• by Masha Geller , September 10, 2003

The second day of the IAB's Advertisers Forum is slightly less crowded than yesterday was, and there seem to be more people schmoozing in the lobby and in the exhibit hall than there are listening to the various panel presentations, but the conversations are just as spirited.

The day opened with Jack Myers, of the Myers Bureau, who interviewed the ever-elusive new President of Interactive Marketing at AOL Lisa Brown, who predicted that rich media adoption will continue to explode and that streaming commercials are the next frontier. Brown also pointed out that advertisers and clients seem to be much more advanced in their thinking and implementation of new online advertising technologies than publishers are -- something to ponder.

The conference also offered new findings from the IAB/Volvo/Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners "Sponsorship Effectiveness Survey," which sought to understand the branding value of advertising sponsorship on the Internet as well as the difference between the value of "true" sponsorship (when an ad is displayed exclusively on a site) as opposed to "common" sponsorship (when there is more than one advertiser on a page.)

The study tested a sample group of 1,514, half of whom were exposed to sponsorship ads from Volvo. Overall, the research demonstrated that "true" sponsorship produces considerable lift as compared to a negligible lift from "common" sponsorship. Specifically, "true" sponsorship produced a 6.1 point lift in brand consideration among those consumers exposed to the sponsorship. This lies in stark contrast to the absence of any lift in brand consideration for those consumers exposed to the "common" sponsorship ads. It should not surprise anyone that publishers are quite happy with the results of the research.

The conference concludes this afternoon with what promises to be a lively town-hall-type debate of guidelines for the use of pop-ups. I'll keep you posted.