We are now at the beginning of a consumer-centric digital age, in which the traditional ways of marketing products and services are no longer viable.

Consumers are in control; they have greater access to information and greater command over media consumption than ever before. The emergence of a host of new media— the Internet, DVRs, iPods, mobile phones, and other devices—has created a sharp decline in the efficacy of analog media (TV, radio, and print) to shape brand preferences and consumer behavior. The corporate demand for marketing accountability and return on investment has reached a crescendo. And, the previous exclusive relationships between marketers and ad agencies are collapsing.

The emergence of new media, models, and metrics creates challenges, but also opportunities for more effective marketing and advertising. For years, marketers have been waiting for practice to catch up with potential—for the arrival of technology and media formats that would enable better targeting, stronger accountability, and more granular consumer insight. Now the waiting is over and the new operational reality will reshape every link in the media and marketing value chain.

Many companies will face these challenges, and, like Nike, make sweeping changes in the way they approach marketing, advertising, and consumers in general. The impact is already being felt in every consumer sector, from apparel to household goods to food to automobiles to appliances—and in business-to-business marketing as well. As business leaders see these changing trends affect their enterprises firsthand, they are fashioning new kinds of advertising and marketing for a new always-on era— anchored firmly in relevance, interactivity, and measurability. As with the Internet that helped to shape it, the new media environment is “always on” because the audience is always present: constantly seeking opportunities and value, taking advantage of the multiplying media around it, and (at the same time) being bombarded with ever more media in ever more forms. Marketers are “always on” as well: they have no respite or downtime because the rapidly changing nature of their audiences—and the means of connecting with them—requires continual experimentation, innovation, and shifts in strategy.

Marketing in this new era also requires new types of customer awareness. Instead of being satisfied with knowing how many people are exposed to their brand messages, some marketers are working hard to determine how their messages are received, whether they’re powerful enough to generate customer response, and exactly what those responses are. They have learned a primary lesson of this new engagement-focused media environment: it doesn’t matter how many people are watching; what counts is whether they’re paying attention and responding. With knowledge of this kind, marketing is being reborn as a consumer-centered craft.

Finally, these marketers are shaking up the established order in their quest to capture the future. They are abandoning old partners in the media and in advertising whenever those partners cannot live up to the new imperatives of marketing’s future.

The marketing renaissance already is taking place at a number of leading companies. Innovators in marketing, advertising, and media feel a profound sense of urgency to reinvent their profession now—through new skills, new positionings, and new relationships. You need only look at the dramatic steps companies like Nike are taking to realize that the future of advertising is not coming—it is here. Many others, however, still have a long way to go. For all the hype around digital advertising and media, for instance, the top 100 national advertisers allocate just 5 percent of their total measured media spending to online media.

What’s holding back the laggards? Many have difficulty seeing beyond television. Marketing metrics and agency economics are still built around TV. TV is still the easiest way to get retail and trade partners excited. And many creative advertising people still think a 30-second minimovie is the most powerful way to communicate with consumers. There are other barriers that are more structural and internal to corporations. Metrics still are not comparable across media. Even in digital media, where metrics are a compelling part of the value proposition, they are rarely standardized and not well understood. By and large, marketers still lack the number-crunching skills needed to determine ROI. And many companies still think of new media as an “experiment,” rather than as a core component of brand-building and sales.

Viable responses to all these challenges are rapidly emerging. There is no commonly accepted single set of new practices to replace them; no silver bullet that can address the challenge of brand building in the “always-on” digital era. But make no mistake: participation in the future of marketing and advertising is not optional; it is mandatory. Marketers and advertising professionals already have learned they cannot ignore it.