• November 12, 2007

Too many new media companies are chasing too few advertising dollars, one of the advertising industry's most senior executives warns, reported The Financial Times Limited.

"Everyone is seeing advertising as the manna," says Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of Publicis, one of the world's largest marketing groups. "Far too many people are building plans based on advertising, and they may well be disappointed because there is not enough money for everyone."

Speaking at this weekend's Monaco Media Forum, Lévy likened the boom in businesses whose revenue models depend on the continued growth of online advertising to the dot-com boom and bust that began a decade ago. Although some social networking sites such as Facebook had succeeded, he said, the small amount of money they were making was still "unbalanced" compared with their large audiences because advertisers remained wary of being seen as intrusive.

"I'm not sure we've found the right way of communicating with that audience," Lévy says. But he expressed confidence that Web advertising would continue to grow strongly, and at the expense of other media--even in an economic slowdown.