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Entertainment takes a backseat to utility and socializing

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007480

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The advent of the Internet, wireless broadband, laptop computers, smartphones and other complex digital devices has led to many new behaviors in both men and women. Sending and receiving e-mail, for example, something unimaginable for most people 20 years ago, is now virtually universal among Web users.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000633

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Earned media spending to see biggest increase

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007479

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International usage still growing

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007477

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Rosy picture for downloads and revenues

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007478

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Jason Hirschhorn
Chief Product Officer
MySpace

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007475

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Deals aren’t the only thing

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007476

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Mothers use tech to keep families connected

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007468

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Approaching overload?

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007469

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Rising middle class, rising demand

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007465

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Gen Y and shoppers in Asia-Pacific are in the lead

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007471

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Boomers are tech-savvy, avid Internet users and multitask online while watching TV

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007470

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Mobile to fare better than social

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007473

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Cross-channel and mobile services focus on customer convenience

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007474

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Josh Himwich
Director of E-commerce
Diapers.com

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1007466

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Spending for US online advertising will decrease in 2009 by 4.6%—the first drop since 2002. However, the slowly recovering economy, combined with basic structural changes in how marketers and the public use media, will lead to Internet ad spending growth in early 2010.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000615

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Baby boomers are avid Internet users. They make up 32.5% of the US adult population and 36% of the adult online population, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. On a typical day, boomers account for one-third of all Internet traffic, Pew found. According to Burst Media, nearly two-thirds (62.6%) of these users spent more than five hours a week online.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000640

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In its struggle to regain its footing, the US recorded music industry has tried many business approaches, including a la carte downloads, subscription services, ringtones and ad-supported streaming. With the exception of Apple’s successful iTunes Store, no digital music service has delivered enough revenue to create a healthy, well-balanced market.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000641

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The portability of content from device to device represents the future of media consumption. However, the devices themselves continue to shift, partially in response to the evolving electronics landscape and partially as a result of changing consumer preferences.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000639

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While only a small number of multichannel retailers allow customers to buy online and pick up in-store, a majority of online consumers rate this service as important. Consumers avoid shipping fees, see and touch products before taking them home, and satisfy a need for immediate gratification when the product is in stock.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000632

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Many multichannel retailers provide their store employees with Web-enabled point-of-sale terminals to help customers place orders. Others have in-store kiosks that give customers the same capability. The ability to place online orders while in-store reduces the frustration shoppers feel when items are out of stock or part of an expanded assortment not carried by the store. Web-enabled devices also give customers access to product information and user reviews that help them make purchase decisions.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000642

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2009 will end with major shifts in social network advertising spending. Facebook, at 350 million users worldwide, is the premier destination for marketers in the US and many worldwide markets. It will surpass its former rival, MySpace, in ad revenues in 2010. In total, marketers will spend .2 billion to advertise on social networks worldwide in 2009, with .2 billion in spending in the US. In 2010, Facebook will account for nearly one-quarter of all social network ad spending worldwide, up from 20% in 2009.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000621

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Online holiday season sales will reach .0 billion (excluding travel) in 2009, up 5.4% over 2008. Although this is tepid growth compared with the double-digit rates seen for most of this decade, it is a strong improvement over last year’s 5.7% decline and signals a brighter outlook.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000612

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More than 39 million UK residents use the Internet in 2009, eMarketer estimates. By 2013, nearly 44 million will be online—over 70% of the total population.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000616

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In the consumer packaged goods (CPG) arena, the battle for consumer dollars and mindshare boils down to the basket—what makes it in and what gets left on the shelf.

http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000623

• Provide a detailed definition of a “click” and outline standard methodologies by which clicks should be measured and counted, including the identification of invalid and/or fraudulent clicks.

• Define standard terms that will help streamline the buying and selling of click-based media.

• Increase transparency and consistency in click measurements for media companies, ad-serving organizations, advertisers, and third-party click auditors.

Q4 ‘08 Revenues Total .1 Billion; Growth Continues Despite Difficult Economy

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. remain strong, topping billion, according to the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Despite a difficult U.S. economy, interactive advertising’s continued growth, albeit at a slower pace, confirms marketers’ increased recognition of the medium’s value in reaching consumers online where they are spending more and more of their time.

• Full-year 2008 revenues totaled a record .4 billion, exceeding 2007’s performance, itself the former record of .2 billion, by .2 billion or 10.6%. By comparison, a variety of sources indicate weakness in overall advertising spending. The Nielsen Company, for example, reported that U.S. advertising for the full year 2008 was down 2.6% compared to the full year 2007.
• Fourth-quarter revenues of .1 billion mark the first time the interactive advertising industry achieved, and surpassed, billion in a single quarter. The figures represent a 4 million or 2.6% increase from 2007’s fourth quarter, which had revenues of .9 billion.
• This is the fifth consecutive year of record results.

“We are seeing an ongoing secular shift from traditional to online media as marketers recognize that ad dollars invested in interactive media are effective at influencing consumers and delivering measurable results,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “In this uncertain economy, where marketers know they need to do more with less, interactive advertising provides the tools for them to build deep, engaging relationships with consumers—the experience marketers gain from this will deliver dividends especially after the economy turns around.”

Search remains the main driver of revenue growth according to the report, showing a 19.8% increase over 2007. Digital video, though still a small overall contributor, more than doubled its revenue with an increase to 4 million from 4 million in 2007, demonstrating how both marketers and consumers are embracing this dynamic platform.

As in 2007, retail, financial services, computing and automotive remained the four largest verticals among Internet advertisers in 2008. Consumer packaged goods, an industry vertical historically slow to embrace interactive advertising, notably increased its share of total Internet ad revenues by 60 percent over 2007. The Internet is now the third largest ad-supported medium, marking its increasing significance to marketers and consumers.

“Though some categories in the fourth quarter slowed or even dipped, reflecting the current economic challenges, the overall performance is up, confirming interactive’s ever-growing importance to the successful marketing mix,” said David Silverman, Partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The following chart highlights full-year revenue data breakouts; dollar figures are rounded.

Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Internet Advertising Revenue Report was launched in 1996 by the IAB, and aggregates data from all companies that report meaningful online advertising revenues. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues with the data compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, ad networks, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising. First and third quarter revenue reports are estimates, with the actual figures being released along with second and fourth quarter data respectively. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.

A copy of the full report is available at: http://www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport

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“The Inside Source” richtet sich an Konsumenten und soll reflektieren, was 89 Millionen eBay-User suchen, kaufen und verkaufen. eBay verspricht damit einen Einblick in die aktuellen Shoppingtrends.

http://www.internetworld.de/Nachrichten/Medien/eBay-startet-digitales-Magazin

Q4 ‘08 Revenues Total .1 Billion; Growth Continues Despite Difficult Economy

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. remain strong, topping billion, according to the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Despite a difficult U.S. economy, interactive advertising’s continued growth, albeit at a slower pace, confirms marketers’ increased recognition of the medium’s value in reaching consumers online where they are spending more and more of their time.

• Full-year 2008 revenues totaled a record .4 billion, exceeding 2007’s performance, itself the former record of .2 billion, by .2 billion or 10.6%. By comparison, a variety of sources indicate weakness in overall advertising spending. The Nielsen Company, for example, reported that U.S. advertising for the full year 2008 was down 2.6% compared to the full year 2007.
• Fourth-quarter revenues of .1 billion mark the first time the interactive advertising industry achieved, and surpassed, billion in a single quarter. The figures represent a 4 million or 2.6% increase from 2007’s fourth quarter, which had revenues of .9 billion.
• This is the fifth consecutive year of record results.

