by Shankar Gupta, Monday, Mar 5, 2007 6:00 AM ET
IN-TEXT AD FIRM VIBRANT MEDIA has begun selling its sponsored keyword ads upfront-style, allowing advertisers to reserve their terms for all of 2007, with DaimlerChrysler among the first blue-chip advertisers to reserve sponsored keywords long-term.
Previously, Vibrant sold its sponsored word ads on a short-term basis for specific campaigns. Sponsored ads appear as highlighted words in the editorial copy on publishers' sites, displaying a video or text ad when the user mouses over them.
"The upfront model has always been very strong in the television marketplace," said Vibrant CEO Doug Stevenson. "This is a great indication that major advertisers are starting to understand there's supply and demand for these terms, and they want to secure their terms upfront."
DaimlerChrysler has secured all of its brand terms--including Dodge, Viper, Jeep, Chrysler, Sebring, Aspen, Compass, Avenger, Charger, and SLR, and is currently in talks to secure the rights to words that the company hopes its brand is associated with.
"They've moved to an upfront model with us, where they've secured all of their brand and product words," said Gabe Greenberg, who heads up sales for Vibrant's autos vertical. "They can more strategically plan the messaging for the year."
Stevenson added that Vibrant is also in talks with other major advertisers across the technology, consumer electronics, and automotive verticals for longer-term word sponsorships, but declined to disclose their names.
George Murphy, senior vice president of global brand marketing for DaimlerChrysler, said that the in-text ads were attractive because they are user-initiated, allowing the viewer to decide whether to see the spot.
"The user is in control and engages with the ads through our core words, which we have exclusive ownership of throughout the year," he said. "Vibrant in-text advertising delivers innovation and effectiveness, which will remain an integral part of our media strategy for 2007 and beyond."
Monday, March 5, 2007
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Online Dating Services More than Double Ad Spending in Three Years
eHarmony.com, the biggest ad spender
Ad spending for dating services has been growing at an unprecedented rate over the past three years according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus via PRNewswire.
In 2004 (January-November) total U.S. media spending was $149 million; 2005 (January-November) total spending was $310 million; for January - November 2006 total spending was $430 million.
In 2006, most dating services companies spent their advertising dollars on Cable TV with $130.6 million in reported ad spending, the Internet ranks second at $127.3 million and Spot TV follows with $75.1 million.
Leading the bulk of the TV spending — and heading the top of the list — are eHarmony.com with $110.1 million in total spending and IAC's Match.com with $66.4 million in total spending.
Friday, March 2, 2007
The Race to $60 Billion (Or Is It $80 Billion?)
By Dave Morgan
This has been a big week for the advertising and marketing industries. First, at the 4As Media Conference in Las Vegas, and then at the DMA Leaders Forum, where industry leaders discussed everything from PURLs (personal URLs) to variable data printing (massively scaled personalized printing) to proposed privacy legislation starting to make its way around Washington. Finally, yesterday, we had the Jefferies & Company's Internet Conference, in which the company released its latest report on the online advertising industry, estimating that it was going to grow to over $60 billion worldwide by 2010. While that number may seem big, it wasn't too shocking for most watching the industry, since only days earlier, Piper Jaffray had released a 424-page report (yes, it took almost a full ream of paper to print) on the online advertising industry estimating that global online ad spending will exceed $80 billion by 2011.
These are big numbers for sure, and it's natural to ask yourself, how is this possible? Most peg the online ad industry today at just over $30 billion worldwide. Getting to $60 billion in four years or $80 billion in five is a lot of growth in a very short time, no matter how optimistic you are. So, where might all of this growth come from? I haven't been able to get through the reports in their entirety yet, but I do have some thoughts of my own on the subject.
More search. We're going to see more growth in search. The majority of small businesses don't even have Web sites yet, so there is a lot of headroom yet in this market. Search spend can certainly double or triple in size over the next few years.
Brand dollars. We are just beginning to see brand dollars move online in meaningful ways. The audiences are online; brand dollars are certainly going to follow much faster than they have.
Non-U.S. While the U.S. has certainly been leading the online ad market, we are starting to see very significant growth outside of the U.S. -- and even some markets like the UK are "leapfrogging" the U.S. in terms of share of spend allocated to online. We will see much more of this in most major ad markets outside of the U.S.
Video and targeting. With more brand advertising comes requirements for more impactful creative (sight, sound and motion) and better targeting. Both are now available and both will certainly help drive these big numbers.
