StreamingBroadband Penetration by Ken Liebeskind, MediaPost Staff Writer The increased penetration of broadband is encouraging for streaming advertising. Figures from Nielsen//NetRatings show there are now more than 21 million at-home broadband users (that’s 20 percent of active Internet users), which represents a growth of 90 percent in one year. EMarketer reports there were 13.7 million broadband households in 2001 and that there will be 21.2 million this year. David Riemer, chief marketing officer of The FeedRoom, the leading television news streamer, attributes recent advertising growth to increased broadband penetration. The company streams 10-second ads from Coke, Sprint PCS, …

MODERATOR, Tom Hespos (Media Director, Mezzina Brown and Partners): Have we seen the worst in this decline in interactive ad spending? The Q4 figures haven’t come out yet, but it looks like 2001 is going to represent a decline in Internet ad spending. If you look at the first three quarters in 2001 vs. in 2000, according to CMR, overall ad spending looks like it’s down over 8%. Internet ad spending, according to the IAB, has declined 8.4%. I want to get a sense from people here: Do you think Internet ad spending will pick up as traditional does? …

Talk about “bold and daring.” When Frito-Lay launched its new effort in January for the popular Doritos snack brand, the PepsiCo unit boldly declared what few advertisers had said before: that its target of chip-addicted 19-year-olds was on the Internet, and it was going to follow. In a climate where traditional marketers everywhere have gleefully turned their backs on the Internet, as though web mania was just some bad media dream, such a statement might seem painfully 1999, just like dot-com TV campaigns, push media, and IPOs. But there Frito-Lay was, proclaiming that it would triple its online spending, and, …

If you have a client that needs to generate brand awareness and an overall positive impression among online consumers and is willing to measure success in ways other than click-throughs, then this month’s Clickpick, www.upromise.com, is a site to consider. Upromise is a way to help consumers save for college by doing something people do everyday—shopping. Parents can save for their own children’s college education or family and friends can join up to help the same child go to school. Upromise tracks spending once a person’s credit card, store loyalty card, billing information, and major purchases are registered with the …

Trying to determine which banner ads to use in an online campaign is a tedious task. Not only do you have to decide which combination of offers, creative, background, and calls-to-action will be most successful, you also have to determine which subsets of your viewing audience will respond best to each different version of an ad. Poindexter Systems has introduced the Progressive Optimization Engine (POE), an ASP-based service that uses modeling and other mathematical techniques to uncover viewer clusters and determine which banner ads work best for different clusters. POE collects a variety of data on each visitor …

StreamingCable TV Increasing Use by Ken Liebeskind, MediaPost Staff Writer Everyone is familiar with movie clips streamed by the studios to promote their latest films, but now cable TV networks are getting into the game, too, streaming program clips. The most exciting campaign comes from The History Channel, which in late January bought space on a number of sites to promote Boys’ Toys, a Modern Marvels series that ran for a week on the network beginning Jan. 28. The campaign, from Horizon Interactive, a division of Horizon Media, featured Eyeblasters, which clicked to a player that played a …

In the online ad industry, few would argue that 2002 is starting off on a sour note. We’ve all read and smirked at every prediction that points to a recovery in the next six to nine months—the research world seems unable to work with any time frame except six months. Obviously, researchers’ crystal balls are no better than the Magic 8 Ball buried under heaps of paper on my desk, but I want to offer a prediction anyway: Just wait. This year will be better. It has to be. In online advertising, it’s obvious that the high goals …

Now that @d:tech is over (and I sit here exhausted after three days on the floor), I am reminded of the days when I was working on the tech side: We would all straggle back to the office the day after the show to perform a ritual known as the “card swap.” Looking at the stack of cards in front of me, I can divide them into certain categories: So let’s start swapping! First on my stack is nowmarketing (by the way, when did companies stop capitalizing their name?). nowmarketing falls in the category of “company you want to …

In the ultimate product placement, the high-speed automaker produced its own online film series. In a war-ravaged South American city, a photojournalist snaps a picture certain to expose the rebel leadership to world outrage and retaliation. He must get himself and his film passed armed soldiers and across the fiercely guarded border to safety. His only hope for escape is his driver and a BMW X5 3.0i, a vehicle that handles “extreme road conditions without breaking stride.” To learn how this adventure ends, you’ll have to log on to www.BMWFilms.com, a website that’s garnered rave reviews from some …

This scrappy standalone stayed nimble and responsive, and morphed when necessary in a tough environment. Mass Transit Interactive is proof-positive that small, scrappy, independent, and interactive-only shops still can play an important role in planning and buying online media. They also prove that you don’t have to be big to have big clients. Founded in August of 1998, Mass Transit Interactive opened their doors with Doubleday Book Club. Cofounder Jason Heller placed their first-ever banner. Some of their current clients are major, internationally recognized brands, among them Seagram’s (in partnership with ID Society, a creative shop in NYC), Fuji Films …