• by kyle , Daisy Whitney , January 3, 2008

The guys in the neighborhood are throwing their wallets into the online pool. Local online ad spending will grow 48 percent in 2008 to $12.6 billion, driven by a healthy influx of search and local online video dollars, according to a Borrell Associates report. In 2008, local search advertising will more than double to $5 billion while local online video ads will triple to $1.3 billion. Borrell says most of that video growth will be driven by long-form pieces for home, automotive and health care, rather than the pre-roll spots that have dominated online video to date. The long-form videos will be mostly advertorial, and directed to targeted audiences in search, directories and classifieds. In fact, the pure-play Internet companies will make the most gains locally, not newspapers, broadcasters or local radio. Google, business.com and local.com will tap into local search dollars. However, newspaper publishers are well positioned in online video. “Many are up-selling print classified advertisers to online listings that contain 60-second video advertisements for jobs or homes for sale,” the report found.