B2B Advertising's Top 5 Emerging Media

The current vast array of media channels can be overwhelming. It seems there is a new platform, channel or application with advertising potential appearing daily. The difficulty comes in figuring out how B2B advertising an harness the new  application. Or more aptly, what emerging media will allow B2B advertiser to connect with their audience. Here's my take on the top emerging media that have B2B applications or potential.

1. Apple's iPad: The iPad has been heralded as everything from the answer to print's problems  to the killer of the computer as we know it. The truth is the iPad is a mobile media consumption device. The key question is not what the iPad is, but when will there be a critical mass of audience and how will B2B publishers embrace this technology?

2. Location based marketing: Whether it's Four Squareor iAd they're all based on location. The B2B implications at this time are hard to determine, but I can see use at tradeshows or by regional distributors. I'm not really sure how location based marketing will playout, but I believe much like Twitter there will be B2B marketers who figure out how to use this technology to their advantage.

3. Social Network Advertising: Advertising on Facebook may be limited for B2B purposes but on LinkedIn ads can be targeted by seniority, industry, job function, company size, and geography. Now the trick is to get the audience's attention.

4. Ad Retargeting: Google Re-targeting recently launched. I'm not 100% sold on its usefulness for B2B. Basically it is totally dependent on Google Ad Network. My experience with this network is the more general the  audience you want, the easier it will be to re-target. For example if you want to reach people involved in construction, that would most likely work. However it you wanted to reach commercial roofing contractors, that would be much more challenging.

5. Personalized Ad Targeting - The ability to target consumers online through behavior has been around for years. Great for B2C advertisers, but B2B advertisers can now target by industry and job functions via networks like Bizo. Bizo lets you target online display ads across the internet, not just on B2B websites. For example if your target audience is design engineers, Bizo will tag an individual while visiting an engineering target website. Later, let's say when they are away from work, the tagged engineer visits CNN. The tagged design engineer will be see your ad.

What do you see as the next emerging media channel?