“We are seeing an ongoing secular shift from traditional to online media as marketers recognize that ad dollars invested in interactive media are effective at influencing consumers and delivering measurable results,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “In this uncertain economy, where marketers know they need to do more with less, interactive advertising provides the tools for them to build deep, engaging relationships with consumers—the experience marketers gain from this will deliver dividends especially after the economy turns around.”

Search remains the main driver of revenue growth according to the report, showing a 19.8% increase over 2007. Digital video, though still a small overall contributor, more than doubled its revenue with an increase to 4 million from 4 million in 2007, demonstrating how both marketers and consumers are embracing this dynamic platform.

As in 2007, retail, financial services, computing and automotive remained the four largest verticals among Internet advertisers in 2008. Consumer packaged goods, an industry vertical historically slow to embrace interactive advertising, notably increased its share of total Internet ad revenues by 60 percent over 2007. The Internet is now the third largest ad-supported medium, marking its increasing significance to marketers and consumers.

“Though some categories in the fourth quarter slowed or even dipped, reflecting the current economic challenges, the overall performance is up, confirming interactive’s ever-growing importance to the successful marketing mix,” said David Silverman, Partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The following chart highlights full-year revenue data breakouts; dollar figures are rounded.

Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Internet Advertising Revenue Report was launched in 1996 by the IAB, and aggregates data from all companies that report meaningful online advertising revenues. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues with the data compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, ad networks, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising. First and third quarter revenue reports are estimates, with the actual figures being released along with second and fourth quarter data respectively. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.

A copy of the full report is available at: http://www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport

Q4 ‘08 Revenues Total .1 Billion; Growth Continues Despite Difficult Economy

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. remain strong, topping billion, according to the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Despite a difficult U.S. economy, interactive advertising’s continued growth, albeit at a slower pace, confirms marketers’ increased recognition of the medium’s value in reaching consumers online where they are spending more and more of their time.

• Full-year 2008 revenues totaled a record .4 billion, exceeding 2007’s performance, itself the former record of .2 billion, by .2 billion or 10.6%. By comparison, a variety of sources indicate weakness in overall advertising spending. The Nielsen Company, for example, reported that U.S. advertising for the full year 2008 was down 2.6% compared to the full year 2007.
• Fourth-quarter revenues of .1 billion mark the first time the interactive advertising industry achieved, and surpassed, billion in a single quarter. The figures represent a 4 million or 2.6% increase from 2007’s fourth quarter, which had revenues of .9 billion.
• This is the fifth consecutive year of record results.

“We are seeing an ongoing secular shift from traditional to online media as marketers recognize that ad dollars invested in interactive media are effective at influencing consumers and delivering measurable results,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “In this uncertain economy, where marketers know they need to do more with less, interactive advertising provides the tools for them to build deep, engaging relationships with consumers—the experience marketers gain from this will deliver dividends especially after the economy turns around.”

Search remains the main driver of revenue growth according to the report, showing a 19.8% increase over 2007. Digital video, though still a small overall contributor, more than doubled its revenue with an increase to 4 million from 4 million in 2007, demonstrating how both marketers and consumers are embracing this dynamic platform.

As in 2007, retail, financial services, computing and automotive remained the four largest verticals among Internet advertisers in 2008. Consumer packaged goods, an industry vertical historically slow to embrace interactive advertising, notably increased its share of total Internet ad revenues by 60 percent over 2007. The Internet is now the third largest ad-supported medium, marking its increasing significance to marketers and consumers.

“Though some categories in the fourth quarter slowed or even dipped, reflecting the current economic challenges, the overall performance is up, confirming interactive’s ever-growing importance to the successful marketing mix,” said David Silverman, Partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The following chart highlights full-year revenue data breakouts; dollar figures are rounded.

Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Internet Advertising Revenue Report was launched in 1996 by the IAB, and aggregates data from all companies that report meaningful online advertising revenues. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues with the data compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, ad networks, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising. First and third quarter revenue reports are estimates, with the actual figures being released along with second and fourth quarter data respectively. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.

A copy of the full report is available at: http://www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport

• Provide a detailed definition of a “click” and outline standard methodologies by which clicks should be measured and counted, including the identification of invalid and/or fraudulent clicks.

• Define standard terms that will help streamline the buying and selling of click-based media.

• Increase transparency and consistency in click measurements for media companies, ad-serving organizations, advertisers, and third-party click auditors.

Four leading marketing and advertising industry associations stated their continuing commitment to work together to develop a cross sector set of privacy principles for online behavioral advertising in order to respond to the challenge issued today by the Federal Trade Commission for comprehensive industry self regulation. The cross-industry group represents the first time the entire marketing and media industry has come together to develop a cohesive and far-reaching self-regulatory effort for interactive advertising. The associations are the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB), a leading organization dedicated to advancing marketplace trust, is also part of the effort.

The joint industry task force supports the FTC’s goal of a comprehensive and effective self-regulatory program that protects both consumers and businesses engaged in interactive advertising. The group will continue its engagement with policymakers, a broad cross section of businesses, consumers, and other important stakeholders as it evaluates important public policy issues that have been raised regarding online behavioral advertising. The associations look forward to reviewing the current FTC principles released today, having already launched proactive efforts in areas of self-regulation set forth in the FTC’s initial self-regulatory principles issued in December 2007, including education and transparency, consumer notification and choice, data security, and self-regulatory enforcement.

The members of these associations, along with other participants of the group, together represent thousands of advertisers, agencies, marketers, publishers, media companies, ad networks, and other service providers, including the major participants in the online advertising marketplace. The associations have come together to address concerns about the use of online consumer data for behavioral advertising purposes while preserving the innovative and robust advertising that supports the vast array of free online content available to consumers, and what has become an important and growing industry for the U.S. economy. The group collectively recognizes the importance and responsibility of effective self-regulation in the evolving area of online and behavioral marketing and applauds the FTC’s continued commitment to industry self regulation.

The IAB announced the release for public comment of Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines (VPAID). The announcement represents another important step in the IAB’s infrastructure initiative that seeks to build a common language for buying, selling, creating and delivering digital video advertising.

The series of definitions in the VPAID Guidelines help the interactive industry:

• Define a standard method for video ads to communicate with video players and enable ad compatibility across all VPAID-compliant players
• Provide specifications that can be implemented by any type of video player
• Cut production costs and improve ROI for advertisers while enabling a less intrusive experience for video content viewers.

Until now, video ads could only be posted on publisher sites that supported the same technology as an agency did when creating the ads. With VPAID, publishers adhering to these standards will be able to render any type of video advertisement from any video ad serving technology that also adheres to the standards. Likewise, advertisers that adopt the standards can be assured that the ads they create are usable by any ad serving technology and publisher.

Over the past year, the IAB has taken a lead role in the industry-wide effort to create a common structure across distinct areas of digital video. In addition to VPAID, the IAB’s efforts have included the release of the following documents as part of this initiative:

• Digital Video Measurement Guidelines
• Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices
• Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)
• Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics Definitions

All of these documents can be reviewed here.

“Interactive advertising is a bright spot in the current advertising environment, and digital video is one of its most promising formats,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services at IAB. “VPAID is the final piece of the current Digital Video Infrastructure Initiative. All five parts of the initiative help define the digital video ecosystem, reduce costs and increase efficiency for all parties and, most importantly, make it possible for advertisers to more easily reach larger online audiences.”

