Social networking, user-generated content, and interactive ad campaigns are expected to blur the lines of the online and physical world in 2007, according to an article in Friday's New York Times.

It is significant that a mainstream, traditional newspaper company like the Times is increasingly covering interactive's participation in media and marketing.

Already companies such as Doritos and Dove are asking consumers to create their commercials.

In addition, Clark Kokich, worldwide president of Avenue A Razorfish told the Times  that he predicts brand websites will, "start incorporating features from the video game world, making their pages more fluid and dynamic and inviting Web surfers to live a bit in that brand's world, much like the 3-D online world of Second Life."

Among other predictions such as greater social consciousness from brands and consumer's distancing themselves from their technology when not at work-- Louise Story insists that "videos created by ordinary people are not going away anytime soon, but advertising executives said consumer brand companies were already trying to exert more control over consumer-made ads posted to their brand sites."

Controlling brand identity while embracing user-generated content seems to be a major concern for the New Year, and it seems that customized advertising -- which incorporates behavioral and targeting technology with the increasingly social online landscape -- will be key for marketing in 2007.