Social networks and conversational marketing. Social media is growing at an extraordinary rate, and it cost very little to support. Not only can it provide lots of audience attention opportunities to deliver ads, but also audiences are telling each other and the world at large a tremendous amount about themselves. They are engaging in conversations about brands -- and brands now have the chance to have conversations directly with these audiences. The business models are just being figured out now, but this will be big.
Mobile.Mobile will certainly be a big part of the growth of this industry, but I am not sure how much it will drive gross ad spend in the near term. There are still a bunch of challenges that can slow down the spend. The biggest by far is that carriers and their "walled garden" decks are hard to work with (think the old AOL), and think much more like toll-collecting telecos than ad-hungry Web services companies. Plus, most phone users don't spend much time looking at phone screens, which are still very small.
Inventory optimization. Almost every major online publisher or portal in the U.S. has either recently installed. or is actively evaluating, inventory and price optimization services. While this is happening behind the scenes, its revenue and margin impact will be very, very significant.
Hybrid online/offline direct marketing. This may not be as sexy as user-generated media, but we are beginning to see direct sellers start to link Web-based services and Web storefronts with variable data digital printing and personalized mailers. These people already know how to market, how to manage big databases and how to measure and manage ROI. They will have a big impact on this business.
Vested Googlers. Yes, just as highly successful technology companies like Hewlett Packard, Apple and Microsoft ended up spawning hundreds of start-ups and training thousands and thousands of great executives, so too will Google. Many of the executives that led Google through its entry into the online ad market are just hitting their four-year vesting periods and may be getting a bit bored, and certainly have lots of money to seed start-ups should they desire to. Not only will this enrich the pool of new start-ups and new enabling technology, but it will enrich the traditional media companies, as they create more meaningful digital businesses (see yesterday's hiring of Google's Patrick Keane by CBS).
$60 billion in four years? $80 billion in five years? No matter what numbers you believe, even if they are significantly less than these two, we're in for a wild ride.
This has been a big week for the advertising and marketing industries. First, at the 4As Media Conference in Las Vegas, and then at the DMA Leaders Forum, where industry leaders discussed everything from PURLs (personal URLs) to variable data printing (massively scaled personalized printing) to proposed privacy legislation starting to make its way around Washington. Finally, yesterday, we had the Jefferies & Company's Internet Conference, in which the company released its latest report on the online advertising industry, estimating that it was going to grow to over $60 billion worldwide by 2010. While that number may seem big, it wasn't too shocking for most watching the industry, since only days earlier, Piper Jaffray had released a 424-page report (yes, it took almost a full ream of paper to print) on the online advertising industry estimating that global online ad spending will exceed $80 billion by 2011.
These are big numbers for sure, and it's natural to ask yourself, how is this possible? Most peg the online ad industry today at just over $30 billion worldwide. Getting to $60 billion in four years or $80 billion in five is a lot of growth in a very short time, no matter how optimistic you are. So, where might all of this growth come from? I haven't been able to get through the reports in their entirety yet, but I do have some thoughts of my own on the subject.
More search. We're going to see more growth in search. The majority of small businesses don't even have Web sites yet, so there is a lot of headroom yet in this market. Search spend can certainly double or triple in size over the next few years.
Brand dollars. We are just beginning to see brand dollars move online in meaningful ways. The audiences are online; brand dollars are certainly going to follow much faster than they have.
Non-U.S. While the U.S. has certainly been leading the online ad market, we are starting to see very significant growth outside of the U.S. -- and even some markets like the UK are "leapfrogging" the U.S. in terms of share of spend allocated to online. We will see much more of this in most major ad markets outside of the U.S.
Video and targeting. With more brand advertising comes requirements for more impactful creative (sight, sound and motion) and better targeting. Both are now available and both will certainly help drive these big numbers.
Social networks and conversational marketing. Social media is growing at an extraordinary rate, and it cost very little to support. Not only can it provide lots of audience attention opportunities to deliver ads, but also audiences are telling each other and the world at large a tremendous amount about themselves. They are engaging in conversations about brands -- and brands now have the chance to have conversations directly with these audiences. The business models are just being figured out now, but this will be big.
Mobile.Mobile will certainly be a big part of the growth of this industry, but I am not sure how much it will drive gross ad spend in the near term. There are still a bunch of challenges that can slow down the spend. The biggest by far is that carriers and their "walled garden" decks are hard to work with (think the old AOL), and think much more like toll-collecting telecos than ad-hungry Web services companies. Plus, most phone users don't spend much time looking at phone screens, which are still very small.
Inventory optimization. Almost every major online publisher or portal in the U.S. has either recently installed. or is actively evaluating, inventory and price optimization services. While this is happening behind the scenes, its revenue and margin impact will be very, very significant.
