• Just an Online Minute... Older and Wiser
    Today, roughly 127 million U.S. adults use the Internet, up from 108 million in 1998. Eighty-six million U.S. adults shop on the Internet, and 58 million users bought something online within the past three months. It is also estimated that this year's online holiday revenues will reach $19.5 billion worldwide, an 85% increase over last year. The typical Internet user might not be as young or as male as we've been led to believe, according to a report released yesterday by the Gartner Group. Researchers found that the average web user is 41 years old, earns about $65,000 a …
  • Just an Online Minute... One More Email Option
    This newsletter is not necessarily a recommendation, but rather a heads-up. The hype about email marketing is showing no signs of subsiding and today, another provider made an announcement about unveiling its new Web-Enabled Email Marketing Software. CrossTownTraffic, an Ohio-based marketing services firm, has unveiled its new, Web-enabled email marketing software GreenLight, which is a permission-based email marketing system that, according to company officials, is fully customizable and offers messages in a Web page format. Chris Camp, general manager of CrossTownTraffic, says GreenLight is designed to help cut through the clutter. Much like every other email marketing system …
  • Just an Online Minute... The Real CPM
    I've lamented the inaccuracies of measuring Internet ad spending in the past, and I'm surely not alone in my frustration. The range of web ad spending totals for the first half of 2000 is, to say the least, confusing - from IDC's $2.4 billion, to the IAB's $4.1 billion, to AdZone's $6.3 billion - so what's a media buyer to do? How do you figure out the average CPMs? For 2000, AdKnowledge estimates the current average CPM to be about $34, which to me seems unreasonably high. I'm not alone. eMarketer recently examined all of the above predictions …
  • Just an Online Minute... Inefficiencies Abound
    Well, the Digitrends summit has come to an end. But speaking of conferences and before I tell you about one of the most useful discussions of the event, I have an offer to present. As a MediaPost subscriber, you qualify to receive a special 20% discount to @d:Tech New York, which is coming up on November 8. As you know, in the past we've been able to arrange discounts for you to attend conferences we think are worthy of your attention, so scroll down to the end of this email for instructions on obtaining the discount. As for Digitrends, …
  • Just an Online Minute... Summit Day 2
    The second day of the Digitrends Fall Media Buyers Summit opened with a discussion on wireless. The panel's goal was to separate hype from reality, which wasn't easy considering the moderator, Digitrends CEO Rick Parkhill, kicked things off by stating that the wireless advertising market is predicted to reach $17 billion by 2005. While none of the panelists expressly disagreed with the prediction, they cited the all-too-familiar obstacles of wireless, such as lack of adoption by consumers, privacy concerns, creative limitations and the like. Nor could the panelists predict where the $17 would come from - some said wireless …
  • Just an Online Minute... Summit Day 1
    As promised, here's my first impression of the Digitrends Fall Media Buyers summit in Iconocast-like terms: * Organization - stellar, except for the deceiving piece of paper that not only sent attendees to the wrong places, it told them the wrong time for the event of the day - the panel discussion about the definition of an impression. * Content - nothing you haven't heard/read before. * Schmooze Factor - the BEST I've seen EVER. The first two points are probably negligible in the context of most industry gatherings. People found their way to wherever they were supposed …
  • Just an Online Minute... Great Expectations
    The word for today is "expectations." I'm at the Digitrends Fall Media Buyers Summit in Colorado Springs and maybe it's the rarified air, but the atmosphere at yesterday's welcome reception was that of great anticipation and excitement - that very rarely happens at industry gatherings. At least to this extent. Everyone I talked to was - and no, I'm not kidding - genuinely excited about learning something new from the 40 some odd senior media buying executives assembled here and roughly twice as many media sellers. Mainly, attendees agree that the size of the conference is what makes …
  • Just an Online Minute... One More Ad Exchange
    Despite all the stories we've heard about online advertising exchanges struggling for acceptance by the industry, more and more of them seem to be popping up all over the cyber landscape. Just today, a company called AdBuySell.com - www.adbuysell.com - is introducing its new Internet Advertising Marketplace. Of course, the official announcement is filled with phrases like "revolutionizing the exchange of media with a direct and consolidated connection between unlimited web publishers and advertisers," and "closing the gap between media sellers and buyers by eliminating the high cost of a network middleman and dramatically increasing their reach for more …
  • Just an Online Minute... Online Ad Facts
    Following yesterday's column about the growing pains of the online advertising industry, a reader charged me with over-hyping the Internet as a whole. He wrote, "If those big advertisers would take a deep look at how their banners are "published" and the unevenness of the flow of impressions, they would have to wonder at what they got themselves into. But, no one on the agency side wants to tell them this is not yet a medium." I thought we were all past the point of having to prove our online advertising existence, so allow me a rebuttal. First …
  • Just an Online Minute... Growing Pains or Death Rattles?
    If you're as baffled as I am with all the numbers and predictions this industry throws at us on a daily basis, this week takes the cake. First, shortly after the DoubleClick and Yahoo earnings numbers came out, Merrill Lynch Internet analyst Henry Blodget predicted a dramatic slowdown in Internet advertising, causing one fairly respected media publication to imply Blodget is "smoking something." Conversely, the newest numbers from AdZone Interactive, an advertising research firm that tracks ads on 1,300 websites, yesterday showed that Internet ad expenditures bounced back in September, increasing 13.2% to $1.6 billion after having dropped …
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