On Monday, much of the advertising world literally woke up to the world of widgets, thanks to an Advertising Age article by Bob Garfield. He usually starts our week with a critique of a new 30-second spot. But this time, Garfield gushed about a growing Marketing with Meaning tactic that is slowly spreading across the industry.

Widgets are tools that offer some kind of added-value information to computer users. Google calls them “gadgets,” but the term “widget” seems to be sticking. (Besides, Google can’t have everything.) Widgets either can be software programs that sit on your computer, or code that sits on personalized websites such as a blog, Facebook account, or My Yahoo! page. Garfield’s article is a must-read for any marketer who is new to the concept. He suggests that they are “a great expression of the post-advertising age.”

When you can combine utility with the purpose of your brand, that’s the opposite of why people hate marketing. Instead of fooling them with the old brand-marketing song and dance, it’s not a promise; it’s a reality” —Peter Kim

The article specifically calls out Southwest Airlines, whose “DING!” widget is a powerful case study in the long-term success of this new-fangled tactic. DING! is a small program that runs continuously in the system tray (lower right corner) of your computer. Users direct DING! to inform them when certain flights hit certain price points. And when that threshold is hit, Southwest’s branded DING! sound alerts users that a fitting flight is available. This widget actually was first launched way back in February 2005, and it continues to grow in downloads and revenue generation for the company.

Southwest’s widget is a brilliant example of Marketing with Meaning. Customers who use the widget are interested in traveling, but only at a certain price. So they are very motivated to share this information with Southwest and be alerted in return. It’s smart for Southwest because the tool allows for direct marketing to frequent fliers. The company can use DING! to fill empty seats at the last minute. And they can build personal profiles, using different offers and different times to better predict the magic numbers that will motivate each individual to buy a ticket.

The results have been outstanding for Southwest. With little marketing of this tool, it achieved 2 million downloads in the first year, led to $150 million in sales in the second year, and drove 10 million visits in the third quarter of 2008 alone.

Widgets can be used to drive the business across many industries and objectives. Our agency has used them to allow people to remember to return daily for a chance to enter a contest, and one widget for a “branded personality quiz” drove 25 percent of the brand’s Web traffic. The basic formula for widget success is to provide something of value. Whether it is for entertainment or information, a widget keeps this value top-of-mind for the user, and can allow sharing with friends and family.

I forgot to mention that widgets are relatively cheap to build, spin off a ton of data, and can drive direct sales of your product. There are some negatives to understand as well. First, it is difficult to ramp up to millions of users like Southwest. Second, there is growing fear that people will encounter “widget fatigue” and ignore these tools or start pruning them aggressively.

The bottom line is that if your brand has value to provide, widgets can be a winning way to deliver it on your customers’ most valuable digital real estate.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a great experience with Delta, in which the airline noticed that I was stuck in the middle seat on a Monday morning and rewarded me with an apology and a few bonus miles. This week, I was again pleasantly surprised with a nice charitable tie-in to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

I received an email from Delta inviting me to register for a promotion in which 250 miles would go to both me and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation if I simply booked a flight or checked in online at Delta.com. In terms of meaning, this provides value to me on two levels. First, I’m definitely a mile collector, and I like the chance to add a few to the bank for future free tickets. We call this Solution marketing.

But this goes further to add the benefit of helping me, in a small way, improve the lives of others by sending miles to this worthy cause. All I have to do is print a boarding pass online, so it’s little effort and a nice reward. It makes me feel a little better about myself.

And this is where the marketing benefits kick in for Delta. The brand benefits by linking the benefit to an action that builds Delta’s business. It might sell a couple more tickets, and also saves on costs by getting people to check in online. Shifting habits might lead to long-term benefits for Delta.

Another long-term benefit is the boost to the brand equity. Smart cause tie-ins like this make customers feel better about giving their business to Delta.

Finally, thanks to its loyalty program and ability to track customers through extensive data on each interaction, Delta can get ROI results for even modest promotions like this, and it can start personalizing the offers that it provides to individual members. Delta might find that it is more meaningful for me to receive cause-related offers, resulting in greater efficiency and results.