It seems as though every week there is a new “hottest, fastest growing” channel for reaching customers.  Preroll for online video is exploding.  Mobile and short-code marketing is gaining steam fast.  Widgets and advergaming are two more advertising outlets that, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist a few short years ago, but which are now getting line items on company advertising budgets. 

So which of these up-and-comers is the real “best channel” for a company’s advertising dollars?  Any business that is serious about reaching the ever-more-elusive target audience should probably be investigating and testing a mix of different channels.  The more important question is, “Has our brand message been developed to engage our target audience regardless of the channel it reaches them via?” 

As more consumers become active in remixing and redistributing corporate communications online through blogging, social networks, and other channels, it becomes crucial to brand the content itself.  A business cannot completely control what users decide to do with their messaging, content and other brand assets online.  What we can control is the quality of the original content. 

Similarly, a well-crafted brand message should work equally well, with minimal changes, across multiple channels or media.  While the delivery and execution of the message can (and should!) be honed to make the most of the particular media channel selected, the message itself should always remain consistent and on-brand. 

A recent study found that 96% percent of teens and tweens check in with a social networking web site at least once a week. That’s an insane penetration rate for any media channel, and a very desirable advertising market.

However, winning points with those teens and tweens is not as simple as a display ad campaign on myspace. The social networking generation is notoriously resistant to being “sold” anything. Interrupt-driven advertising designed to be disruptive to their use patterns can cause their primary response to your brand to be annoyance, rather than recognition and positive vibes.

In seeking to get past the basic “advertising insulation” that kids seem to be born with in the current century, advertisers are increasingly offering value not just with their products and services, but with their company messaging vehicles themselves. Downloadables, widgets, desktop images and advergaming are a few of the ways that companies are wooing younger users by enhancing their online experience. If the disruption is sufficiently valuable or entertaining content, even jaded millenials will stop and take notice of it.

Burger King has effectively become the King of Advergaming, even going so far as to sell branded console video games such as Sneak King, Pocketbike Racer, and Big Bumpin’.

When it comes to younger users, you don’t have to simply be in the right place. You have to be in the right place with the right message delivered in such an engaging way that it feels like entertainment rather than advertising.