Today's cross-channel challenges are comparable to making your way through a haunted house. Here are seven keys to surviving the ride.

As marketing transforms into a primarily data-driven practice, businesses need to understand the services and professional hires that will enable them to stay competitive.

A few years back, the airline took over the Island of Manhattan when it launched direct service from JFK to Honolulu. The cross-channel campaign also included transit, print and digital advertising. This clearly lingered in my subconscious.

The typical path to get to big ideas has been to perfect something for one channel, then think of the extensions that amplify it in the store, on the web and everywhere in between. That approach doesn't work today. Here's one that does: cross-channel concepting.