I'm just back from New York and typing up my notes from the Advertising 2.0 conference in Queens. So for those who are interested in what’s going on with the advertising business, plus the impact on digital photography and watermarking, here is a quick high-level recap of my key takeaways...

No surprise that the biggest discussion centered around whether or not we believe consumers will pay for content. As we sit and watch various newspapers die a not so slow death all around us, their only hope appears to be our willingness to pay for the high value content they deliver. But will we? Time will tell.  Barry Dillard, CEO of IAC, is betting yes, as are many other web sites that believe they offer quality content that we simply cannot live without.

Another interesting thread revolved around the advertisers' increased ability to carefully target their messages to just the right audience. Hypertargeting, behavioral targeting and location-based targeting are all gaining popularity with the big brands, but will the value be enough to offset the cost and complexity of these campaigns? Success requires multiple versions of creative, extremely complex media buys, continued refinement to dial in just the right offers and calls-to-action, etc. Slicing and dicing the market into tiny bits creates huge inefficiencies and expense. What’s the answer? Stay tuned for Advertising 3.0, I guess.

Overall, I heard quite a few complaints about the diminished quality of advertising creative and the lack of brilliant ideas and stories. We can figure out the technology piece, but none of the new capabilities will deliver the goods without creative capable of reaching out and grabbing the consumer, engaging and entertaining them. Apparently the brands are cutting back on their creative budgets - as well as the media buys - and the industry is suffering.

Finally, one of the continued bright spots are opportunities in mobile marketing. Will 2009 finally be "the year for mobile?" The consensus is NO, but we are getting closer. Advertising campaigns now take into account the three screens that consumers view each day, developing creative appropriate for each. Mobile campaigns are beginning to move from tests, pilots and experimental budgets into the mainstream media mix and delivering some darned good results in many cases.

So, how does all of this relate to images and digital watermarking? The use of images is more important than ever! They are an integral part of every campaign and remain a tremendous asset to the agencies and brands. Also, with the complexity of the campaigns and many variations of images and creative being used across a range of media, the use of digital watermarks to identify specific instances of images is invaluable as agencies try to track, measure, manage and understand what is working and where.

One of the keynote speakers commented that he believes the changes we're experiencing are not temporary, but a fundamental shift in the advertising business from here on out. I, for one, don't think this is a bad thing.