For mid-size ad agencies around the U.S. and around the world, the events of Sept. 11 in the U.S. were shocking and traumatic, but for the most part it's been business as usual. At least that's the finding of a survey among the ICOM network of independent agencies, which has members in more than 45 countries. "Although at first it was surprising that there wasn't more disruption to day-to-day business, when you think about our membership and mid-size agencies in general, it's understandable," said Gary Burandt, ICOM executive director. "Mid-size agencies generally have a broad client base. Unless an agency …

Since the beginning of streaming advertising, many volumes have been written on the negative aspects of re-purposing television ad campaigns online. The usual argument is that the two media are so different in almost every aspect that ads made for television could not possibly amount to anything good on the web. The Ad Council seems to disagree. A public service TV spot celebrating America's extraordinary diversity, created by The Advertising Council and GSD&M in response to the September 11th tragedy, will be spread to the email accounts of over a million Americans during the next week, thanks to resources …

The Emmys have been cancelled, the Wall Street Journal is raising ad rates and the Monster Meter from Monster.com says that the majority of Americans do not feel confident about their job security. That, and the nation is at war. But people are still interested in travel. At least online. Nielsen//NetRatings today reports that traffic to travel sites rebounded during the week ending September 30, as audience levels to travel sites surpassed pre-crisis audience levels reported for the week ending September 9. "With several travel sites recently posting considerable traffic gains, as compared to the three weeks prior, …

And the CPMs have it. I counted up the responses to yesterday's minute on the pros and cons of Cost per Action (CPA) pricing models and so far it looks like the age-old method of buying impressions by the thousand is preferred by our readers (or at least those who took the time to weigh in on the issue). Interestingly enough, most of the responses I got were from web publishers. Not a single advertiser - and we've been told time and time again that advertisers LOVE performance-based pricing models - went to bat for the technique. Everyone …

Before I get into the biggest story of the day, a quick housekeeping item. As you probably know from an email we sent on Tuesday, MediaPost's MEDIA Magazine is hosting a Forecast 2002 event on October 25 in New York City. We have just a few spots still open, so if you'd like to join us, please click here to register. That said, the biggest story of the day is the announcement from Interep's Winstar and Cybereps divisions, who declared today that they will no longer accept any Cost Per Action campaigns unless there is a minimum cash …

Jack Myers, founder and chief executive of the Myers Reports Corp. research firm is closing the New York-based company after laying off essential staff throughout the past few weeks. But he's still optimistic about the future of the media industry as a whole. On the heels of his recently released downgraded ad spending projections for 2001 and 2002, the media consultant said today that the radical cost- cutting measures being imposed by major corporations will result in better than previously projected ad spending gains from 2003-2006. "As we projected on September 20, the worsening economy and related ad spending …

We all know that a truly integrated ad campaign contains a branded message across all media. By now, advertisers are fairly comfortable with branding in the offline world, but branding online is still a mystery to many. Interestingly enough, recent studies suggest that branding online is one of the most cost effective ways to increase brand equity. And, the declining cost of online advertising has catapulted the banner ad ahead of television as the most cost effective branding solution available today. A recent cost vs. performance evaluation study from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. reveals that online advertising …

According to reports from several Web monitoring firms, the majority of Web citizens are now women. But are their Web surfing and content habits the same as men's habits? The Content Intelligence group of Lyra Research says that men and women often use the Web differently, and that understanding those differences could be critical to the survival of Web content publishers and their advertisers. According to "Men versus Women: How They're Different (On the Web)," there are numerous similarities and differences between the sexes when it comes to attitudes, content preferences, Internet experience and frequency of use, adoption …

This morning, I received an email titled "Don't miss the ad revolution!" Good beginning, right? Unfortunately, the next sentence started out with "While broadcast dies..." The email went on to pitch a streaming something-or-other that produces the "highest response rates ever recorded online," but I confess I had no interest in reading the rest of it. "While broadcast dies?" Were these three irresponsible words supposed to get my attention? Mission accomplished. I am now seriously thinking of instituting a weekly award for 'most ludicrous pitch.' In my humble opinion, broadcast is as far away from dying as this streaming company …

A new national poll of Americans shows that companies should be careful about the way they support relief efforts surrounding the recent terrorist tragedies and how they talk about their support. The poll's findings come at a time when an increasing number of companies are raising money from employees and customers and placing informational advertising about the issue. While the vast majority of Americans say they want companies to provide some level of support, certain activities are more welcome than others. According to Boston-based Cone, a firm that provides strategic philanthropy consulting for companies worldwide, most Americans (74%) …