NEW YORK - Despite these tough economic times, the digital advertising revolution is in full swing.

That was the optimistic message presented at a keynote roundtable on the state of the industry at ad:tech New York. The panel included Tina Sharkey, chairman and global president of BabyCenter LLC; Rob Norman, CEO of Group M Interaction; and Rob Master, North American media director for Unilever U.S.

"There are many lessons from the election for marketers, Obama has done a fantastic job activating the digital media space," Ms. Sharkey said. "Marketers are clearly media planners, joining and activating the conversation with consumers by using new strategies and channels, including mobile.

"Obama announcing his VP choice via SMS and acquiring all of those names and mobile numbers was absolutely brilliant," she said. "Candidates are using digital media as a creative means of getting their message across and engaging people."

Consumer-generated content, social networking, widgets, online video, ad networks, activation, engagement, mobile marketing and the death of television as we know it are all realities of the digital revolution that marketers must come to grips with.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that online advertising spending will surpass $20 billion in 2008 as marketers increasingly leverage digital media and technology platforms to establish a dialog with their customers, optimize messaging and delivery and drive brand preference.

It remains to be seen whether or not brands will continue to increase their mobile advertising budgets, or if the "Year of Mobile Marketing" tipping point will be deferred another year.

The key will be for mobile to continue to develop performance-based, ROI-focused models and metrics.

The newsletter has seen continued success reaching consumers.

"Email newsletter consumption is as high as it's ever been, because it breaks through clutter and gets direct to consumers and they're picking off what they want to consume," Ms. Sharkey said. "Customized media is key, because there is a barrage of things out there, and breaking through to a different channel is important.

"More marketers are coming to a blended mix of media, and targeting is getting much more specific, more focused, more varied," she said. "With user-generated content, everyone's roles are shifting to entertaining or informational.

"The consumer is already in the digital world, and marketers want to be where the consumer lives."

The conundrum of all digital advertisers -- online and mobile alike -- is how to target specifically while still attaining scale.

"As fas as the media mix model, it's a fascinating time, because the combination of broad reach on one hand and high engagement on the other is the center of marketing," Mr. Norman said. "Three things to keep eye on are geography -- where they are -- technology and the value of integrity.

"My sense is that the Obama campaign was able to fuse the three to great effect," he said. "He took advantage of the broadest reach of traditional media and used more microactivation than we've seen in any campaign."

So how to balance all of a brand's various concerns?

"There's no question that, in the case of Unilever, they need to sell millions of packages of low value, sometimes low interest goods, and their bottom line depends on huge volume," Mr. Norman said.

One challenge is the combination of divided attention and intense clutter.

"I'd rather have that cleaned up, because it's more expensive to reach consumers and more difficult to persuade them to take action," Mr. Norman said.

The most compelling content creates the best environment for advertising. The more engagement tools the better, because it's increasingly difficult to build a strong case for video advertising that does not have a content context to carry it.

Mobile video advertising is a growing, though still largely untapped, area that big brands should delve into sooner rather than later.

"Our viral Dove campaign provides us with a global example of how things have changed, consumers are evolving, and the habits of how they use media aren't just evolving, they've already evolved," Mr. Master said.

"We're seeing unbelievable change, this campaign perfect example of how marketing paradigm has change." he said.

Mr. Master said his company follows where consumers go, just as both campaigns have been following where voters are going.

"We feel very confident with the numbers we're investing in the digital space, and if digital space continues to expand, we'll increase our funding accordingly," Mr. Master said.

Crafting a narrative can be key to forging a brand identity.

"We tell stories with our brand, and today the digital space provides opportunities to tell better, richer, deeper stories," Mr. Master said. From a content perspective, the short form fits in perfectly, it's a valuable asset, especially if it links into existing content on Internet.

"Having a strong relationship with a publisher is absolutely critical, because the context of where you deliver that message is key," he said. "Not one TV program is garnering more than 20 million viewers, while the biggest Internet sites get hundreds of millions of hits a day."

The Internet's scale is already increasing due to Web-enabled smartphones, and the integration of the two Webs is inevitable.

"We look across all media channels," Mr. Master said. "Metrics and analytics are the next frontier.

"We're spending an enormous amount of time altering marketing mix models, and it's a work in progress," he said. "It's not exclusively abut direct repsone click-throughs, it's about ways you can engage with brands without necessarily clicking through."

"Content is king, advertisers fund terrific content, and that often gets lost in the conversation about the changing landscape."