“Advertisers and agencies today require more interactive formats that go beyond linear TV ad spots, demand more control over how they experience ads, and want the ability to learn more about particular subjects of interest,” said David Ku, SVP of the Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo!, a member company of the IAB’s Digital Video Committee.  “VPAID provides a common standard for how video ads will interact with players and serves as an important step forward to deliver on the promise of digital video ad formats.”

Members of the industry (advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors) are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments.  After the comment period closes on March 5, 2009 the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and released.

The IAB announced the release of Lead Quality Accountability Best Practices, a document designed to create marketplace transparency by improving communication between agencies and publishers in the lead generation industry.

The recommendations outlined in the document address two main areas:

1. Best practices for advertiser sharing of invalid leads with publishers to improve the process of accounting for leads.

1. Communication methodology for advertiser sharing of converted leads with publishers to improve advertiser conversions and ROI.

Twenty leading online lead generation companies came together to develop the document, representing companies across nine major verticals, including automotive, insurance, education, pharmaceutical, continuity clubs, financial services, retail, and CPG.

According to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2007, lead generation accounted for .6 billion of the total of .2 billion total of interactive advertising spend that year. First half figures for 2008 show that lead generation represented 7 per cent or 6 million of overall interactive advertising spend.

Among the key best practices, the document highlights:

·         Publishers and advertisers should establish the definition of a valid and invalid lead at the onset of a lead generation campaign.

·         Advertisers should return invalid leads to publishers in real-time or a time frame agreed upon up front with detailed reasons.

·         Publishers should use returned invalid lead data to optimize traffic, improve creative, and refine targeting.

“These best practices provide a clear and concise roadmap for agencies and publishers to further enhance marketers’ ability to refine and target their best customers— the crux of successful lead generation campaigns,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “Transparency, accountability and good communication between agencies and publishers will allow this platform to continue to flourish.”

“Data sharing between advertisers and publishers is vital to achieving high quality leads and optimizing an online lead generation program, which is especially important in these difficult economic times,” said Gayle Guzzardo, chairperson of the IAB Lead Generation Committee and senior vice president of product management at Q Interactive. “The IAB’s Lead Quality Accountability Best Practices is an indispensable guide for understanding, implementing and benefiting from data sharing for all parties involved.” To view the best practices please go to www.iab.net/leadquality

The IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report covering the first six months and the second quarter of 2008. Internet advertising revenues (U.S.) for the first six months of 2008 were .5 billion, setting yet another new half-year record that represents a 15.2 percent increase over the first half of 2007. The second quarter of ’08 was up 12.8% over the same period of 2007 and showed a slight decline of 0.3% from the first quarter.

Search and Display-related advertising continue to set records. Search revenues totaled almost .1 billion for the first six months of 2008, up 24 percent from the .1 billion for the same period in 2007. Display-related advertising totaled close to .8 billion for first six months of 2008, compared to the .2 billion reported for the same period in 2007, showing about a 19% increase. Display-related advertising includes Display Banner ads, Rich Media, Digital Video, and Sponsorship.

“Interactive advertising continues to demonstrate year over year growth as marketers and consumers increase their embrace of digital media,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “The essentially flat performance we see quarter to quarter reflects in part cyclical advertising trends. Compared to the trajectory in other media and in the general economy, interactive has outperformed because it delivers a level of accountability unmatched by any other advertising medium.”

“Due to the unique efficiency and effectiveness of targeted and measurable campaigns, Internet advertising has shown strong growth in the first six months of 2008, compared to the same time period last year. This growth has come in spite of an environment that has put significant pressure on the advertising industry in general.” said David Silverman, partner, Entertainment, Media & Communications Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The following data highlights key first six-month revenue data breakouts; dollar figures are rounded. ($ millions if not indicated):

Advertising Formats: Search and Display-related ads continue to be leading formats.

Industry Concentration: Percentages of revenues by the top 10, top 25 and top 50 have remained consistent.

Pricing Models: Performance deals continue to be the leading pricing models, followed closely by CPM deals.

Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Internet Advertising Revenue Report was launched in 1996 by the IAB, and aggregates data from all companies that report meaningful online advertising revenues. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues with the data compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, ad networks, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising. First and third quarter revenue reports are estimates, with the actual figures being released along with second and fourth quarter data respectively. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information.
A copy of the full report is available at: http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_PWC_2008_6m.pdf

The IAB announced a series of groundbreaking initiatives designed to improve efficiencies by driving industry-wide adoption of critical workflow improvements, best practices and guidelines by media companies and advertising agencies within the digital marketing ecosystem. The announcements were made at the IAB’s annual Ad Operations Summit in New York City, where leaders in advertising operations and account management at media companies and advertising agencies convened to share a 360 degree view of key supply chain areas in interactive marketing.
The following solutions were announced:

+ E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009.
+ Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices, a document that provides comprehensive process recommendations to agencies and publishers for improved communications and efficient operations throughout the entire lifecycle of an advertising campaign. The document’s best practices focus on how to improve the management of advertising accounts by decreasing discrepancies, campaign set-up errors and billing cycles between advertising agencies and publishers.
+ Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), an XML-based solution designed to standardize communication between digital video players and servers. VAST allows publishers to increase digital video yield by utilizing ad networks to sell unsold inventory and reduce friction with buyers by allowing third-party ad tags.
+ Ad Load Performance Best Practices, a document that details how agencies and publishers should develop and serve digital advertising campaigns to reduce load time for ads and improve their performance.
+ Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments, a solution that establishes a standard set of rich media implementation rules for rich media ad vendors, creative development teams, and publishers when serving ads into dynamic environments.
“These initiatives will revolutionize our industry by improving efficiencies in the interactive business—which means growth for publishers, for agencies and for marketers who will now reach their customers even more effectively,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.
Jeremy Fain, vice president of the IAB, said: “It is time to begin the critical work of adopting these standards and practices across the digital ecosystem and I encourage all stakeholders in the industry to take the necessary steps toward implementation so we can accelerate our trajectory of growth as an industry.”
“For our industry to increase revenues, we have to find efficiencies that help us maximize technology and reduce costs,” said Dan Murphy, senior vice president of Research, Univision Online. “By adopting these standards we have the opportunity to make the necessary improvements that will transform the industry into a truly scalable and integrated advertising marketplace.”

The IAB announced the release of “Email Data Management Best Practices,” a document with a series of far-reaching privacy and data security recommendations intended for publishers, marketers and service providers. Focusing on protecting consumer privacy while improving effectiveness in email marketing executions, the document was released at TARGUSinfo’s Online Lead Quality Summit.

Some of the document’s key recommendations are:

• 
  
  Senders should send commercial email only to individuals who have provided informed consent.


• 
  
  A global unsubscribe mechanism should be implemented for all companies sending emails.


• 
  
  Advertisers and marketers should authenticate their emails by publicly registering the domains from which they send the email.


• 
  
  A company cannot transfer a consumer’s permission to receive commercial email to another company without the transfer being referenced in the new company’s emails.

“We are confident that, if adopted, these best practices will protect consumers by ensuring that consent is informed and retractable, and will help responsible email marketers and their service providers improve the overall quality and performance of email marketing campaigns,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “We created this document with a very important goal in mind—to codify the elements of security, deliverability, permission and privacy for all companies involved in email marketing,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services for the IAB and the lead of the IAB’s Email Committee.

