Beer commercials typically run from the ridiculous (Coors Light trains running through improbable places) to the insane (Triple Hops Brewed spots from Miller Lite…insane if you actually think Miller Lite tastes good).

So it always refreshing to see the attacks on these spots by the Breckenridge Brewery “Truth In Beervertising” campaign. Along with Coors and Miller, Corona get’s targeted with a spot called “Find Your Couch,” a parody of their “Find Your Beach” campaign.

The best of the spots though has to be their parody of Dos Equis, introducing “the least interesting man in the world,” a brewery worker named Bob. Last year’s :15 spots were produced for just $10,000, a fraction of the cost of their competition and arguably much more effective.

Glamour just announced a mobile e-commerce initiative with snap-to- buy tags…A process where you scan a tag and then enter a credit card number to complete the purchase. This is a pretty involved process that will limit the number of actual engagements until this technology becomes widespread.

Moreover, Glamour is moving beyond the pages of its magazine to do this in a Taxi environment using both Taxi TV (video) and Print ads in the Taxi under the Glamour banner for Lancôme during Fashion Week.

We are encouraged to see magazines stepping outside the bounds of the printed page and using their brand to test new digital frontiers. We encourage them to put measurement metrics in place to capture consumer engagement and interaction – and to share this information with the advertising community. The more transparent the data, the more actionable these initiatives will become. Of course, some of these experiments will fail, and in time, more will succeed. Together, publishers and advertisers will identify successful formulas that will demonstrate the continued and intensified connection women have with these strong brands.

This was the question of the hour at AWNY’s “What’s Hot in Media for 2012?” breakfast panel at the New York Hilton Thursday morning.  Chaired by TargetCast’s President and Director of Client Services Audrey Siegel, the panel featured notable industry leaders including TargetCast’s President of Interactive Marketing, Steve Minichini.  The panel shared their expert insight on how they see the advertising industry evolving and what major trends we can expect to see in 2012.

1) A more refined advertising style in the mobile world

With the increasing popularity of smart phones and tablet products it is more important than ever for advertisers to be thinking about how to build and optimize our advertising in this ever evolving mobile world.  As Steve Minichini pointed out, there is no unified voice in how we advertise through tablets, and over the next year, advertisers will begin to figure out how to most effectively communicate with the consumer.

2)  What privacy really means in our increasingly social world

With all the recent online privacy and piracy debates, consumers are more aware than ever of how companies are accessing their personal information and using it to target them with specific advertisement.  Despite this, we can expect to see a more concrete definition of what privacy really means and what rights an individual is entitled.  This will have a major effect on where advertisers are able to communicate with consumers.

3)  A continued emphasis on social media as a way to engage with consumers

And speaking of communicating with consumers, companies are finally finding a winning model of how to successfully interact with their consumers in the social world.  Many companies are hesitant to invest in social media since there are often no tangible results, but with sites like Tumblr and Pinterest now gaining popularity, companies and consumers alike are finding new ways to express themselves, and connect with each other beyond a Facebook “like”.

4)  And finally, thinking beyond TV

Between interactive TV, and the introduction of 3D into the consumers’ home, marketing is headed in a much more dynamic direction.  During 2012 we will see advertisers experiment with the most effective way to communicate with consumers through these new mediums as they stop thinking about TV as TV, and instead as video everywhere.

With all of these trends in mind, it is clear that the leaders in the advertising industry will be those who are willing to experiment and take risks on both new technology and the fresh young minds who already use this technology in their day to day life.  2012 will definitely be an exciting year!