Commentary

How Long Do Brands Stay Online?

By Michael Kubin, Co-CEO, Leading Web Advertisers

Those of us in the media buying, planning, and research business aren't used to the kind of spotlight that has fallen on us lately. But media decisions made in a few hundred agencies around the country have suddenly been thrust into prominence. Why?

Because one of those decisions -- whether or not to invest advertisers' money in Web advertising -- carries with it the additional consequence of steering billions of Wall Street investor dollars toward -- or away from -- dot-com stocks.

So, for these few months at least, those 23-year-old just-out-of-school media planners are wielding power wildly out of proportion with the funds they're allocating.

Planners who evaluate the appeal of an advertising medium fall into two schools: those who Measure and those who Observe. The Measurers revel in numbers, statistics, and estimates, and their logic demands that they ask predictably analytical questions:

* What is the medium's cost per thousand?

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* How does that compare with other media suitable for the client?

* Does the medium reach an exclusive audience that is more difficult to reach through other media?

* What is the medium's maximum potential reach within the client's target universe?

The Observers, on the other hand, have an easier time of it. They're willing to roll the dice a few times, placing buys on various media while carefully watching the results of the campaign. The Web makes this especially easy because 'results' are easily measured by way of click-throughs.

As of October 10 we tracked a total of 358 new brands that started advertising on the Web on a random day each month. We then observed how long each brand remained an advertiser on the Web.

The results are interesting:

* On average, brands stayed on the Web just under 40% of the maximum potential number of weeks.

* The average amount of time these brands stayed on the Web is just over 7 weeks.

Many of the ads were promotional, which may explain the short-term nature of these campaigns. And it would be particularly useful (though not within the constraints of this column) to compare the characteristics of brands that stayed vs. those which left.

We will continue our observations. While there may be a short-term drop in ad dollars going to the Web, there's no shortage of data to gather and analyze.

- Michael Kubin is co-CEO of New York-based Leading Web Advertisers (LWA), a comprehensive Web advertisement monitoring service. Prior to co-founding LWA in 1998, Michael co-founded Media Incorporated in 1992, growing the media management company's billings to over $175-million in just four years. More recently, Michael was managing director for Western International Media where he oversaw more than $1.1 billion in media management billings for over 200 clients worldwide and was responsible for WIM's European expansion. He may be reached at mkubin@web-advertisers.com

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