Dan Oxnam's Profile

Many retailers downplay the significance of the web because it's just 2%, 5%, even 15% of sales. Might not seem like much until you consider that it's a snapshot in time. While retail growth is relatively flat overall, the web is growing five times faster than stores -- with a projected growth of 14% by 2012 (per Forrester) driving a disproportionate amount of retail growth.

Gap made headlines last summer when it cut advertising costs by 18% and watched profits soar by 40%. Why should we all take note? It made a data-smart spending move, by reducing ad spending where customers weren't paying attention. Even P&G continues to experiment, dropping traditional media by 19% and increasing digital as much as 10%. It's a spending shift. Brands need to re-assess media spending to align more with consumers.