For our second dispatch, I want to share highlights from the Summit’s opening session, “A Trip Through Google’s Black Box,” presented by Penry Price, vice president of advertising sales for North America, and David Fischer, vice president of online sales and operations.

Now, for any of you SEO mavens looking for inside information on the secret formula, I’m sorry to say that you won’t find that here. Penry’s and David’s presentation was more about the strategic direction that Google sees itself following over the next few years.  So where does Google see itself heading? Well, it should be no suprise that the key areas of predicted growth are: video, mobile and social networks.  Some of the facts they shared to support this direction:

• In 1998, there were 12 million people worldwide accessing the internet; today, 69 million are accessing it wirelessly
• Today there are 3.9 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, generating an average of 13 SMS messages per week per user
• 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day
• 50% of all U.S. page views every day are on social or professional networks

So what are the implications for B2B marketers? It reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote: “This is like deja vu all over again.” My entire career has been spent in “new media” marketing. Time and again over the years, I have seen B2B marketers lag behind on emerging communication channels, taking a “wait and see” position. This means that for many of you, these trends represent an opportunity to take the lead over your competitors.

Over the next 12 months, we will see online video become mainstream. During his part of the presentation, David Fischer referred to 2008 as “the year of online video.” Our firm has been using online video for several years, and we find that it is an excellent vehicle to educate and build strong awareness, interest and even preference. With online video, you can break through a cluttered online advertising landscape, deliver a complex message with a human voice and prove extraodinary product benefits with clear demonstration. Broadcast channels have been capitalizing on these benefits for years. Now we can see these benefits via a channel that is both highly targetable and measurable.

As the page view statistic above indicates, social networking sites are drawing incredible audiences right now. (More than 200,000 profiles a week are being added to LinkedIn alone.) In my mind, however, the 50% of all U.S. page views statistic isn’t the most important aspect to consider for this channel. The more important measurement parameter is engagement. Social and professional network audiences (LinkedIn prefers “professional” over “social,” for obvious reasons) tend to spend large amounts of time on their networks. Given this fact, social networks provide an opportunity to provide deep awareness and knowledge building messages within rich content units, custom widgets or even custom “network “experiences.” Also, don’t forget that social/professional network users provide very detailed information that gives marketers the ability to deliver very targeted messages to very specific audiences. This is particularly true for the B2B marketers on professional networks such as LinkedIn. If you’re a b-to-b marketer or agency and haven’t yet heard a presentation from the ad-sales people at LinkedIn, contact Steve Patrizi or Dale Durrett now. You will be fascinated and flabbergasted—and glad you had them in. (Frankly, we are surprised Google hasn’t bought LinkedIn—someone surely will try or, more likely, is trying to do so right now.)

Finally, that leaves us with mobile marketing. A quick walk through the floor at AdTech Chicago yesterday would give you the quick nod that this space is in the process of blowing up. It seemed that every third vendor at the event was involved in mobile marketing services. The scope of the opportunity in this space is too broad and deep to cover as a sub-topic in this post, and should be covered specifically in a series of posts (note to self). But the top line is that, though the U.S. is lagging, mobile handsets worldwide are quickly becomming a fact of life in the online space. This has implications for how you execute your search programs. Have you considered that your search traffic could be comming from a handset? Will they be able to even read your landing pages? Other oportunities in this space involve SMS service messages, couponing programs, sweepstakes and other interactive opt-in opportunities. Promotion of your products through location-based service offerings also present opportunities to a guerrilla-minded marketer.

Given these facts, Google plans to concentrate on and invest heavily in these key areas over the next five years, with a keen focus on mobile, as it is seen as the key growth channel for the immediate future.

I guess that leaves me with one last question: What are you doing to prepare your marketing efforts for the mobile explosion?