• Forecast 2006 -- Where to Next?
    Most online advertising forecasters are bullish on the future of search, e-mail marketing, and rich media as more marketers go online. Lynn Russo reports. Projections show that the online advertising market has shaken off its growing pains and is moving into young adulthood in steady growth mode. JupiterResearch projects that online marketing will reach $18.9 billion by 2010; eMarketer puts online spending at $22.3 billion in 2009; Forrester at $26.0 billion by 2010; and Borrell Associates at $34.8 billion by 2010. Discrepancies among these figures come from differing views on how the market should be defined. "Forrester …
  • Cross-Media Case Study: Center Ring
    Watch as advertisers perform some slick new tricks. Do they do it without a net? Not on your life. These tricks are on the Net Audi Loses a Car by Lynn Russo In the early morning hours of April 1, an A3 -- Audi's new luxury compact car -- was stolen from a New York dealership. That evening, people showed up at the dealership expecting a launch party, but instead found yellow crime-scene tape, shards of broken glass, and an empty spot where the A3 stood just hours earlier. …
  • Log Off: Community Web Sites, The Second Coming
    I planned to write about my bafflement with the renaissance in the online community space. Like skinny ties, chunky belts, oversized sunglasses, and Mohawks, the online community space is experiencing an unnecessary rebirth, I thought.
  • Log Off: Community Web Sites, The Second Coming
    I planned to write about my bafflement with the renaissance in the online community space. Like skinny ties, chunky belts, oversized sunglasses, and Mohawks, the online community space is experiencing an unnecessary rebirth, I thought. News Corp.'s recent acquisitions and the high valuations for ign, Intermix, and Scout Media only added to my amazement. What's going on here? Didn't anyone remember that "community" was a four-letter word only a few years ago? Do theglobe.com, geocities.com, and tripod.com ring a bell? These first-generation online community sites came to symbolize the growth and demise of the dotcom era in the mid- …
  • Search Focus: Learning to Love Ad Reps
    Like so many business relationships, the relationship between ad reps and online agencies is full of ups and downs; one minute you celebrate innovation and success, the next is filled with shouting matches and tense meetings. When I spoke on this topic at the Search Engines Strategies conference in San Jose, I had no idea how my ad reps would respond. I've been known to say some inappropriate things at inappropriate times, but somehow breaking down this codependent relationship caught their attention. Before I delve into this subject, let me just say that I love my ad reps for …
  • Market Focus: Hábleme (Talk to me)
    Ask any Web pundit about the state of online marketing to multicultural audiences, and you'll likely get some variation on the following: "It's a globally wired world, dude. The opportunities are, like, totally endless, and everybody wants in." Dig a little deeper, however, and you find that this is only partly true. Sure, most marketers say they want to lure culturally diverse consumers, but few seem to have acted on this sentiment. Take the financial space. Many investment firms supposedly are targeting Asian-Americans with marketing pitches. But look on the Web and you'd be hard-pressed to tell. One can …
  • Sales Focus: Got Any Inventory?
    If you sell media, you sleep with your quota. If you float easily past your number, you sleep like a baby. If trending below it, you're as jumpy as a kid who guzzled a gallon of soda before bedtime. Missing your quota is like coming up short for Tony Soprano. It can only happen a few times before it never happens again. The mood and behavior in the corridors of multimedia publishing companies is affected by where a salesperson, and consequently a sales team, stands versus a revenue goal. The less sleep people get, the more tense things become. …
  • Web U: A Measured Approach to Buying Links
    Once considered risky behavior practiced only by un-scrupulous Webmasters who wanted to raise their search rankings at any cost, today the practice of buying links has crossed over into the realm of mainstream marketing. There are a couple of reasons why you might want to consider paying for links, even though the cost can run as high as hundreds of dollars per month on some sites. One reason is to boost your site's link popularity. Another is to gain targeted traffic from the sites you're acquiring links from. The key is to be judicious -- it's not just the …
  • 5 QUESTIONS FOR: Yahoo!'s David Katz
    David Katz is an interactive programming whiz. Tapped recently to head sports and entertainment programming within Yahoo!'s Santa Monica, Calf.-based Media Group, Katz reports to Lloyd Braun, the Group's president. The former senior vice president of strategic planning and interactive ventures at CBS, Katz produced the official Web sites for more than 200 shows a year on the Eye network including "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Survivor," and "Late Show with David Letterman." He also developed the online video subscription service "Big Brother 24/7" at CBS, along with creating, developing, and producing the online talk shows "House Calls: The Big Brother …
  • RAM: Directionally-Challenged?
    Feel like a pizza, but don't know where to go? Check out maps.google.com. Google Maps, which has been in beta since early this year, offers searches by address, name of business or category, and directions. In each, viewers can zoom in on a map, look at satellite imagery, or combine the two. Digital pushpins mark business locations. Running the cursor over one brings up contact information, as well as a link to driving directions, both to and from, and the ability to print or e-mail the map. "One of the things that distinguishes us from the competition is …
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