“This is an important document that is illustrative of the lengths we go to as an industry to self-regulate even beyond what federal regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act* can provide,” said Arend Henderson, Chief Analytics Officer of Q Interactive and a member of the IAB’s Email Committee. “If our industry adheres to these vital recommendations, we will have succeeded in removing some of the major friction points of email marketing, which in turn will greatly contribute to the medium’s continued growth as an effective means of one-on-one engagement with consumers.”

To view the complete “Email Data Management Best Practices” Document, please go to: www.iab.net/emaildata

The IAB commended Congress for passing provisions of the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act as part of H.R. 5938. The bill provides additional tools and resources to law enforcement agencies for tracking down and prosecuting cyber criminals, removes legal barriers to the prosecution of purveyors of malicious spyware, and allows for restitution to victims of identity theft.

“We appreciate the attention that Congress is giving to the important issues of combating identity theft and the proliferation of malicious spyware, and we support the approach taken in this legislation,” said Mike Zaneis, Vice President of Public Policy at the IAB “The passing of this bill supports the interactive advertising industry’s goal of increasing enforcement actions against bad actors whose criminal activity can tarnish the reputation of the online advertising industry.”

Identity theft is estimated by the Federal Trade Commission to affect 9 million Americans each year. Criminals can use spyware, which is malicious downloadable software, to facilitate identity theft.

“The threat of having consumers’ identities stolen and the proliferation of spyware can erode consumer confidence in the Internet and undermines legitimate advertising and e-mail practices,” Zaneis said. “IAB endorses the approach taken by Congress, which appropriately targets illegitimate conduct and provides law enforcement agencies with additional tools and resources to bring these criminals to justice. The language passed by Congress strikes the appropriate balance between the need for effective law enforcement and protection of legitimate industry practices.”

The IAB and Bain & Company announced the release of a benchmark study which suggests that online publishers are increasingly turning to sales intermediaries known as ad networks to sell off excess inventories. The use of “ad networks” surged from 5% of total ad impressions sold in 2006 to 30% in 2007, according to the newly released “Digital Pricing Benchmarking Study” from Bain, the global business consulting firm, conducted in coordination with the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

As online publishers continue to experience growth rates of 20-30% in ad revenue, the race to create new advertising opportunities has left publishers with an excess of inventory which they are selling through ad networks at up to 90% discounts versus direct sales rates. The study finds the trend particularly foreboding for branded online publishers who traditionally earn between -20 CPM (the industry term for the cost per 1,000 ad impressions advertisers pay) and therefore risk severe price erosion.

“Online publishers are producing more inventory than the market demands, and risk devaluing the premium nature of their brands, particularly in light of ad networks growth and their dramatically lower pricing,” said John Frelinghuysen, a partner in Bain’s Global Media Practice and study author. “Building more effective relationships between publishers and ad networks is critical. In the longer-term, both parties will benefit from gains in ad network CPMs.”

The reason for the rapid growth in the use of ad networks is two-fold:

• Interviews with online publishers, conducted as part of the study, indicate that the lack of adequate pricing tools and inventory management discipline contributed to the growth in available ad space. This is causing publishers to seek out ways to sell large inventories of unsold ads. Publishers often lack basic information on realized prices and inventory sold by client and channel, limiting management’s ability to make effective decisions.

• Large marketers continue to shift significant portions of their advertising budgets online and view ad networks as an effective way to achieve greater buying scale and drive down CPMs.

“What this benchmark study tells the industry is that there is a need for more sophisticated yield management on the part of premium publishers, for stronger partnerships between publishers and ad networks, for development of best practices, and more focus on the value of interactive advertising.” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “Our industry is at an important juncture and now is the time for publishers to adopt strategic approaches to the use of ad networks who themselves have become critical players in the digital ecosystem.”

Another important finding of the study is that publishers who actively manage and use multiple ad networks can achieve higher revenues on display ads sold via networks. The benchmarking study finds publishers vary in their adoption of ad networks, the approaches used and the results attained but overall finds that the keys for success for online publishers are having dedicated staff, better tools and metrics that allow constant vigilance in managing ad pricing, reported sell rates and channel conflicts.

The authors of the benchmarking study offer recommendations to both publishers and ad networks to pursue steps toward higher realized pricing and enhancing mutual benefits of collaboration. These include:

• Publishers must become more disciplined in managing ad inventory and deploy improved methods and tools to enhance yield management

• Ad networks should partner more closely with publishers to enhance the value of the relationship for both parties.

Other key findings from the benchmarking study include:

• Overall, online publisher revenues grew by a healthy 32% in 2007 versus 2006, yet ad network revenues grew more rapidly (in excess of 50%), as marketers boosted online spending.

• High demand for premium video inventory resulted in CPMs 2-3 times greater than display ads on average.

• Most publishers in the study lack information to closely measure the impact of cross-platform sales, though most indicate focus on using cross-platform to drive volume, not price.

The Digital Pricing Study was developed as a benchmark to explore the impact of online ad intermediaries on ad rates, profitability and ad inventory management for media companies (publishers). The study methodology included executive interviews and in-depth analysis of proprietary company data, including direct, ad network and cross-platform sales, pricing (CPMs) and impressions volume for seven leading online media publishers. The selection criteria included having leading brands, publishing premium content, and selling advertising on a national basis. To view the complete study, please go to www.iab.net/digital_pricing_research. 

The IAB announced the full lineup of participants in this year’s MIXX (Marketing and Interactive Excellence) Conference and Expo, the Official Interactive Event of Advertising Week 2008 and the preeminent annual gathering of the interactive industry. Energizing this year’s event is a new theme, “Invention and Reinvention.” This fresh direction for MIXX 2008 spotlights the constant state of creation and evolution required of business leaders in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

Speakers are a “who’s who” of top marketers, advertising agency executives, publishers and industry gurus including:

• Deborah Meyer, Vice President and CMO, Chrysler LLC
• Tim Armstrong, President, Advertising and Commerce, North America and Vice President, Google Inc.
• David Kenny Chairman & CEO, Digitas (A Publicis Company)
• Michael Linton, SVP & CMO eBay, Inc.
• Young-Bean Song, Director of Analytics & Atlas Institute, Microsoft Advertising
• Henry Blodget, Editor, Silicon Alley Insider
• Jacqueline Corbelli, Chairman & CEO, Brightline iTV Marketing Specialists
• Clay Shirky, Writer, Consultant, and Teacher on New Media and the Internet
• Charlie Rose, Emmy Award-winning journalist and host of the Charlie Rose Show
• Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation
• Andrew Robertson, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide

“This year’s MIXX captures the feverish pace of transformation happening in the media world today,” said IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg. “The interactive industry’s continual innovation forces each of us to evolve and change how we do business—media companies now behave like advertising agencies and marketers act like media companies. And MIXX this year will share the very best thinking from all parties in the ecosystem on how to reach and engage consumers today, which is truly our single biggest combined challenge.”

In addition to the lineup of keynotes, panels, breakout sessions, industry forecasts and an exhibit hall filled with an all-star line-up of vendors, MIXX 2008 offers its attendees an unrivaled opportunity to learn from senior marketers who will share case studies from across a variety of emerging platforms.
• How does a top advertising agency decipher the ad network landscape for its biggest clients?
• Internet Television: It’s not the future, it’s the present and the industry’s leaders will share how to do it right.
• Gaming: Reaching and engaging the toughest audiences
• The NHL and Dodge,: Learn how two giant brands converged interactively for a fully integrated digital video campaign.
• The Next Big Thing: See a series of rapid-fire demonstrations from companies on the bleeding edge of the interactive revolution.

