IDS says Web advertising to ‘defy’ economic crisis
Internet advertising will grow about eight times as fast as advertising at large between 2008 and 2012, according to IDC, doubling revenue to over $51 billion. The slow economy will only accelerate the move of advertising dollars online, with video leading the growth. Video advertising expected to grow almost 50% annually through 2012, reaching $3.8 billion.
Social Media and E-Mail Spending to Rise
Quoting:
“More than three-quarters of marketers surveyed said they will increase their social media spending during the next three years, according to Eloqua’s “State of the Marketer” report. A full 74% said they plan to increase their direct e-mail spending while about two-thirds will spend more on mobile texting and SMS.
“Respondents were bullish on online ad spending overall, with nine out of 10 saying they would continue to increase their direct online ad budgets. The spending increases are likely to come at the expense of print ads, since 55% of respondents said they will probably decrease print ad spending in the next three years.”
Worried About Bloggers Dissing Your Company? Read This
Marketers fret constantly about the risk of negativity in the blogosphere. Read this uplifting story of how one entrepreneur engaged with a critical blogger and turned her into a valuable alley.
‘Personality Not Included’: A Podcast with Rohit Bhargava
In this podcast, Paul Dunay interviews Rohit Bhargava, whose book Personality not Included is about how to regain a brand personality.
Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s Intros Avatar, Social Net Campaign
Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants will turn their social networking pages into virtual outposts. Myspace members will be able to download a branded application and create custom avatars that live in the virtual outlets or a burger-themed living room complete with mechanical bull.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt admits Web 2.0 advertising is small opportunity
In an interview with a German newspaper, Google CEO Eric Schmidt admits that the company has not yet figured out a way to monetize Web 2.0 as an advertising vehicle and may never do so. Quoting:
“MySpace did not monetize as well as we thought. We have a lot of traffic, a lot of page views, but it is harder than we thought to get our ad network to work with social networks. When you are in social network, it is not likely that you´ll buy a washing machine. It is not a long term problem but it is taking us longer than we thought. We are trying new ways, new approaches all the time.” (via Media Post).
Hydrox Redux: Cookie Duels Oreo, Again
Spurred by more than 1,300 phone inquiries and an online petition Kellogg Co. is bringing back the Hydrox cookie, if only temporarily. The company had killed the Hydrox five years ago, ceding the market to competitor Oreo. However, some people missed the Hydrox, and their online agitating convinced Kellogg to give it a try. The revival is only temporary for now, although Kellogg left the door open to a permanent reintroduction if demand is there. (via WOMMA blog).
For Coors Light, a Night Out That Begins on MySpace
Coors has a new campaign called “Code blue” that’s built on the new feature of Coors Light beer bottles that turns the color of the mountains pictured on the labels from white to blue when the beer gets cold enough to drink. Facebook users will soon be able to send friends “Code blue” alerts inviting them to meet up for a beer. They can even set a meeting point using Facebook maps. (via WOMMA blog).
Branding In An Age Of Authenticity
Dave Morgan says marketers are too focused on using social media as an advertising opportunity and disregarding the impact that blogs and social networks have on brand image. Today, almost nothing is secret, which means that efforts to deceive customers almost always backfire. In addition, a host of competitors are lurking out there, waiting to jump on every bad customer experience and make it into a public indictment of your company. In the new world, businesses need to focus on delivering outstanding experiences to all their customers.
Time Inc. Tries Hand at Reader-Generated Issue
Another publisher – this time a unit of venerable Time, Inc. – tries its hand at a print publication composed entirely of user-generated content. 8020 Publishing and the Hartford Courant are doing the same thing. Editors say the quality of ideas contributed by readers is remarkably good, although the copy needs a lot of work. They all plan to keep the conversation going.
This Blog Post Is Available At No Charge!
Tim Lee writes in the Atlantic about the creeping economy of free. Content providers will increasingly find themselves under pressure from competitors who offer similar information at little or no cost. The challenge is to develop new business models around ancillary services. Chris Anderson is big on this topic right now. He notes that the value of commodities falls quickly to the cost of production and in the content world, that’s zero.
Open Source Evolution podcast: The Changing Landscape
Tom Hanrahan, Director of Linux Interoperability at Microsoft, speaks with Wharton Legal Studies and Business Ethics Professor Kevin Werbach about the value of open source development in today’s marketplace. It’s interesting how the mindset is changing at Microsoft.
