• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer, September 27, 2010

Local ain't niche. On the contrary, from radio to out-of-home, $105 billion is presently spent on local advertising, according to Joan Gillman, President, Time Warner Cable Media Sales, EVP, Time Warner Cable. The topic of choice on Monday afternoon, however, was the Web-reliant world of "hyper-local" advertising.

At some point, Gillman hopes to see "a wholesale reallocation" of ad dollars toward hyper-local. Fellow panelist and Forrester analyst Melissa Parrish believes hyper-local will have its day, but wasn't sure enough to offer a time-line. Its time will come in the "not too distant future," she said.

Will local eventually replace national? "I don't know about that," said Anupam Gupta, President and CEO, Mixpo, a dynamic video ad technology provider. Mobile could make it possible, suggested Alistair Goodman, CEO, of 1020 Placecast, a location-based marketing platform. "Pretty soon, everything on your phone will be location-aware," he said. "We're going to see a huge shift in the way dollars are being allocated."