For a full list of confirmed speakers and information on how to register, please visit www.mixx-expo.com.

The event takes place on September 22-23 at the Crowne Plaza Times Square and will culminate with the 2008 MIXX Awards Gala on the evening of September 23.

TESTIMONY BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON REGULATIONS, HEALTHCARE AND TRADE
HEARING ON “THE IMPACT OF ONLINE ADVERTISING ON SMALL FIRMS”
SMALL BUSINESS COMMITTEE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008
BY
RANDALL ROTHENBERG
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU

Chairman Gonzalez, Ranking Member Westmoreland, and members of the Subcommittee – thank you very much for inviting me to testify on the impact of online advertising on small firms. I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for ad-supported interactive media in the United States. IAB’s more than 375 members account for about 86 percent of the interactive advertising sold in the U.S. Our members include the great names of the online and offline media world – Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, The New York Times, Time Inc., CBS, and Walt Disney among them. However, 61 percent of our members are businesses with revenues of less than million.

I. SCOPE OF INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING

Last year, together, these publishers sold more than billion in interactive ads, according to research conducted for IAB by the consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers. To put that in perspective, that means that interactive, as an advertising medium, now is larger than outdoor, magazines, and radio.

Evidence suggests that much of this ad spending is coming from small businesses. Research by the consulting firm Booz & Co. for the IAB, the Association of National Advertisers, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies shows that 40 percent of IAB members’ revenues comes from local businesses. Analyses by the trade publication Advertising Age shows that in 2007, the top 100 advertisers in the United States allocated 67 percent of their ad spending to television – nearly twice what they allocated to interactive advertising.

This will undoubtedly change, with marketers large and small continuing to devote more of their advertising budgets to interactive media. Several respected industry analysts, such as the Veronis Suhler Stevenson private equity firm, project that by the year 2011, interactive ad spending will reach billion annually, surpassing newspapers to become the largest advertising medium in this country.

Why is growth so robust? From an advertiser’s perspective, there are probably two primary reasons. First, interactive is a medium that can do it all. Marketers have described the process of attracting and retaining consumers with an image they call “the purchase funnel.” At the top of this funnel is the need to generate awareness, for which purpose marketers traditionally turned to mass media like broadcast television and national magazines. After awareness, they want consumers to consider their product, and then to try the product. These typically would involve more specialized media – an automotive magazine, say, or a coupon offering 25 percent off this week only. Then, to generate loyalty among people who have purchased their products, marketers will turn to direct mail, loyalty programs, and customer-relationship management system.

In interactive, one medium, one distribution channel, can fulfill these multiple needs. If an ad makes a consumer aware of something in which he or she is interested, with one click the consumer can literally reach into that ad to learn more about the product or service. Another click will allow him or her to download a brochure. Another click might elicit a trial coupon.

Equally important is the range of creative opportunities available to advertisers in interactive media. To me, the most miraculous aspect of the interactive medium is that it can combine all media, at costs a fraction of those incurred when using offline media. Virtually any Web site can offer its advertisers digital video, audio podcasts, vivid display advertising, or direct-marketing loyalty programs – and it can distribute them around the block, or across the country. Thus, video advertising is now accessible to advertisers who cannot afford broadcast television; and photographically gorgeous displays ads are now obtainable by marketers who could never afford to advertise in national magazines.

This ability to engage with consumers at every step of the purchase funnel is a major factor in advertisers’ attraction to the digital media. Neil Ashe, the CEO of IAB member company CNET, calls interactive “the ‘yes’ medium.” Can it generate awareness? Yes. Can it promote preference? Yes. Can it induce trial? Yes.

The second reason for advertisers’ attraction to interactive is their ability to measure their return on investment. Perhaps the most famous criticism of conventional advertising was levied a century ago by Philadelphia department store magnate John Wanamaker, who said: “I know I waste half the money I spend on advertising; the problem is, I don’t know which half.” Yet because interactive media promote ongoing, two-way engagement among consumers, their media, and the advertising, it generates data on consumer interests, needs, and consumption patterns that makes advertising effectiveness far easier to measure. Because of interactive media, marketing can now be a full participant in the productivity revolution that has swept other areas of American business, and has allowed us to maintain our competitive position in the world economy.

The most important reason for the growth of interactive media and advertising is consumers. They like it – and they like it because, when done right, it is relevant to them. Consider paid search advertising, one of the most revolutionary tools in the history of marketing. Paid search advertising is like a Yellow Pages ad with a door in it. It’s delivered next to the results of searches you have made, so it’s directly relevant to your expressed interests. If you happen to be “in market” for a car, and you’ve just searched for “Ford hybrids,” what could be more pertinent than ads to the right of your search results from dealers near you that carry these vehicles?

Another marketing tool – equally revolutionary – is search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process of designing Web sites’ visuals and language to improve their position in search results, and thus the traffic that comes from those search results. For established marketers, SEO spending generally has come from public relations budgets, as has company Web site development itself. Many free tools and guides exist to help marketers with SEO: A search on MSN elicited more than 37 million results. Together, paid search and SEO is revolutionizing marketing for businesses large and small.

Another ground-breaking marketing tool is contextual advertising. It’s always existed, of course; an ad for a local dry-cleaner in a local newspaper is contextual. But because there are few barriers to entry in interactive media, context and location can be refined to degrees of specificity undreamed of – and economically impossible – in offline media. Thus, there has been a proliferation of sites tailored to all manner of peoples’ passions, with ads similarly aimed at their interests.

Interactive tools also allow advertisers to deliver advertising directed to a consumer’s expressed interests. That’s called behavioral advertising. If you’ve been researching Florida vacation spots, for example, you will receive relevant ads for resorts, airfare discounts, or restaurants, even after you’ve moved to sites not directly related to travel. Behavioral advertising, contextual advertising, and search advertising all are central to enhanced relevancy of interactive advertising.


II. CONSUMER BENEFITS OF INTERNET ADVERTISING

Interactive advertising provides consumers with significant benefits in the form of cost-free access to content and services. Interactive advertising underwrites:


• Quality online content (news, business, entertainment, maps). The majority of news-publishing firms have abandoned paid subscriptions and moved to business models whereby online advertising allows them to provide free content to millions of readers, unbounded by geographical constraints. However, online culture of “free” often outshines the reality that sustainable free content for the user has never been—and cannot be—really free. Content and service products are costly and time consuming to create and maintain, and if not subsidized by subscriptions, require alternative forms of monetization, the chief of which at present is advertising revenue. The centrality of this value exchange is fundamental to the success of today’s internet.

• Education and information-gathering tools, including search engines, have unquestionably democratized the availability and accessibility of educational content. Hundreds of millions of consumers perform billions of searches through search engines annually. The largest search engines on the Internet are free to users and supported almost exclusively by advertising.

• Communications and other online services (for example, e-mail, chat and telephone services; resume services and job banks; enhanced classified services; video and photo storage and sharing) depend on advertising for their revenue. The example of video sharing illustrates this point: In November 2007, 138 million Americans (over 75 percent of U.S. Internet users) watched almost 9.5 billion videos online, all for free, because of advertising. Email is another example that highlights this exchange: There are an estimated one billion users of free, ad-supported email services in the world today. Then there’s self-expression: There are more than 112 million blogs worldwide, providing every Internet user a free outlet to voice their opinion and create useful content for others; in the U.S., as of July 2006, some 12 million American adults – about eight percent of the American population – were publishing their own blogs, which were being read by 57 million others, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project..

