Introduction to Internet Advertising by IAB ex-Chief

I just came across a thorough presentation compiled by Greg Stuart, former CEO and President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). It is called an “In-Depth Introduction to Internet Advertising” and is a whopping 82 slides. However, it contains many great sound-bites as well as stats that any interactive marketer should have in their arsenal.

Here are a few stats that I’ll share next time I talk to a ‘traditional media’ marketer:

64% of US households answered “Computer with Internet Access” to the question “If you had to live on a deserted island and could only take one thing with you.” 18% said books, 6% said TV, 6% said radio, 4% said cell phone and 1% said newspaper subscription.

General Motors, the 3rd largest US advertiser, is ready to shift half of its 3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next 3 years.

In a multi-advertiser cross media optimization study (measuring on-line and off-line effects) sales increased by 11% on average from customers who had been exposed to online advertising, compared to those who hadn’t.

It cost about 4 times as much to increase purchase intention via magazine advertising and 11 times as much via TV – compared to online advertising.

There’s a lot more to read, especially on ad formats, measurements, online challenges (oh yeah, it’s not all honky-dory). You can find the full presentation here

There is no best, one-size-fits-all online ad format

It’s hard to be a marketer today with so many new, exciting technologies to pick from, each one casting itself as the holy grail of campaign performance. Video, widgets, search advertising, social apps, in-game ads, virtual worlds, expanding banners, behavioral targeting, location based mobile ads, digital out of home advertising, even radio via Google!

I can’t tell if it’s a media planner’s dream or nightmare, but a fair share of us probably feel more confused than enlightened.

What I am pretty sure about, however, is that they all have some merit, but none of them is a one-size-fits all solution. What’s good for branding might not be a recipe for lead generation success. Choice of format, targeting, message and measurement all need to align with campaign goals.

In a recent report from Forrester research called“Getting more out of online ads” advertisers are encouraged to take a more holistic approach to planning and executing online advertising programs.To paraphrase, they recommend advertisers to:
- first determine their business goals
- then identify desired customer action and how they can entice this action
- and finally how to track and measure actual customers’ actions vis-à-vis the campaign goals

Pretty common sense when put this way, isn’t it?

Adtech San Francisco

Just back from exhibiting at ad:tech SF. Lots of fun and interesting new companies. Can’t be easy to be a marketer with so many exciting, new ways to get in front of one’s customers…

Linkstorm, with only 8 other companies out of the hundreds of exhibitors, were selected by ad:tech for a special ‘hot new company’ press briefing, and it was very encouraging to see the interest among the attending press and bloggers.

Other companies that I though were interesting included:

Placecast / 1020 inc.

Lotame

AdShuffle

and ion interactive

Display Advertising Comeback

Online marketing spending trends are just unpredictable. Not many years ago, the banner ad was deemed dead while search advertising and optimization was crowned King (the same King as in “Content is King”).

Now, display advertising is back in the game, and actually poised to trump search marketing, if you’re to take Microsoft’s word for it.
See:
Ballmer Says 25% of Revenue will come from Advertising
and
Microsoft Says Search Ads Will Shift Elsewhere

Naturally, Microsoft has reasons to spin current trends this way – and hope it holds true. But successful search players like Google and Yahoo (and AOL) are also looking beyond search for greener pastures, evidenced by their recent series of acquisitions.

What’s great about this trend is that in the new world of display advertising, content is still King, this time on two levels:
1 – There is so much new ad inventory due to the sudden rise of user generated content.
2 – Display advertising technology is getting ‘smarter’ through technologies like behavioral targeting, but advertisers are also starting to act like publishers, realizing that the task of advertising in a Web 2.0 world job is not to (just) sell, but to persuade customers via information. This bodes well for customers who may actually find banner advertising, relevant and informational…(shocking!).

At the risk of sounding self-serving, this trend is also great news for my company, Linkstorm, where we believe that the best way to improve effectiveness of online advertising, is to make ads more useful to the customer. We believe that offering customers a chance to control their interaction with an ad – and use that ad to circle in on what’s really important to them, means that both advertisers and customers get what they want.

Anyway, display advertising is back with a vengeance!