This paper presents a call for creativity, within adaptive structures, to develop new metrics for new media. It first reviews recent innovations in audience metrics for online media, including some evolving metrics for the Web 2.0 media ecosystem. It then describes the disciplinary roots of academic research on which the current understanding of audience engagement and persuasion are based. It further describes current software and hardware developments that are driving a new era of liquid media. A framework for conceptualizing layers of media delivery and audience engagement that will be enabled by these new technologies is described. Recommendations are made for collaboration between academics and practitioners in order to rapidly pursue an understanding of advertising effectiveness in this new environment and to develop metrics that can be harnessed to monetize audience engagement, rationalize media expenditures, and create reporting structures for sharing insights.