• Social networking and professional networking environments. Free social networking and online-networking sites alone had more than 86.6 million users as of December 2007, according to Nielsen Online. Most of these sites are ad-supported.

• Online safety tools, such as anti-spam and antivirus protection.

• Competitive pricing and product comparison tools.


III. SMALL BUSINESS BENEFITS OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

As I suggested before, the 20 to 30 percent year-on-year growth that the interactive advertising has been experiencing for the past several years has been fueled by the recognition that consumers are spending more and more of their time with digital media. The consumer benefits have also created benefits for business, with a disproportionately positive impact on small businesses.

Thousands of businesses of all sizes have achieved more efficient marketing of goods and services through targeted online advertising. According to Pew, 32 million American adults have used online classified ads for selling or buying. Online advertising has created regional markets out of local markets, and national markets out of regional markets. Items once sold in local garage sales and pawn shops are now available nationally and internationally via advertised interactive auctions, in which some 40 million Americans participate annually. eBay, the best known auction site, says more than 768,000 small businesses across the U.S. use this online marketplace as their primary or secondary marketing channel. More than 1.3 million people supplement their income by selling materials on eBay.

Around this enormous market of small, consumer-facing companies and business-to-business providers has grown a vast ecosystem of small service providers. A Web search on “search engine optimization agencies” garners 586,000 responses. “Web hosting services” elicits 21 million possibilities – 312,000 of them in Long Island, where I live.

There are also the small interactive publishers – the men and women across the U.S. who have turned their passions into ad-supported content sites for niche audiences. In its testimony at the Federal Trade Commission’s November 2007 “town hall,” IAB highlighted the experience of one such site, askthebuilder.com in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded and remains solely owned and operated by Tim Carter, a former contractor, who more than quadrupled his earnings in his first year publishing an advertising-supported web site. We are proud to join Mr. Carter on the panel today.

These small sites exist in large part because of online advertising networks consisting of hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of independently-owned sites. These networks are the internet version of the broadcast radio and television networks with which we grew up; they have technological infrastructures that can get contextual and behavioral advertising and ad revenue to these small sites, wherever they are located, just as the offline networks guided ad revenue to local affiliates. There is, however, one crucial difference: Instead of delivering the same programming – and for the most part the same ads from the same giant marketers — at the same time across groups of local affiliates, online networks allow myriad voices to flourish, serving myriad interests and needs, in the tiniest nooks and crannies of our culture.

These small publishers represented by online networks are often called “the long tail” of the Internet. Along with the advertising innovations I noted earlier, this “long tail” represents a remarkable change in the business environment: These thousands of small sites and the marketing services that infuse them enable small businesses of all sorts to flourish anywhere and everywhere.

Statisticians have long known that some markets were characterized by “long tail” economics. As explained in Wikipedia, the distribution and inventory costs of some businesses allow them to realize significant profits out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The group of persons that buy the hard-to-find or “non-hit” items is the customer demographic called the Long Tail.

As you might imagine, running such a business is hard. First, you have to find your long tail market. Second, you have to communicate to it. Third, you have to deliver goods to it. This could be expensive and lonely in a country as large as ours, where national television is prohibitively expensive, direct mail a costly and risky venture, and specialty magazines usually quite limited in their reach.

Enter the Internet – where anyone with an enthusiasm can create a Web site, offer niche content, and carry segmented ads, with the applications already available on their laptop computers or online.

The tools and services I mentioned earlier – search engines, contextual advertising, behavioral advertising, multiple creative formats, and online networks — are the enablers that have made this long tail of small publishing businesses a boon to an equally long tail of consumer-facing marketing businesses. As Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson describes it, “New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing [are] changing the definition of what [is] commercially viable across the board… The story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance – what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear, and everything becomes available to everyone.”

This is not fanciful Silicon Valley theory; it is established, invigorating fact. Take the landscape of small publishers and their audiences. No one knows how many there are in the U.S., but here’s a sample gathered by the ThinkPanmure equity research firm. The 24/7 Real Media network sells and places ads for 1,000 Web sites. The Blue Lithium Network, owned by Yahoo, reaches 119 million unique U.S. users through 1,000 publisher sites. Burst Media has 4,200 ad-supported sites in its network. Tacoda, a network acquired last year by AOL, delivers behavioral ads to half the U.S. population, across 4,500 sites. The Adbrite auction-based ad marketplace represents 19,000 Web publishers.

In contrast, the National Association of Broadcasters last year numbered 1170 television stations – the majority affiliated with one-size-fits-all broadcast networks. The long tail Web publishers, with the businesses they help support through the advertising they carry, represent the real diversity of America.

Importantly, the online networks not only enable small businesses to communicate to niche communities through small sites; they allow large brand marketers to reach narrow communities as well, contributing to an unprecedented democratization of the media landscape.

How diverse are these publishers? We don’t have a census of the whole, so anecdote evidence will have to suffice. I asked my IAB team and some of the networks among our membership for examples of their favorite small, ad-supported publishers. Interestingly, many of them are mothers who are using interactive tools and services to develop home-based businesses around their passions. Here are a few examples:

• Baristanet.com is a community site started by three local women for the area of northern New Jersey where I grew up. Its advertisers include a local hospital, Montclair Family Dentistry, and Dial Pest Control of Roseland.
• Dooce.com is a blog started by a stay-at-home mother in Salt Lake City, who was the valedictorian of the Class of 1993 at Bartlett High School in Memphis, Tennessee. She carries ads from the Disney Vacation Club and Verizon.
• Bakeorbreak.com is run by a woman in northeast Mississippi, who subtitles her Web publication “Adventures of an Amateur Baker.” It’s filled with recipes, sells cookbooks, and carries ads for M&M’s, Perdue chicken, and Bertolli olive oil. Some of those ads are sold by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, an example of the growing symbiosis between small and large publishers on the Web.
• Here are three political sites that cover the spectrum of opinion. Many of you know Dailykos.com, the famous liberal political blog; look closely, and you’ll see that it’s supported by ads, many of them placed by the Google Adsense network, from PBS, the online t-shirt maker Café Press, and others. Latino Issues, by contrast, is a conservative Latino blog, with some ads also sold by Google. Its advertisers include the dating service LatinoAmericanCupid.com. And Confederate Yankee is an ad-supported site, via the Pajama Network, that’s a hybrid of conservative and liberal, Northeast and Southeast sentiments and values: Advertisers include Omaha Steaks and FTD, the floral company.
• Womenslacrosse.com is the central meeting place for women who participate in the oldest American sport. It’s a family business run by founder and CEO Cathy Samaras of Annapolis, Maryland, and its advertisers include the Kaplan test preparation company, and the Bowie Baysox Class AA minor league baseball team.
• Scienceblogs.com is a collection of 90 ad-supported science sites covering fields from neurophilosophy to quantum mechanics to tetrapod zoology. Its offices are in LA, Washington, New York, London, Munich, and Shanghai, but its bloggers come from all over: Iowa, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia, among other places. Its advertisers include PerkinElmer and Dow Chemical.
• AfricanSisters.com was formed in 1999 in Garland, Texas by a group of black women to help women of color build businesses, increase employment and build revenue. Its advertisers include the iGourmet.com “tea-of-the-month club,” Crockpot cookery, and Kmart.

This is just a tiny sample of the breadth of the diversity of publishers. I suggest trying this exercise yourself: Go on to your favorite search engine, and plug in any phrase that might describe a passion, a hobby, an interest group, or a constituency. As you surf through the results, you will find many examples of ad-supported interactive publishers and small retailers serving these microscopic communities. They are in every state; they are probably in all 435 Congressional districts, and they exist because advertising supports free Web design, distribution, and marketing services.


IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT OVER REGULATING THE INTERNET

This rich, diverse, and competitive marketplace is the backdrop against which Congress should weigh any policy questions with respect to this marketplace.

I believe it’s vital that our Government’s leaders understand the importance of this interactive marketing and media ecosystem to small business development across the United States. A small but vocal coterie of forces opposed generally to marketing, advertising, and open media markets is attempting to advocate to limit the technology responsible for this internet advertising revolution.

Although these advocacy groups have provided no evidence of public harm, their efforts have begun resulting in regulatory proposals which, if enacted, would severely hinder the ability of small publishers to support themselves with advertising sales, and impair the ability of small businesses to use interactive advertising to market themselves.

The most unfortunate aspect of these proposals is that they are utterly unnecessary. The IAB and its members vigorously support the principle of consumer control over their media consumption. Indeed, consumer control is one of the fundamental reasons interactive media have grown so quickly in popularity. And consumers have all the tools they need to control all forms of data collection in online media and advertising.

Every Internet user already has a robust opt out tool at their disposal: Through their Web browsers, they are able to block cookies before they are downloaded. Moreover, web browser filters allow the user to choose their desired level of blocking, whereby they can block all cookies, block only third-party cookies, or be notified each and every time before a cookie is placed (thereby making a case-by-case decision). Existing consumer controls located in the browser are particularly effective in this arena. One recent study showed that as many as 42 percent of Internet users cleaned out their cookies weekly. This type of tool along with tools that will be developed in the future provide the best means of consumer control over the totality of their Internet experience.

Thank you for considering the views of IAB on these issues. The success of the Internet has helped fuel this country’s economy and it is important to ensure that this medium can continue to grow and thrive. No segment of our economy will reap greater benefits from a robust internet advertising industry than small businesses.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau testified as an expert witness about the critical role that Internet advertising plays for small businesses in the U.S. economy during the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Regulations, Healthcare and Trade hearing.

The IAB is the trade association for the interactive media industry in the United States. It represents hundreds of small interactive publishers and provides a voice for them in Washington, D.C. on important legislative and regulatory issues.

“Small business Web sites are the Mom & Pop grocery stores of the World Wide Web. Just as the local retailer anchors a geographic community, these sites anchor communities of interest that span towns, cities, states, even nations,” stated Rothenberg. “They do this with their content and they finance their content through advertising.”

Interactive advertising revenues totaled more than billion in 2007 and were estimated at .8 billion in the first quarter of 2008, up 18.2 % over the same period in 2007. Small companies’ share of online ad spending in search engines is more than double the share of medium or large companies, according to the research firm Outsell, Inc. Research done by the consulting firm Booz & Co. for the IAB, the Association of National Advertisers, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies shows that 40% of IAB members’ revenues comes from local businesses.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than 32 million American adults have used online classified ads for selling or buying. eBay, the best known auction site, says 768,000 small businesses across the U.S. use this online marketplace as their primary or secondary marketing channel. There are more than 112 million blogs worldwide; in the U.S., as of July 2006, some 12 million American adults, about 8% of the American population, were publishing their own blogs, which were being read by 57 million others, according to Pew.

“Millions of people are making their livings creating and operating Web venues that house well-targeted advertisements, but these entrepreneurs are being threatened by the specter of unnecessary government regulation that would destroy or severely limit their ability to advertise their wares and services online,” said Rothenberg.

Proposals are currently before the United States Congress and several state legislatures that would constrain online advertising. “The IAB believes that the proposed regulations would have a disproportionately negative impact on small publishers whose advertising sales are largely or entirely managed by ad networks, and that government must be prudent in ensuring that no regulation is drawn that would curtail interactive advertising’s potential to continue to support small business owners,” Rothenberg said.

Recently, the IAB opened a new class of membership for small interactive publishers that offers small publishers special pricing for IAB events, training programs, access to networking events around the country, business insurance and protection programs, and membership to IAB’s new Small Publisher Committee.

Read Randall Rothenberg’s testimony before the House Small Business Committee.

The IAB announced the release of Revised Ad Unit  and Rich Media Creative  Guidelines. By providing the industry with a common minimum set of creative specifications, these revised guidelines help simplify the online ad buying process.

The guidelines:

• Address minimum guidelines for common ad formats and sizes such as banners and buttons as well as transitional and various over-the-page units such as floating ads, page take-overs and tear-backs;


• Define rich media as separate from basic animated ads by requiring interaction aside from the ability to click-through;


• Cover ads delivered into standard web environments including email and static and dynamic web pages; and


• Update the minimum file sizes of the 2002 Universal Ad Package (found at www.iab.net/UAP)
  

“These guidelines expand upon the seminal work begun with the Universal Ad Package and give interactive publishers even more opportunity to provide marketers with innovative solutions that engage consumers,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Publisher compliance with the IAB guidelines sends a clear signal to marketers that the industry is continuing to simplify the ad-buying process.”

“The IAB Rich Media and Ad Unit Guidelines are vital to developing consistency within our industry, as well as fostering relationships between publishers and clients regarding creative submission and creative acceptance,” said Shell Saras, Creative Services Manager, weather.com. “As an industry, if we focus on adhering to initiatives like these guidelines, marketers and clients will have a creative specification resource that is consistently accepted throughout the marketplace.”

Simultaneous with the release of the guidelines, the IAB launched today a compliance program for interactive publishers who adhere to the Rich Media Creative requirements. Publishers will display an IAB Rich Media Creative Compliance Seal on their websites and will also be listed on the IAB website. To date, 32 companies are already compliant with the guidelines. For a complete list of those companies, go to: www.iab.net/Rich_Media_Compliant.

The IAB announced the release of “Revenue Cycle Best Practices,” a document that recommends a series of internal controls and processes for publishers aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness in the online advertising revenue cycle. This is the fourth in a series of documents that are part of an IAB-led industry initiative to increase operational efficiencies within the interactive advertising ecosystem. “Revenue Cycle Best Practices” was created by the IAB’s CFO Council, and is comprised of financial professionals representing 46 leading interactive companies.

Key recommendations from the document include:

• Specific processes for obtaining internal pricing approval

• Advice to publishers that they closely monitor open receivables that are more than 60 days overdue and that they recommend actions to their sales teams for collections

• Implementation of appropriate controls along the insertion-order process to ensure proper execution

• Regular meetings between collections teams and Ad Sales Management.

“The work that we’ve done collectively as an industry in streamlining many areas of the advertising supply chain is important for the growth of interactive advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “By working with our members to enhance operational efficiencies, we deliver on the promise of an extraordinary medium that is transforming consumers’ lives.”

“This document provides guidance on how to improve our internal and external communications. This will not only increase productivity, prevent costly errors and decrease the amount of time it takes to collect payment but it also improves customer satisfaction. It ultimately means more revenue for the company,” said Christie Lay, Senior Credit Manager, Microsoft Corporation and one of the working group members who participated in the document’s creation.

The “Revenue Cycle Best Practices” document along with the other three documents in the series—“Billing Methods Best Practices,” “On-time Delivery Toolkit” and “Campaign Setup Best Practices”—can be found at www.iab.net/revenue_cycle.

The IAB announced the release of “A Mobile Advertising Overview,” a document that demystifies the mobile platform and showcases it as a vital and growing medium for interactive advertising. It is the first report issued by the IAB on the mobile advertising platform and outlines a broad spectrum of opportunities for marketers and agencies as more and more of them utilize this emerging platform.

