• Ad Networks at the Crossroads
    With online advertising in retrenchment, online ad networks are suffering. Some have gone out of business; most have cut their rates and reduced the number of sites they represent. But many of the networks are responding to the situation in innovative ways, improving the way they serve ads and developing new lines of business that make them more than just banner-ad servers. “The biggest trend is the movement away from pure media to diversified revenue streams,” says Marissa Gluck, a Jupiter Media Metrix analyst. “They’re not just representing sites, but also doing database marketing, email marketing, and promotions. They’re …
  • The Gap Widens
    I love to advertise on small niche sites. There’s something about an audience’s loyalty to a small, “underground” site that just can’t be found at the larger portals and high-traffic sites. There are also some fantastic deals to be had at smaller sites that depend less on ad revenue for their financial well-being. While I work primarily on the buying side, I’ve published more than my share of small websites. Many small publishers like myself started out with a content idea that eventually achieved a significant user base with little in the way of advertising. “Pet project” websites can …
  • Agency Profile: Freestyle Interactive
    In a recent magazine award competition, only one agency received two nominations for creating the Best Online Brand Building campaign for its clients. It wasn’t the big-name shops of Tribal DDB, Modem Media, or AGENCY.COM, each nominated once by Revolution magazine. It was Freestyle Interactive, named as a finalist for its work on Hewlett-Packard (in conjunction with Goodby Silverstein & Partners) and for Janus. If this wasn’t enough to put the agency on some radar screens, Freestyle was also on the shortlist for Agency of the Year and a finalist for three separate clients for Best Use of Rich Media …
  • Research Behind the Numbers: Web Audience
    Previously the province of the rich and intellectual, the web is now a marketing melting pot. Reporting on the update of three years of gathering data from more than 350,000 phone interviews, Bob Jordan, cochairman of The Media Audit, says, “What we’re seeing in the latest research are the late arrivals...minority participation rising sharply ...senior citizens and homemakers joining the web audience at an impressive rate.” The Media Audit reports that households occupied by those over 50 increased their presence on the web by more than 51 percent in three years. Retirees alone increased 84 percent, with almost one-quarter …
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