Considering all the abuse banner ads are taking these days, you'd think Web publishers everywhere would be hard at work developing a wealth of new online ad formats. Well, they are, but the advertising and web publishing industry isn't exactly welcoming their efforts with open arms. The bigger banners and ad formats - or what we at MediaPost affectionately refer to as "The Big Units" - have been in existence since 1997, when Forbes.com created the Skyscraper ad - a vertical 150x800 pixel unit that spans an entire page. While banners appear at the top and bottom of …

This morning, after downloading my emails (523 of them to be exact and that's just from the overnight hours), I finally decided to remove myself from a few lists I somehow ended up on. It took a while, but I did it. Unfortunately, Jupiter Research found a way to swiftly destroy the sense of accomplishment I felt after typing the word "unsubscribe" a few dozen times. According to their latest prediction, in 2005, advertisers are expected to send some 268 billion email messages. That's 22 times the number of emails sent last year, and more than 5,600 (average) for …

There's a new media company on the block. Actually, it's a new division of a veteran media company - VentureDirect Worldwide - and it's a testament to the fact that web advertising is very much alive and will soon be well again. VentureDirect today announced that they've launched Foglight Media, a strategic online planning and buying agency, along with a curiously named subdivision, Valuable Inventory, which specializes in high volume discounted media buying. Rich Baumer, President of VentureDirect Worldwide, said a lot of advertisers are watching their results much more carefully these days. There are two types of …

Sorry to start the week on a dissonant note, but I have a bone to pick with the advertising industry. Not as a whole, but certainly the segment responsible for the following. This morning, I received a piece of snail mail. Considering that MediaPost, parent of the Minute, is a publisher of several DAILY ONLINE newsletters (don't worry, this is not a pitch) and almost every bit of info comes via email, a business-size envelope is a rare sighting around here. Especially one containing any sort of news announcement. Of course I always open these press release envelopes, …

In case you're in need of some motivation in the midst of all this dot-com-related gloom, this morning at the AAAA/ANA e- Business Conference & Trade Show, Bob Schmetterer, Chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide, made the case for The New Business of Branding. Schmetterer believes the Internet is fundamentally changing how companies link their communications and business strategies. And he is a strong advocate of new kinds of partnerships that cross all categories of media, business, art, and entertainment. He said creativity is the touchstone for all business in the 21st century version of branding and …

Minutes after this morning's CNN staff cut plan hit the wires, I received an email from a recently laid-off ad agency employee, who rather heartily blamed all of his recent misfortunes and those of his peers on, and I quote, "those *&^%$#@ dot-coms." Coincidentally or not, an article on AdAge.com today tallied up the staff cuts at the major agencies and among those that have been trimming back are Mediacom, Lowe Lintas & Partners, BBDO North America, Fallon, Publicis & Hal Riney, and Y&R. Although I sincerely sympathize with anyone who's ever been hit with a pink slip, …

The amount of time we spend online may be leading us (and our target audiences) to see Web surfing not as a special occasion, but as a regular activity from which to take breaks during the holidays and other non-work days. The Internet ratings report for the month of December 2000 from Nielsen//NetRatings, reveals that Web users have been steadily spending less time surfing the Internet at-home and at-work in the past few months. The average time spent per person online declined from 17.5 in October 2000 to 14.9 hours in December. Web usage dropped across the board …

It seems the golden era of advertising tradeshows and conferences may be coming to an end. Gone are the days when wide-eyed 20-somethings, dressed in all black, listened breathlessly to thinly veiled PowerPoint pitches from web start-ups that had a slim chance of surviving the next 6 months. Gone are the days when they were willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a few days of "networking." Simply put, at least in the ad media business, gone are the days of blind faith in the power of the Internet. The power is on its way back into the …

Tomorrow I'll be at the "Future of Media Buying and Selling" Myers Forum in New York, and here's a sneak preview of one of the reports scheduled to be released there. The report, "Sharp Curves Ahead: Tough Realities for Media Exchanges," includes the results of a Myers Mediaenomics study from December 2000 indicating that less than 9% of marketing and agency media executives have used an online ad exchange in the previous six months. The report is especially timely since last week alone several new ad exchanges - AdOctane, Cuica and AdOutlet Private Labels - have decided to …

As you may remember, in October of last year, Volvo showed great confidence in web marketing by launching - with much fanfare - its new S60 sedan exclusively online. Now that the results are in, the fanfare is not as audible. As it turns out, the car maker has sold less than 3,000 of the vehicles since then. And even though Phil Bienert, Volvo's manager of e-business, does not see the campaign as a failure - nearly one million people visited the special revolvolution.com website, and stayed an average of nine minutes - Volvo says there's little chance they'll …