 The document:
• Educates media companies, agencies, marketers and users about how advertising is currently implemented within the mobile platform
• Explores the mobile platform as a viable part of the interactive advertising ecosystem
• Includes case studies of mobile advertising campaigns designed to assist marketers and agencies in campaign execution.

 “The recent growth of mobile advertising clearly illustrates how quickly we are moving to a three-screen universe,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “This report outlines the opportunity for marketers and agencies to reach increasingly mobile consumers giving them information when they want and where they want—this is no longer the future but the here and now.”

 “This was the IAB Mobile Committee’s first major initiative and we are proud to have created a comprehensive guide for marketers, agencies and publishers on the mobile platform,” said Gary Schwartz, CEO, Impact Mobile and Co-Chair of the IAB Mobile Committee. “Mobile is changing the way consumers interact with advertising and once they get accustomed to it there is no going back.”

On July 21, the IAB will host a Leadership Forum on Mobile Advertising in New York City, where industry leaders, including marketers and agencies, will explore the opportunities and innovations of this dynamic medium.

To download the full report, please go to www.iab.net/mobileplatform.

The IAB announced that submissions to the fourth annual MIXX Awards hit record levels, surpassing 2007’s entries by nearly 40 percent. Since their founding in 2005, the MIXX Awards, the only advertising awards to recognize creativity and effectiveness, have evolved into the most prestigious interactive advertising award and have attracted a distinguished cross-section of the world’s top brands and agencies.

• This year’s entries include submissions from hundreds of agencies—“native digital” shops and large traditional ones as well.

• These agencies have submitted the work they have done on behalf of their clients who encompass every major vertical industry—including blue-chip brands, luxury products and services, pharmaceuticals, automotive, financial, consumer packaged goods , entertainment and technology.

• The campaigns will be evaluated in 18 categories by a cross-industry panel of judges that includes senior executives from agencies, publishers, and marketing organizations deliberating together—an industry first.

“The sheer quantity of submissions and the caliber of the marketers and agencies represented is a testament to the increasingly critical role that interactive advertising plays in marketers’ media plans,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, the trade association for interactive media in the United States. “To think that this awards show is only in its fourth year and has already attained levels of submissions that are on a par with long established shows is nothing short of a revolution—showing how far interactive advertising has come. Now the real excitement begins as our judges see which work among this extraordinary lineup will make it to the final round.”

Winners of the IAB’s 2008 MIXX Awards will be announced at a ceremony in New York City on September 23, near the start of Advertising Week, a gathering of the media and marketing industries that typically draws 10,000 professionals to conferences, seminars, recruiting events, and parties celebrating advertising and its evolution. The host for this year’s MIXX Awards is one of the industry’s keenest observers and practitioners, Rob Norman, Group M CEO, whose regular riffs on all things interactive have made him the natural emcee for the evening’s ceremonies.

Last year’s MIXX Award winners included many of the most prominent brand marketers in the United States, including Anheuser Busch, American Airlines, The Coca-Cola Company, BMW, Royal Caribbean, Showtime and Unilever, as well as leading agencies such as Universal McCann, Ogilvy, McKinney, Digitas, BBDO and Mindshare. In 2007, the gala’s ultimate honor, Best in Show, went to Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners, San Francisco, for its super-rich media campaign for Hewlett-Packard, “The Computer is Personal Again.”

For more information and to view the complete gallery of the 2007 MIXX Finalists, please visit: www.mixx-awards.com/gallery.

The IAB announced the public comment release of “Ad Campaign Measurement Process Guidelines,” a document that addresses the process of a publisher’s or advertising agency’s use of a third-party ad server and its application service provider. The guidelines supplement current measurement guidelines and provide definitions and guidance on the auditing of processes used in the placement, trafficking and reporting of interactive advertising. The document is the result of a consensus of participating auditing organizations and the IAB.

This document will:

• Help the IAB, publishers and ad agencies further establish transparency and consistency in the area of ad measurement through certification by having all phases of ad serving put through a technology, process and data audit

• Provide a Self-Assessment Questionnaire that allows publishers, third-party ad servers and agencies to perform a self-assessment of their compliance using controls outlined in the document and meant to help the industry reduce discrepancies.

“As an industry, we are providing marketers with the most powerful, accountable and cost effective way to reach consumers,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “To continue to deliver on this promise, we must establish methods that reduce discrepancies in the buying process of interactive advertising—we’ve made great strides by bringing these guidelines to fruition.”

“The IAB’s work both with its members and the auditing organizations in completing this document is a critical step in solving the ongoing challenges of media measurement discrepancies,” said George Ivie, President of the Media Rating Council. “Our research has found that human error plays a material role in large impression discrepancies and these guidelines, when followed, will assist in reducing those errors and improve overall efficiencies in the measurement process.”

After the 30-day comment period, ending on September 10, the feedback will be reviewed and the guidelines will be finalized and publicly released.

To review the complete document, please go to, www.iab.net/campaign_measurement_process  

To meet the need for standardization in the expanding digital video landscape, the Interactive Advertising Bureau released a “Digital Video Ad Serving Template” (VAST), designed to standardize communication protocol between video players and servers.

VAST will allow companies to build digital video players and video ad servers that have the same interfaces and speak the same standard language. Publishers who use the standard will be able to plug into multiple third-party digital video ad servers and networks without additional development and therefore enable a powerful tool for improving yield.

This document:

• Defines a standard ad response for in-stream video
• Provides specifications that are compatible with any video player framework
• Includes guidance for most on-demand video players (i.e., Adobe’s Flash, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and Real Player)
• Includes accommodations for linear video and interactive ads (e.g.“pre-roll”) as well as non-linear ads such as clickable overlays as described in the IAB Digital Ad Format Guidelines

“Digital video is one of the most exciting platforms to emerge within the interactive advertising ecosystem,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “VAST is a critical industry accomplishment because it lays out a much-needed mechanism for standardization in one of the hottest areas of interactive advertising.”

“VAST allows for standardized communication between ad servers and players which is essential as more and more marketers embrace digital video as a key element of their interactive media plans and publishers wish to maximize yield on their video inventory,” said Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager, Advertiser Products of Google.

The public comment period will last until September 10, 2008. The feedback will then be reviewed and the document will be finalized and publicly released.

To review the complete document, please go to: www.iab.net/vast.

Eine Zusammenstellung von US-Socialweb Anwendungen und Anbietern

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Brian Solis

Hitwise Intelligence hat in einer Studie die 20 meistbesuchten Web2.0 Anwendungen eruiert. Basis ist der Marktanteil aufgrund der Visits von Juli 08.

1. MySpace — 44,14% market share
2. eBay — 16,22% market share
3. Facebook — 13,03% market share
4. YouTube — 9,88% market share
5. Wikipedia — 4,76% market share
6. Craigslist — 3,14% market share
7. Yahoo Answers — 1,41% market share
8. myYearbook — 1,05% market share
9. Tagged — 0,95% market share
10. Flickr — 0,86% market share
11. Bebo — 0,71% market share
12. Meebo — 0,59% market share
13. BlackPlanet.com — 0,52% market share
14. GaiaOnline.com — 0,45% market share
15. Blogger — 0,40% market share
16. Adam4Adam — 035% market share
17. hi5 — 0,35% market share
18. WikiAnswers — 0,33% market share
19. IMEEM — 0,31% market share
20. LiveJournal — 0,30% market share

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Quelle und mehr: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/