In the past, behavioral targeting (BT) was often thought of as one prong of a multi-prong advertising effort. But with lifts of 10 to 100 times the response typically garnered from run-of-site advertising, BT has now earned its place as a central strategy for many advertisers.

During the holidays, this understanding becomes even more valuable. To help you make the most of your advertising efforts during the big end-of-year advertising blitz, I've assembled some insights and advice from key marketers who are believers and practitioners of behavioral targeting.

The questions I posed to my panel are in italics.

As brands and advertisers gear up for the holiday rush, how should they change their approach? What are best practices for hitting customers with the right messages based on the holidays they celebrate? How far in advance of the holiday season should brands and advertisers prepare their seasonal messaging and creative?

"The first thing to keep in mind that's driving the whole BT industry," says Omar Tawakol, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Revenue Science, Bellevue, WA, "is that inventory is starting to get tighter, as online increases in size. Valuable inventory becomes less available. You can increase your reach to a valuable target audience, but you can't buy what's sold out."

Facing low or zero inventories of the most preferred advertising slots, the solution is often to ramp up the BT approach and pinpoint available inventory that can still promise an enhance response.

Dave Morgan, founder and CEO of TACODA, the pioneering and largest provider of behavioral-targeted online advertising, cautions advertisers that during the year-end holidays "demand is higher, so rates tend to be higher. Using more targeting in the delivery of your campaigns can help them be a lot more efficient."

Morgan recommends that advertisers try to rise above the extra clutter during the holidays by going for better, more compelling creative, having a strong offer that creates extra value for the consumer, and presenting more diverse messages than usual. That way, consumers don't see the same few ads over and over.

"Given the influx of new potential customers during the holiday shopping season and the limited timeframe in which advertisers have to reach them," explains Jeremy Helfand, Senior Vice President of Advertising.com, Inc, "scale is an essential consideration when planning a behavioral targeting campaign."

"But broader reach campaigns that are cost effective in the summer may not pay in the holiday season when you're paying higher rates," cautions Morgan. "This year, we're going to see even more of a bump because there's such a shift of traditional dollars into online."

Deciding how far in advance of the holidays to prepare is the age-old problem in advertising, according to Morgan. His simple advice: "The best practice is to begin well in advance, certainly before Labor Day. And this includes having your creative in place and all your buys locked down.

"If you're late," says Morgan, "you pay higher rates, get worse placements, and you tend to be waiting on creative just when all the top creative shops are overwhelmed with work -- demand for holiday advertising creative is like tax season for accountants."

 "Ideally, advertisers should have behavioral targeting plans in place at least 60 days prior to the start of the holiday season," Helfand advises. "This allows sizeable audience populations to be built comprised of the advertiser's desired behaviors. Creatives should be available at least 30 days before launch so that, once these populations are established, consumers can be immediately targeted with customized messaging."

Where to place your ads is always a moving target, but increasingly publishers tweak their layout and design for the holidays. So what should advertisers do to stay on top of changing environments so that the contexts advertisers buy within a publisher's site or on a network works for rather than against their ads?

"Instead of describing the media you're looking for," suggests Omar Tawakol, of Revenue Science, "forget about getting into this section or that section, and spend your time describing your targeting audience -- who you're trying to reach. There's definitely a place for context concern, but if you craft your target audience better then that can legitimately and profitably become your focus."

Dave Morgan of TACODA advises advertisers to think beyond their primary target list during the holidays. Instead of targeting just the most relevant behaviors, advertisers can frequently generate big year-end responses by casting a slightly wider net.

"During the holidays," says Morgan, "primary targets are sold out or extra expensive, but it can be cost effective to go after secondary and tertiary prospects. It can save money while still gaining effectiveness from the holiday impact. This is also a good way to get away from the clutter, so you're not fighting messages from similar advertisers."

"There is no need to mess with success," concurs Jeremy Helfand. "Advertisers should continue during the holidays with placements that have delivered for them throughout the year. The key for holiday advertising is actually to expand upon these successful placements and explore new opportunities that will increase your reach.

 "Whatever the placement," Helfand continues, "testing will ensure your ads work for -- not against -- you. With time for testing limited during the holiday shopping season, a network buy is a great way to test your ad across broad content areas simultaneously. Couple that with performance-based pricing and you are assured you get what you pay for."

"When online inventory is constrained, as it is during the holidays," counsels Omar Tawakol, "BT helps you spend even when you run out of contextual places."

It's always a good idea to make sure your print, direct, broadcast and interactive marketing messages are different voices in the same chorus, but it's absolutely crucial during the holiday season. What are best practices for making sure that cross-silo marketing communications and strategy are on the front burner as the year winds up?

According to Omar Tawakol, "the first level of integration is to integrate the Behavioral Targeting buy into the non-BT buy. After that, concentrate on driving people from one medium to another and making sure you're able to get the right message to the right person on the right channel. It's probably OK to shift more dollars to your online channels."

"The need for integration is not unique to the holiday season," says Dave Morgan, "but it is more critical. Remember that bundling is not integration. Integration is using TV or newspaper to promote an offer and create awareness while using the web URL to drive traffic, capture information, and make contact. When you've got the integration working right, each medium does something that supports the other.

"For example," Morgan continues, "ask yourself if one advertisement is adding anything to the other advertisement. Does it change the consumers' viewpoint or motivate them to take action? Are your ads reaching consumers in different places, such as home and work? Are your print or TV driving people to a website to register for more information? The real question is, are you buying the bundle because it's cheaper, or because it's adding value -- and you would pay a premium for it? If you wouldn't pay a premium for the 'integrated' media you're buying, all you're doing is helping the publisher meet its sales targets. You're not helping yourself meet your marketing objectives.

"Because media in the fourth quarter is really expensive," Morgan sums up, "it shouldn't be wasted. Using multiple media and multiple touch points to support delivery of a marketing message is a great advantage, particularly during the holidays."

"The key to creating an integrated marketing campaign," says Jeremy Helfand, "is consistency. Whether you're advertising on TV, in print or online, make sure your advertising themes are consistent across media to establish continuity, as well as a singular brand image.

"To increase collective campaign performance," Helfand counsels, "marketers should leverage online advertising's ability to make changes mid-campaign. They can test messaging, offers, and other factors early, and they can apply what they learn to offline placements. During the ever-important 'end of year blitz,' marketers should not forget to continually evaluate and adjust their online placements to ensure maximum return on their holiday investments."

One consensus that arose from these conversations: advertisers who feel it is too late to gain much advantage from these ideas for leveraging behavioral technology within this year's holiday season advertising campaign should perhaps consider themselves right on time to begin preparing to do so for next year.