It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and we are collectively thankful for:

• A half-full parking lot as an amazingly hard-working group of T3ers take time for their families.
• A 3:30 p.m. early release, along with the commitment to finish the work if it runs later in the day.
• A tri-coastal group creative director who said he would be off this week and not checking e-mails and is, in fact, not checking e-mails.
• A well-stocked agency bar in San Francisco, thanks to our media partners, clients and staff who celebrated our new Folsom Street offices.
• T3 elves squirreled away in our studio working on our holiday card.
• T3 bakers who will spend part of their holidays whipping up goodies for our annual cookie festivities on Monday.
• T3 volunteers who have poured themselves into programs to help the homeless through Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLF). You can help by texting “MLF” to 20222 to donate $5 and help one less person go hungry tonight.
• A bunch of new T3ers who will be starting in the coming weeks. It’s great to be hiring again.
• Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the cool programs we’ve built to engage our clients’ customers. Go buy something nice for someone special this weekend.
• The nice flood of year-end projects that are keeping us so, so busy.
• The 2010 planning process that shows how clients are balancing smarts with renewed optimism for the year ahead.
• Our amazing clients (long-standing and new) who encourage partnerships, collaboration and smarter thinking.

Last week, I traveled to Chicago for the Forrester Consumer Forum. While the content is always interesting and engaging, I felt like something was missing.

Then I realized what it was: metrics.

As a researcher, I thrive on numbers and metrics. Yes, it’s valuable for me to hear how Pizza Hut is evolving its brand, how Best Buy is better serving its customers, and how Hilton is providing a consistent experience across its brands. But it’s more valuable for me to know that through its OnQ project, Hilton was able to garner a 360 degree view of its customers, which in turn increased its cross-sell revenue 50% from 2006 to 2007.

I am not alone in my love of metrics. What marketers want now more than ever is proof that their invested dollars are achieving business goals. They need proof that social-networking efforts are not just creating thousands of fans on Facebook, but that these fans are actually advocating the brand or purchasing product.

Analytics are essential in the planning and development of all marketing initiatives, but marketers must think through how these metrics apply to the overarching business objectives. According to one Forrester analyst, companies too often measure the success of an initiative only within the platform selected for the initiative. For example, if the company runs a campaign driving people to become Facebook fans, success is measured by the number of fans instead of a positive lift in brand awareness or an increase in sales. Marketers continue to evaluate emerging media. They should always attempt to map these programs back to tangible and measureable business goals. The ultimate goal is a holistic metric that reflects the intricacies of today’s digital world.

How is your organization measuring the success of your marketing initiatives?