Hybrid online/offline direct marketing. This may not be as sexy as user-generated media, but we are beginning to see direct sellers start to link Web-based services and Web storefronts with variable data digital printing and personalized mailers. These people already know how to market, how to manage big databases and how to measure and manage ROI. They will have a big impact on this business.
Vested Googlers. Yes, just as highly successful technology companies like Hewlett Packard, Apple and Microsoft ended up spawning hundreds of start-ups and training thousands and thousands of great executives, so too will Google. Many of the executives that led Google through its entry into the online ad market are just hitting their four-year vesting periods and may be getting a bit bored, and certainly have lots of money to seed start-ups should they desire to. Not only will this enrich the pool of new start-ups and new enabling technology, but it will enrich the traditional media companies, as they create more meaningful digital businesses (see yesterday's hiring of Google's Patrick Keane by CBS).
$60 billion in four years? $80 billion in five years? No matter what numbers you believe, even if they are significantly less than these two, we're in for a wild ride.
The Attention Economy: An Overview
The Attention Economy: An Overview: "It is no secret that we live in an information overload age. The explosion of new types of information online is a double-edged sword. We both enjoy and drown in news, blogs, podcasts, photos, videos and cool MySpace pages. And the problem is only going to get worse, as more and more people discover the new web. "
24/7 reports strong 4Q, plans to expand into Asia
http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/ad-serving/40253.html
By Cara Wood
March 2nd, 2007
International digital marketing agency 24/7 Real Media Inc. yesterday announced its fourth quarter revenue of $60 million, an increase of 44 percent over the $41.7 million reported in 2005. Total revenue for the year was reported at $200.2 million.
The 10-year-old New York-based company, which has about 400 employees in 20 offices around the world, also recently announced plans to deepen its search engine marketing partnership called K.K. 24-7 Search with Dentsu, an alliance it struck in Japan last year. This new venture will establish operations to service advertising markets in China, India, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.
“Our home base is really throughout the regions of the word and not based in any particular market,” said Jonathan K. Hsu, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at 24/7, speaking to the increasing global ambitions of the company.
International operations made up 61 percent of the total revenue for the quarter. The company attributed this growth in part to strong performance increases in Korea (72 percent) and Britain (42 percent).
Compared to fourth quarter 2005, revenues increased across the board in three product segments: media (39 percent), search (59 percent) and technology (21 percent).
In forward-looking statements, the company projected first quarter revenue for 2007 to be between $58 million and $59 million. The agency raised the guidance for the full year 2007 revenue to fall between $255 million to $265 million.
The company also expressed potential slower growth in the search business during 2007 due to a competitive job market and the potential loss of key employees. The outlook during a March 1 conference call was positive.
“We are winning larger search clients,” Mr. Hsu said. “We have been able to manage [called K.K. 24-7 Search] to profitability rather quickly, which is a testament to our proven business model, and lend support to the planned expansion.”
Technology investments and global expansions were key features of the company’s strategy moving forward.
“We’re going to continue to explore and engage in video and mobile technologies,” said David J. Moore, chairman and CEO of 24/7 Real Media. “We want to work to ensure that our technology meets standards of innovation.”
By Cara Wood
March 2nd, 2007
International digital marketing agency 24/7 Real Media Inc. yesterday announced its fourth quarter revenue of $60 million, an increase of 44 percent over the $41.7 million reported in 2005. Total revenue for the year was reported at $200.2 million.
The 10-year-old New York-based company, which has about 400 employees in 20 offices around the world, also recently announced plans to deepen its search engine marketing partnership called K.K. 24-7 Search with Dentsu, an alliance it struck in Japan last year. This new venture will establish operations to service advertising markets in China, India, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.
“Our home base is really throughout the regions of the word and not based in any particular market,” said Jonathan K. Hsu, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at 24/7, speaking to the increasing global ambitions of the company.
International operations made up 61 percent of the total revenue for the quarter. The company attributed this growth in part to strong performance increases in Korea (72 percent) and Britain (42 percent).
Compared to fourth quarter 2005, revenues increased across the board in three product segments: media (39 percent), search (59 percent) and technology (21 percent).
In forward-looking statements, the company projected first quarter revenue for 2007 to be between $58 million and $59 million. The agency raised the guidance for the full year 2007 revenue to fall between $255 million to $265 million.
The company also expressed potential slower growth in the search business during 2007 due to a competitive job market and the potential loss of key employees. The outlook during a March 1 conference call was positive.
“We are winning larger search clients,” Mr. Hsu said. “We have been able to manage [called K.K. 24-7 Search] to profitability rather quickly, which is a testament to our proven business model, and lend support to the planned expansion.”
