Tuesday, May 09, 2006

How deep is the online-ad well?

[CNET News.com: "The memory still makes some in the financial community cringe.
During the dot-com boom, more than a few Internet start-ups planned to support free Internet services--and theoretically turn a profit--by selling online advertisements.
Needless to say, for many it didn't work. Now a new group of companies, ranging from tech giants to the tiniest of Silicon Alley start-ups, are banking on ad sales to support new Net services. Microsoft, for one, is pushing full-on into advertising with its Windows Live platform, which will offer Internet-based services like e-mail, blogging and instant messaging that are supported by ads and some subscriptions.
Sounds like the bad old days? Not at all, say industry experts. With new ad-tracking technologies and proven ad buyers like Procter & Gamble and Ford Motor leading the way, analysts believe there's a maturity and reliability to this ad boom that was sorely missing during the Internet bubble.
During the previous boom, 'traditional advertisers hadn't yet embraced the medium, so growth slowed,' said Denise Garcia, an analyst at WR Hambrecht + Co. 'That's not going to happen again because Procter & Gamble, large auto manufacturers and other companies have said they are decreasing spending on traditional media, like television, in favor of online media.'
Ford Motor, for example, dropped its magazine ad allotment from 23.5 percent to 21 percent last year but increased its spending on the Internet to 3.5 percent from 3 percent, according to AdAge.com. The company's overall ad budget remains flat, the article said. Ford, General Motors and Absolut Vodka all reportedly plan to spend 20 percent of their marketing budgets online this year."

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