This Q&A with Richard Eyre, Chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau, on the future of online marketing features in the book "Understanding Digital Marketing" by Damian Ryan and Calvin Jones.

Where do you think DIGITAL MARKETING is heading over the next 2-3 years?

Continued blurring of the lines between ‘traditional media' and digital media. Continued march to mobile.

Which components of "digital" (ie: search, affiliate, display, etc.) do you believe will be more widely used in say three years time?

I think search will continue to bring in new advertisers who could not previously afford much more than a slot in yellow pages. The ability of online advertising to be highly targeted and deliver high and manageable ROI will make advertising a more regular component of more companies' marketing efforts, and the networks make buying cheap, so I think they will continue to take a significant share of the online dollar. Meanwhile, the larger advertisers will continue to discover the value of online advertising in the mix, and will favour display.

Which components of "digital" (ie: search, affiliate, display, etc.) do you believe will be LESS widely used in say three years time?

Interruptive formats. Though pop-ups account for quite a small share of spend now, they will disappear. Users will complain about rich media that are too clever and distracting, forcing advertisers to think hard about their use.

What are the main challenges and opportunities you think these developments will hold for the digital marketer?

I think the main challenge is that the digital advertising offer has not stopped developing yet. Advertisers and agencies are painfully slow to adapt to the new, so I think they're in for more of the same - i.e. evaluation of new approaches, trying to separate the good from the just new.

I think we'll see derivatives in search and display that help advertisers get closer to consumers without annoying them as much as today's interruptive formats are wont to do.

Advertisers will have to get their heads around mobile advertising. This will have to be cleverer than spam texts.

Are there any other trends in the digital space that you think marketers need to be aware of?

Knowing more about your consumer opens up a new opportunity in mainstream advertising, which has so far had to opt for one message for many. This development will make it possible and in time necessary to tailor advertising messages by audience member. Big one!

On demand TV will obviously reduce the effectiveness of the commercial break.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone whose about to embark on their digital marketing adventure, what would it be?

Get great advisers and listen to them

Do you think the disruptive nature of digital technology will eventually sound the death knell of traditional advertising as we know it? When?

No. I think it's to easy to proclaim the death of the old on the birth of the new. I don't see newspaper or magazine reading or radio listening stopping so there will remain an advertising opportunity here

Why do you think traditional full service advertising agencies are struggling to make the transition to digital? What are the obstacles, and how are they overcoming them?

I think one reason is the age of the senior people. Usually a man of a certain age, who is hoping like hell that all this digital malarkey will hold off till he can retire. One senior media player recently described the internet to a meeting I was in as ‘those things which we do not understand'.

Yet for all their lack of instincts, they know they have to participate. The approach then is to try to buy in specialists. But there are few of them, and the best are unlikely to go into an agency where digital media are second sister. So then they buy an agency. OK, but the digital mentality never quite makes it into the dna of the agency - it's grafted on. Clients are not daft - mainly. This is obvious so they split the budget for the agency and hire their own digital specialist.

The obstacles lie in the heads of the senior people and they are not easily overcome till that generation retires to Portugal.