Technology investments and global expansions were key features of the company’s strategy moving forward.
“We’re going to continue to explore and engage in video and mobile technologies,” said David J. Moore, chairman and CEO of 24/7 Real Media. “We want to work to ensure that our technology meets standards of innovation.”
Google Ads To Appear On Social Networking Profiles
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=56452&Nid=27921&p=406600
by Tobi Elkin, Friday, Mar 2, 2007 6:00 AM ET
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS? NO, NOT those kinds of benefits ... cash benefits.
Dada.net, an Italian-based provider of social networking and mobile community services, has partnered with Google's AdSense to launch the "friend$" program that offers bloggers and social networkers a way to earn some cash from their content.
Dada says friend$ attempts to leverage the viral nature of social networks and user-generated content by enabling ads, via Google's AdSense, to appear not only on blogs but around the profiles of consumers' social networking pages. Consumers are invited to opt-in to the program to enable placement of text and display ads on their blogs, profiles, and next to photos and videos.
"The really new thing is the viral aspect," said Max Pellegrini, Dada USA's CEO. "If you invite your friends to participate in this program, you can make money on the clicks and on the pages of your friends. You're incentivized to invite your friends." It's a kind of social networking loyalty program.
So if you're a music blogger and receive an invitation from someone in the friend$ program, you follow the link, opt-in, and wait for approval from Google. The program is not only for use with blogs, Pellegrini stressed, but on the profile pages of Dada.net. Users can rack up their own clicks plus clicks from friends' pages. So people can earn cash not only from Google ads that appear on their own pages, but also from messages that appear on the pages of friends they've invited.
Dada claims that the friend$ program is the first to enable the matching of the AdSense code of social network users which may already exist or can be created from scratch, with the registered Dada.net profiles via a relatively easy method using a single platform.
Google is supplying the ads and managing the inventory, while Dada will manage the real estate on which the Google ads appear and the relationship between "member friend$" on the Dada.net platform.
"Historically, AdSense has been something that publishers use, so this is a little bit unique in that individual people can place the ads on their own pages," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "But what that says is the beauty of AdSense is the more traffic you get, the more likely someone will click on the ad and you'll get paid."
But will the clicks add up to something meaningful? "You've got to be pretty popular and have a whole lot of friends to make any significant money from this," Williamson said. "It sounds to me like a really interesting idea, but I wonder how big the revenue potential is both for the individual and Dada."
Social networks are struggling to monetize millions of pages of user-generated content.
"Everybody's trying to figure out what the best way is to generate revenue from social networking. It does make some sense that the individual profiles will start to become a place that social networks will want to tap into revenue possibilities, but I still think in this particular instance, the revenue potential has got to be pretty minimal," Williamson added.
News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media last month announced that it bought Strategic Data Corp., an ad technology firm, to help it enhance the value of its ad real estate on MySpace, IGN, AskMen.com, and others among its properties. The company's technology is said to use yield optimization to help publishers squeeze more from each ad served.
Dada, which launched the program in Italy before extending it to the U.S., considers itself an online social networking platform for blogging, dating, mobile communication, and entertainment. The international Dada.net program counts more than 7 million users. Plans include launching the friend$ program in Spain, Portugal, and Brazil in the near-term.
Tobi Elkin is Editor-at-Large, MediaPost. Email her at telkin@mediapost.com
by Tobi Elkin, Friday, Mar 2, 2007 6:00 AM ET
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS? NO, NOT those kinds of benefits ... cash benefits.
Dada.net, an Italian-based provider of social networking and mobile community services, has partnered with Google's AdSense to launch the "friend$" program that offers bloggers and social networkers a way to earn some cash from their content.
Dada says friend$ attempts to leverage the viral nature of social networks and user-generated content by enabling ads, via Google's AdSense, to appear not only on blogs but around the profiles of consumers' social networking pages. Consumers are invited to opt-in to the program to enable placement of text and display ads on their blogs, profiles, and next to photos and videos.
"The really new thing is the viral aspect," said Max Pellegrini, Dada USA's CEO. "If you invite your friends to participate in this program, you can make money on the clicks and on the pages of your friends. You're incentivized to invite your friends." It's a kind of social networking loyalty program.
So if you're a music blogger and receive an invitation from someone in the friend$ program, you follow the link, opt-in, and wait for approval from Google. The program is not only for use with blogs, Pellegrini stressed, but on the profile pages of Dada.net. Users can rack up their own clicks plus clicks from friends' pages. So people can earn cash not only from Google ads that appear on their own pages, but also from messages that appear on the pages of friends they've invited.
