• by Ken Liebeskind , September 13, 2002

In an effort to boost holiday business, Burst! Media, which sells advertising on a network of 2,100 Web sites, released a report yesterday about how advertisers can use the Web during the holiday season.

The main point, according to Burst's research manager Chuck Moran, is that a variety of sites can be used. "Don't limit it to shopping sites," he says, suggesting food sites, hobby and crafts sites and greeting card sites, because holiday shoppers will go to them, not just to purchase but to research their holiday shopping.

Burst encourages advertisers to maximize the efficiency of their media budgets by using various types of content sites. "A focused online content media buy, versus a broad reach buy, may give you the only opportunity to reach a high concentration of your target audience," it says.

Burst's study also looks at the size of the audience during the holiday season. Last year, online shoppers spent $13 billion during the holiday season, which was 13% of the total amount they spent. Eighty percent of Web users used the Web to make purchases, which will increase to 88% this year, Burst! says. In addition, rare users and non-users of the Web last year plan to use it this year, with 14.6% of non-users planning to use it.

Consumers will use the Web for a variety of reasons during the holidays. They will research holiday recipes, holiday traditions, decorating ideas and the closest stores to purchase gifts.

Burst's network is broken into categories such as entertainment, health & fitness, food & drink and shopping, so ads can be bought across different categories to reach the holiday audience.

Moran says a rebound occurred during Q4 last year, with catalog, retail and apparel advertisers doing the bulk of holiday advertising. He expects increased advertising this year, though he wasn't specific about who would do it. He says things are picking up now, with advertisers and agencies making holiday buys.