Marketing Association: (Chicago, 1996).

Herein are some Excerpts from Chapter 9-- "And Now a Word From Our Consumer -The Impact of Interactive Communication on Advertising and Marketing... suggesting what The Future of marketing communication would be---Followed by current articles denoting the Present state of affairs.... 

The nature and contours of the advertising message itself will undergo drastic change. As we move from the mass -to - the multi-mediated world of interactive communication at least four predictions can be made regarding its impact on the character and contours of the commercial message itself. 

(1) The commercial message will become multi-dimensional and transactional. We will move from one-way, truncated 30 second spots, 1/2 page spreads and 7-word billboard blurbs to interactive advertising-pods of product information that can be peeled back like an onion with "tell-me-more" & "show-me-more buttons, while the consumer provides the advertiser with key facts and data. 

(2) The commercial message will be move from intrusive commercial messages that intermittently interrupt the on-going media experience of the consumer to invited conversation, wherein the consumer actively seeks out and requests advertising and promotional materials. Defined by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers as invitational advertising.  Successful advertisers will have to stop their frenetic shouting at customers, and will instead offer polite invitations designed to initiate or continue individual customer dialogues. Starting a dialogue, either with a current customer or with a potential new customer, will be the primary goal of any marketer hoping eventually to sell products or services. Advertisers will no longer find it beneficial to irritate viewers into remembering their brands. Not only is this a bad way to begin a dialogue, but it is very likely that in the interactive future a consumer who feels irritated with a certain ad or brand will be capable of forbidding that brand from appearing on his own set again. (Schrage, Peppers, Rogers and Shapiro, 1994)

 (3) The Commercial message will be less ephemeral (zapped in a matter of nanoseconds; skipped with a flip of the page; driven past at 65 mph) and more embedded with information being part and parcel with the program (what is termed today as branded entertainment) with which the individual is interacting. Indeed, the evolution of corporate web sites (such as the one produced by Modem Media for Zima Clearmalt- described in chapter 17 of this book) is reminiscent of the early days of broadcasting, when programs where wholly produced and controlled by a single sponsor and it's advertising agency.

(4) Finally, in terms of style and substance, the "commercial" message will move from glib and superficial titillation with intangible rewards to substantive value-added "infotainment" with immediate and tangible rewards. No longer will the simple play-on words, funny innuendo or double entendre -with a slice of cheese or beefcake thrown in- be the consumer's only reward for paying attention. The interactive ads of the future will necessarily offer consumers something real and something tangible for their time and attention: ....in the age of interactivity, this formerly implicit bargain between advertiser and consumer is likely to become decidedly explicit... We're talking about deal city, here. Imagine getting offers like these when you turn on your television: >> "Watch this two-minute video on the new Ford Taurus, and we'll pay for the pay-per-view movie of your choice." >> "Answer this brief survey from Kellogg and we'll pay for the next three episodes of Murphy Brown." >> "Push the Tell-Me-More button on your remote at any time during this ten-minute infomercial, and you might win a Caribbean cruise." (Schrage, et. al., 1994)

The very nature of the advertising business has been to inform consumers about "new and/or improved" products in an entertaining way. The expanded frontiers and contours of the new media allow the advertiser to expand the commercial message with much more "info" and enables the consumer to participate in the "enter-tainment."  Interactive ads can evolve into compelling direct-response environments - informative, intimate, and immediate..... It's easy to imagine McDonald's producing an educational video game called, say, Burger Hunt, for its kiddie customers. Ronald McDonald gives the player a random quantity of 'McDollars' and the child has to maneuver, Mario-like, through mazes of Hamburglars and other McDonald-Land obstacles to buy and bring back just the right number of burgers, fries, shakes, and McNuggets - plus change - to win. .... The point is simple: Games are dual purpose - they create compelling experiences and get customers even more involved with the product. Coca-Cola, Toys R Us, PepsiCo, and Nabisco may all ultimately design games to imprint their products onto the neurons of their younger customers. ....Similarly, Chrysler or Toyota might develop VR driving games for adolescents and adults to promote their cars. (Schrage, et. al., 1994)

 In the 1960's, a prominent political advertising practitioner, Tony Schwartz, spoke of a phenomenon he called "partipulation:" Wherein, you could heighten the involvement an individual had with any given commercial if you got them to "participate in their own manipulation." Certainly, these new interactive ad- games-- which in the act of playing consumers will get their neurons imprinted--takes that psycho-behavorial process to heights Tony Schwartz never dreamed of....Interactive technology will generate a virtually endless stream of consumer information. Instantly a marketer will know what individuals are interested in his product. Within seconds of any inquiry the advertiser can respond to each and every consumer's unique set of questions and needs. The sale can be closed before the consumer ever even encounters a competitor's product on the shelf.

Of course, that means big piles of new data for marketing experts to sort through and analyze. But this is not the traditional number-crunching variety of marketing information. Detailed buyer profiles present a different information technology challenge than that produced by massaging reams of transaction records from supermarket checkout scanners or telemarketing centers. (Wilder, 1994)

Perhaps, the standard demographic descriptors of the audience will need to be supplemented with something like technographics:  Defined as combined index of general demographic measures (i.e. age, sex, income, education, etc.) and specific measurements of an individual's ownership and use patterns of interactive technologies. Thus, traditional demographic market segments, like women 18 to 49, can be further defined by their access to and amount of time spent with any given interactive technology. Instead of cost-per-thousand we may need to calculate "hits-per-pod" ...

And as for the Future Present:

Madison Ave. melds pitches and content
Advertising Age ; Chicago; Oct 7, 2002; Hank Kim
 
 The buttoned-up world of brand marketing and the freewheeling entertainment industry are not the most natural bedfellows. While hitching a brand wagon to a celebrity has always had appeal, most marketers have trodden warily in their relationships with Hollywood's seemingly unpredictable players. But shifts in technology and the media landscape have spawned a closer courtship between the two - necessity, it seems, is proving to be the mother of a new level of interaction. There is no ignoring media fragmentation or the fact that emerging digital technologies are wresting power from the hands of the content provider and placing it with the consumer, forever changing the traditional paid-media advertising model.

Special Report: The harder hard sell - The future of advertising; Advertising; - The Economist. London: Jun 26, 2004.Vol.371, Iss. 8381;  pg. 84-- http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2787854

The advertising industry is passing through one of the most disorienting periods in its history. This is due to a combination of long-term changes, such as the growing diversity of media, and the arrival of new technologies, notably the internet. Consumers have become better informed than ever before, with the result that some of the traditional methods of advertising and marketing simply no longer work:

Can Mad Ave. Make Zap-Proof Ads?; It's blurring the lines between promotion and programming as DVRs gain ground - Ronald Grover  et. al. Business Week. New York: Feb 2, 2004. p. 36
 

With millions more viewers poised to sign up for digital video recorder services, network executives have plenty to worry about these days. Already scrambling as younger viewers drift off to play video games and watch DVDs, they face a potentially even more powerful threat. DVRs make recording shows and skipping commercials a snap. And the equipment is cheap and easy to get. How will broadcasters and ad agencies retaliate? No clear strategy has yet emerged. Still, broadcasters will have plenty of other opportunities to nab ad dollars. Product placements are booming  in TV-land. Moreover, ad-zapping may eventually force Madison Avenue to get more creative and up the amps on their TV spots.