Dada claims that the friend$ program is the first to enable the matching of the AdSense code of social network users which may already exist or can be created from scratch, with the registered Dada.net profiles via a relatively easy method using a single platform.
Google is supplying the ads and managing the inventory, while Dada will manage the real estate on which the Google ads appear and the relationship between "member friend$" on the Dada.net platform.
"Historically, AdSense has been something that publishers use, so this is a little bit unique in that individual people can place the ads on their own pages," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "But what that says is the beauty of AdSense is the more traffic you get, the more likely someone will click on the ad and you'll get paid."
But will the clicks add up to something meaningful? "You've got to be pretty popular and have a whole lot of friends to make any significant money from this," Williamson said. "It sounds to me like a really interesting idea, but I wonder how big the revenue potential is both for the individual and Dada."
Social networks are struggling to monetize millions of pages of user-generated content.
"Everybody's trying to figure out what the best way is to generate revenue from social networking. It does make some sense that the individual profiles will start to become a place that social networks will want to tap into revenue possibilities, but I still think in this particular instance, the revenue potential has got to be pretty minimal," Williamson added.
News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media last month announced that it bought Strategic Data Corp., an ad technology firm, to help it enhance the value of its ad real estate on MySpace, IGN, AskMen.com, and others among its properties. The company's technology is said to use yield optimization to help publishers squeeze more from each ad served.
Dada, which launched the program in Italy before extending it to the U.S., considers itself an online social networking platform for blogging, dating, mobile communication, and entertainment. The international Dada.net program counts more than 7 million users. Plans include launching the friend$ program in Spain, Portugal, and Brazil in the near-term.
Tobi Elkin is Editor-at-Large, MediaPost. Email her at telkin@mediapost.com
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Search, display to lead online ads past $60B
Search, display to lead online ads past $60B
With strong growth in online display ads and paid search advertising, investment bank Jefferies & Co. is predicting that online advertising will surpass $60 billion by 2010. Last year, Jefferies & Co. predicted the online ad spend would reach only $54 billion by 2010.
by Kristina Knight
According to the report, by 2010 keyword search is expected to be the most popular form of online advertising, accounting for 40% of the online ad spend. Display advertising is expected to account for 21%, classified advertising (20%), referrals/lead generation (7%) and Rich media (6%) round out the top five. Sponsorship (4%) and email advertising (2%) will also stay in the mix.
The estimate is among the more optimistic for online spending. In fact, earlier this week, eMarketer predicted a slight slowing in online advertising. Though still expecting 19% growth this year, eMarketer predicts an overall slowing as online spending catches up with traditional advertising spending.
Jefferies isn't buying into the eMarketer report, however, saying that paid search will lead online growth. They expect 25% compounded annual growth in paid search through 2010, leading all ad spend categories. In 2006, search ads accounted for $14 billion across the globe; that is roughly 46% of all online ad dollars. Display and brand ads, according to the report, will show 19% compounded growth through 2010. Even with strong growth, the online ad spend is only expected to account for 10% of all U.S. advertising by the end of the decade. Current online advertising accounts for 6% of the total ad spend.
Tags: advertising forecast, online advertising, online advertising revenue, online marketing
With strong growth in online display ads and paid search advertising, investment bank Jefferies & Co. is predicting that online advertising will surpass $60 billion by 2010. Last year, Jefferies & Co. predicted the online ad spend would reach only $54 billion by 2010.
by Kristina Knight
According to the report, by 2010 keyword search is expected to be the most popular form of online advertising, accounting for 40% of the online ad spend. Display advertising is expected to account for 21%, classified advertising (20%), referrals/lead generation (7%) and Rich media (6%) round out the top five. Sponsorship (4%) and email advertising (2%) will also stay in the mix.
The estimate is among the more optimistic for online spending. In fact, earlier this week, eMarketer predicted a slight slowing in online advertising. Though still expecting 19% growth this year, eMarketer predicts an overall slowing as online spending catches up with traditional advertising spending.
Jefferies isn't buying into the eMarketer report, however, saying that paid search will lead online growth. They expect 25% compounded annual growth in paid search through 2010, leading all ad spend categories. In 2006, search ads accounted for $14 billion across the globe; that is roughly 46% of all online ad dollars. Display and brand ads, according to the report, will show 19% compounded growth through 2010. Even with strong growth, the online ad spend is only expected to account for 10% of all U.S. advertising by the end of the decade. Current online advertising accounts for 6% of the total ad spend.
Tags: advertising forecast, online advertising, online advertising revenue, online marketing
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