With video content on the Web still in short supply, marketers who want to stream video broadband ads are turning to "in-page" formats, in which video ads stream next to static text, or "transitional" formats, where ads stream between page views. But whether Web viewers interrupt their online reading to view this type of ad remains open to question. Now, in an attempt to answer that question, rich media advertising company Viewpoint and market research company Dynamic Logic will conduct an experiment involving 10 marketers who will advertise across 15 to 20 Web sites. For the study, Dynamic Logic will examine behavior and attitudes of online viewers exposed to the three types of ads: in-page, pre-roll (in which the ad precedes video content), and transitional (ads shown to consumers who are navigating from one page to another). Most ads will be re-purposed television spots and will last 30 seconds, said Allie Savarino, vice president of the New York-based Viewpoint, which completed its merger with Unicast on Jan. 3. Participating marketers include Hyundai, Microsoft Office, Newsweek, Pepsi, and 20th Century Fox; publishers include AOL and ESPN. The project begins on February 28, 2005 and ends in April. The study will look at effectiveness measures, such as whether respondents clicked on the ads. Respondents will also be surveyed about whether the ad affected their awareness of the brand or their intent to make a purchase. In addition to analyzing the impacts of different online ad formats, the study will attempt to compare brand awareness and purchase intent between viewers exposed to online ads with those exposed to television ads. But the methodology for such comparisons is still evolving. Savarino said that for this study, the researchers will compare viewers who saw an online ad with focus group members who saw television ads, and will ask survey respondents whether they saw an ad on television before seeing it online. If the answer is yes, they will ask the respondents to compare their reaction to the television ad with their reaction to the online ad.
The New York Times Co. announced yesterday that it intends to purchase About.com from magazine company Primedia Inc. for $410 million in cash. The deal could more than double the online reach of the Times Company, which currently draws 13 million monthly viewers to its 40-plus Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com. Around 22 million users a month visit About.com, a consumer information site; the acquisition will also give the Times additional advertising inventory. About.com was founded in 1996 as The Mining Co. by Scott Kurnit, an Internet pioneer who had been a top executive at MCI/News Corporation Internet Ventures and Prodigy Service Co. Kurnit's vision was to create a Web portal consisting of countless microsites produced by individual enthusiasts covering any topic an Internet user would want to access. Kurnit sold About.com to Primedia in 2001 for $690 million, one of the last of the big Internet acquisitions before the crash. Under Primedia's ownership, About.com was integrated with and linked to an array of sites operated by Primedia's array of niche magazines.
Two recent studies contend that consumers rely more on business directories--both online and off--than on search engines or newspapers, when seeking local merchants, according to the Yellow Pages Association. The studies, which were performed by the Opinion Research Corporation, each surveyed separate sets of about 1,000 respondents via telephone from Nov. 18-21, 2004. The first survey found that 55 percent of respondents say they primarily use Yellow Pages--either in print or online--to search for a local business first, compared to 12 percent who use search engines and 17 percent who turn to newspapers. The second survey, dealing with residents moving to a new area, found that 44 percent of respondents use either the online or print Yellow Pages to find local businesses. The study defines online "Yellow Pages" as any site that is a member of the 126-year-old Yellow Pages Association, which includes sites like Verizon's SuperPages.com and Bluebook, Inc.'s BlueBook.com, which offers community information such as local government and hospital numbers. But some analysts say that with Google and Yahoo! taking increasingly aggressive measures promoting their own local search features, online business directories could face stiff competition from search engines. "The Internet Yellow Pages publishers are pretty clear that they're in a pretty competitive environment," said Kelsey Group analyst Greg Sterling. "The usage of Internet Yellow Pages will be entirely contingent upon how the product evolves." To maintain current brand recognition and market share, Sterling said, the Internet Yellow Pages will have to struggle to keep up with the innovations that big-name search engines are adding to their local search functions. "There are a lot of product rollouts coming out in the search world," Sterling said. "The IYP [Internet Yellow Pages] are not able to compete at that level of product level development. What they have to focus on is those features that consumers really want and find value in." To beef up online business directories' Internet offerings, Sterling suggested a slew of product improvements--some similar to what are offered on various local search engines' sites, and others that haven't yet been incorporated into major local search engines. "Ratings and reviews are going to be increasingly important--more content, and more information to be able to evaluate a business. Historically, the information that's been available on local business online has been very thin," Sterling said. "Consumers are going to expect more content from their searches." In addition to ratings, Sterling suggested photos--like A9's innovative "Block View" product, which lets users "walk down the block" by scrolling down pictures of storefronts and houses--as well as user customization and toolbar software. Sterling also stressed the importance of ease of use of a competitive local Web search. "I think that they have to have the sort of ease of use search functionality that is offered on sites like Google and Yahoo!," he said. "Natural language search that yields search results--that's a must." If the Internet Yellow Pages fail to keep up with the fast-paced innovations that Google and Yahoo! can offer in their local search packages, Sterling said, the Yellow Pages' brand advantage could erode. But, he said, the Yellow Pages still have a chance of retaining their edge "if they keep in mind where the Internet market is going."