• Just an Online Minute... Happy Holidays!
    With only a few days left until Christmas, it seems retail- site traffic has leveled out and the online shopping season is officially over. And some say online advertisers didn't even come close to getting the timing right. Yesterday, Nielsen//NetRatings concluded that the online holiday shopping season is over, having peaked during the second week of December. Today, Media Metrix concurred, saying that according to their data, 33.8 million unique visitors went to online retail sites last week, which is down by 5.2% from its peak of 35.6 million during week two. Last year, according to the …
  • Just an Online Minute... IAB Q3 Numbers
    As suspected, Internet ad spending softened in the last three months, marking the first time Web ad sales fell quarter to quarter, according to the Q3 numbers released yesterday by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Third quarter 2000 revenues grew $1,986 million (63.2%) over the same period in 1999, and showed a decline of $138 million (6.5%) when compared to the second quarter of 2000. Year-to- date online advertising revenues for 2000 now stand at $6.1 billion with a continuing run rate of between $8 and $9 billion for the year. The ad banner also lost …
  • Just an Online Minute... Ezine Ads
    Don't know how I missed it, but here's a piece of research you may be interested in. Biased as it may or may not be, List-Universe.com conducted a study of email newsletter advertising back in November, and found that "Email newsletters are the most effective form of online advertising," as Micki Hein, VP of sales and marketing at List-Universe.com put it. I would never unconditionally agree with such a blanket statement, but Hein is convinced that "Subscribers look forward to receiving these e-magazines in their inboxes, and this means advertisers are reaching an actively engaged audience." True …
  • Just an Online Minute... Web Branding Works
    Following yesterday's Minute about the primary reason for advertising online shifting away from sales generation to website traffic building and brand awareness, one of our readers wrote, "Companies may say that they are doing more Branding or traffic building but you have to look at the individual deals. The whole point of Internet has always been targeting to the group that is most likely to buy your product. There aren't nearly enough people in America to constitute a reason to do branding on the Internet." Yes, some could argue that branding on the web is not as effective as …
  • Just an Online Minute... From Sales to Branding
    The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Myers Reports, Inc. today released the top-line findings of a recent study of online advertisers and the results reveal that the role of Internet advertising has undergone a weighty shift between its early stages and the present. The results show that the primary reason for advertising online has shifted away from sales generation to website traffic building and brand awareness. The study, conducted in September among 278 ad executives who've used the web as an ad medium in the past 12 months, shows that only 46% of respondents state that driving e- commerce activity …
  • Just an Online Minute... Good News
    A new report by Forrester Research spells good news in these pessimistic times. The research firm predicts that if Web companies can hang on for just two more years, profitability will arrive. And the oldest media revenue source - advertising - once again will step in as the savior. There is no doubt that the current picture is bleak. But analysts say patience will bear fruit. The number of households coming online has grown steadily by about 50% a year - a figure that can't hold up. In fact, by 2005, the number of online households in the US …
  • Just an Online Minute... Library of Proof
    Fun as it is to argue with industry pundits about their pessimistic views (as in yesterday's Just an Online Minute), today I'd like to agree with someone for a change. The online advertising industry has come under some serious fire lately and very few have stuck their neck out to defend it - even the IAB is staying characteristically quiet. The problem is, whenever the question of online ad effectiveness arises, skeptics rightly say, "prove it." The proof is there, but unfortunately for us, defenders of web ads, it is too scattered and disorganized. In today's edition of …
  • Just an Online Minute... I Beg to Differ!
    James Cramer's TheStreet.com column on Monday struck a dissonant cord even with this web optimist. "Here's a column that advertising agencies don't want you to read," he began. "Web advertising works, IF you want people to go to the Web. Television advertising does nothing for the Web." Cramer went on to say that "radio works much better than television for the Web because people who listen to the radio -- other than in their cars -- are often on their computers. You have to turn your TV off to go to the computer, so the synergies there really suck. Radio …
  • Just an Online Minute... Will E-Tailers Disappear?
    As if we haven't had our fair share of bad news lately, findings from a new e-shopping study predict 75% of Internet pure-plays won't be around in 2001, according to analysts at Performance Research Associates, who believe the dot-com kill-off will accelerate as soon as the holiday shopping season is over. The online holiday shopping season seems to be moving along splendidly, nearly half of this year's holiday shoppers doing it for the first time. Of these 'newbies', a third are choosing where they shop by brand name and whether they have a brick-n-mortar presence. Hence, "A lot …
  • Just an Online Minute... Double Dipping?
    Advertising in streaming radio broadcasts may cost you more in the future. Radio stations that stream their broadcasts over the Internet must pay additional royalty fees, the U.S. Copyright Office said Friday. Broadcasters had argued that they already pay licensing fees allowing them to play the copyrighted material on radio airwaves. Paying again to transmit on the Internet would be double dipping, they said. But a Copyright Office ruling said record companies are entitled to additional fees for Internet transmission. "A public performance of a copyrighted work contained on a radio signal occurs each time it is …
« Previous Entries