Everywhere, JPG – magazines for the future
8020 Publishing has a strong ownership pedigree (Halsey Minor and ex-Conde Nast execs) and a fascinating model. Each bi-monthly issue of its two magazines is composed entirely of content submitted by readers. It takes a staff of only 19 people to produce the two titles and they’ll be profitable by next year.
French skydiver plans 130,000-foot free fall
I am so happy there are people in the world who will do this kind of thing willingly so the rest of us don’t have to.
Web start-up unveils semantic Wikipedia search tool
Powerset searches Wikipedia using conversational phrasing instead of keywords. It’s one of a new breed of search engines that tries to get at the underlying questions that Web searchers are trying to answer.
EMarketer cuts social media ad spend forecast
Social networks are still having trouble coming up with compelling ad models. EMarketer predicts ad spending on those networks will be just $2.6 billion by 2012, about five percent of the overall market. MySpace and Facebook collectively command 72% of social network ad spending.
It was inevitable that Facebook growth would slow and critics would turn out to start talking about all that’s wrong with the social network. This CNet blog points to a developer’s observation that fewer people are developing Facebook apps than a year ago and extrapolates that Facebook may be in crisis. What’s really happening is that the market is becoming more mature and competitive.
BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker updates the Twitter phenomenon, explaining why microblogging is becoming an intrinsic part of people’s lives and how businesses are tapping in to the conversation.
Blogs Blossom into a Big Business
“By 2012, more than 145 million people—67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once a month. That is up from a readership of 94 million in 2007, or 50% of Internet users.” Ad spending is forecast to grow to about $750 million by 2012, which is nearly triple today’s total but still a small number overall.
Online Ad Spend Surpasses $21B
Although the growth rate of online ad spending has slowed, it’s easily outpacing growth in all other media categories.
Remarks on Clay Shirky’s essays on group think
This post summarizes and links to Clay Shirky’s 2003 essay “A Group is its Own Worst Enemy.” Shirky’s work on group dynamics is important to understanding how social networks govern themselves.
Last week, The New York Times wrote about International Data Group’s (IDG) successful transition from a print to an online model. I was intrgued to read about IDG Chairman Patrick McGovern’s enthusiasm for the economics of new media. Having gotten to know McGovern a bit during my 15-year career at IDG, I asked him to appear on the weekly MediaBlather podcast that I co-host with David Strom. He immediately agreed. That’s the kind of person McGovern is. With all of the weighty issues that he must deal with every day, he is never too busy to chat with a colleague, whether current or past. In fact, McGovern still visits every IDG operation in the U.S. each December to distribute bonuses individually to every employee.
Our interview was about the business issues of IDG’s transition from a print powerhouse to an online specialty publisher. McGovern’s perspective is be inspiring. While the print industry collectively moans about the pain of transitioning from print to online, IDG has quietly taken its medicine and reinvented itself. Today, the company derives less than half its revenue from print titles, and McGovern expects online business to make up 70% of sales by 2012.
At InfoWorld, which was spotlighted in the Times article, the closure of the print edition and shift to a wholly online model actually increased margins from a small net loss to a 37% net profit. “Not only is there survival after going online, but it’s a much better environment,” McGovern told us.
IDG’s strategy is now to launch all new titles online first, build an audience and then take the business to print if the market demands it. “That way, we already have the audience and we can show the advertisers who’s asking for [the print title] and who’s going to read it,” McGovern said. “It takes away the risk.”
What works in the U.S. doesn’t work the same way globally, of course. Scandinavia and Korea are among the regions of the world that are innovating most successfully in online publishing, McGovern told us. In contrast, India is still a healthy print market but with a budding cell phone culture that may make it the first major economy to jump from paper to mobile devices without an intermediate PC stage.
There are some other gems in this interview. One is about IDG’s flirtation with a public offering through its books division a decade ago. McGovern, who has always taken a dim view of the public markets, relates how the experience distracted the group from its traditional market into ancillary businesses where it had no expertise. “If they had stayed private, I think they’d be a larger and more successful company today,” he commented.
We also talked about IDG’s phenomenal success in China, where it publishes a host of consumer titles in addition to its big technology brands. IDG’s venture capital arm now makes more money for the company from investing in Chinese businesses than the rest of the company does from publishing.
If you want to hear an optimistic perspective on the future of media from someone who is leading the charge, listen to this podcast (right click and choose “Save As…” to download to your computer). I think you’ll find it to be 25 minutes well spent.