Is online video *the* most influential form of advertising?

Business consultant Stephen C. Campbell recently posted this observation: "adding streaming video is a present day infomercial, personalized for the Internet. Since this has more personal and direct connection to your visitors, it has greater influence on your customers than any other form of advertising." You can see this in context at http://bloghostingpro.com/adsense/?p=1126.

It's a pretty strong statement. With online advertising still taking in less than ten percent of total advertising expenditures, elevating a still small subsection of it--online video--to top status in influence seems to be getting just a little carried away. Then again, expenditures do not necessarily equate into influence, as many a failed marketing venture can attest.

The debate is a fun one, but it's probably unnecessary. It's easy enough to play all of the angles these days. If influence equals exposure, TV still remains the best bet. But if personalization is most influential, it's easier to achieve that on a website.

Is there a happy medium? Of course. Use TV to drive viewers to your website. And then you can personalize away....