Last month, at the iMedia Brand Summit in San Diego I sat with a large group of interactive marketers from many of the largest household brands. We asked them what they thought of the opportunity to own the desktop with advertising. They clearly understand the benefits. They see it as highly loyal context that breeds advertiser results. They understand the premium nature of using a desktop application to separate your ad message from a cacophony of others found in the cluttered context of the web environment. They clearly identify the benefits of being aligned with an experience composed of the highly loyal and self-selected context of the PC desktop.

After all, a desktop application is there because consumers expressly chose to keep it there: as a living part of their own PC "desktopsphere."

More and more online publishers are making their services available through a desktop application. For those (still relative few) who have the sophistication to pull it off comes not only an improved experience for their customers but also incredible flexibility to deliver brilliant advertising.

Now that consumers, publishers and advertisers have all begun to recognize the value of internet software, we have all officially begun the drive to conquer the desktop.

An internet-connected application can do things that make far more sense to consumers and advertisers. It also can do it far more efficiently and in more user-friendly ways. Applications can buffer a :15 second spot and play it on demand without delay -- just like television. They can pre-cache web ads for instant play at exactly the right moment. That means more sophisticated ads can be lined up and delivered to the consumer at precisely the right time. That also mean greater sophistication in what a consumer sees, with less reliance on real-time click-based ad loading.

An internet-connected application can morph itself to allow a brand to take over the desktop in impactful, fun and inventive ways. We have a technology for this called the BrandWrap. With it we have actually seen user emails requesting that a BrandWrap be placed back on their WeatherBug because it was "so cool!"

Even the most notable curmudgeon would admit that's extremely effective advertising from the consumer perspective.

Ways you can advertise on applications

As a rule, advertising on desktop applications is as easy as buying ads on a website. In fact it's the exact same process in virtually every instance I've seen.

Why is that important to know? For now, even with the sea change in consumer preference toward desktop applications, it's not likely to affect how we traditionally go about building brand and driving response online. Granted, other innovations around the corner may not bring as seamless a transition, but that's for us to solve another day.

Let's look at the most common types of desktop applications that offer advertising, and how to buy them.

Content applications: WeatherBug's desktop application is an example. Real Player is another.  Keep in mind that most application providers (like WeatherBug) offer both websites and applications, but their applications are custom-designed to bring content to the desktop in the most efficient manner possible. With that efficiency, they generally pull content down more quickly than their web counterparts. They remain "awake" on your PC (if you want them to), making them quicker to load and run than if you started them up from scratch. Many such applications offer users the option to start on boot-up. Buying a video ad on a media player is the same as buying video on a website. So is buying other IAB ads and rich media formats. While not all applications have all capabilities, it's often because their smaller content-in-a box format doesn't allow for the largest format units. If that's case, the trade-off is reasonable: less content area means the ads you place on desktop applications are effectively "larger" because they are less likely to get lost than on a full-size webpage.

User tools: Instant messengers are probably the most common online tool today. The start screen (which usually contains the buddy list and other entry features) commonly has a small ad avail. To build relationship with its users beyond a simple tool interface, many of the large IM players offer their own content interface. This becomes the portal to the internet for many IM users. AIM, for example, presents users with the "AIM today" screen, chock full of news, information and features. That brings opportunities for ad placements. Buying them? Just like a website.

Tracking software: More commonly called "adware" (or, mistakenly, "spyware'), such applications track surfing habits and present ads based on where a user goes. Done right, they become infomediaries that massively improve the consumer experience and guide users who are shopping online to better deals and offers -- namely yours. Instead of utility, however, many consumers only perceive endless pop-ups getting in the way and slowing down their computers. That causes the backlash of late against adware businesses and even the advertisers who buy from them. These ads work well. Properly bought, you'll get strong return, but first beware that lots of folks are working hard to banish these practices. First ask yourself: am I putting my brand at risk? As an application provider we decided long ago not to engage in such practices, but others have made a great business out of it, and continue to be successful.

The bottom line

In its simplest form, buying ads on applications is the same as buying ads on websites. Desktop software offers many more opportunities than a typical website, so when you buy ads online, inquire from those application publishers in your mix what else they can do to bring you more value.

The digital world remains both brave and new. Fortunately, buying apps is essentially non-disruptive to your online buying efforts, and it may offer novel, more effective solutions than a website can give you.

But just when you think buying on websites and internet applications is getting mundane, technology will drive something new into the mix.

When it does, we'd better be ready to roll with the changes. Why? It's the consumer who's adapting to technology and shifting her habits. And it's we marketers who simply want to meet people wherever they are.

So whatever's next -- in-game advertising, mobile advertising, IP TV, RSS -- wherever consumers go, you'll go also need to go to build or maintain brand hegemony and drive results. And as those new media emerge, I look forward to exploring them with you.

Andy Jedynak is the senior vice president and general manager of WeatherBug, which is owned by AWS Convergence Technologies Inc. Jedynak began at AWS in 1999 and is responsible for the WeatherBug business unit. He has directed the growth of WeatherBug from a concept in 2000 to become a top online weather property in 2003. Prior to joining AWS in 1999, Jedynak spent nine years at NBC working within a number of disciplines, including manager of new media.