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When advertising on destination sites, some industries prefer sponsored text links while others are less focused on them. For text links, about 18% of all ad impressions are from Retailers while another 47% come from Web Media advertisers — and that makes sense.

However, straight reporting of text link placements doesn’t tell the whole story for industries who participate at lower levels. To understand all industry results better, we compared each industry’s sponsored text link activity to all online ad units. Here are top-level findings, based on Nielsen Online monthly data:

* HIGHER than median ad levels: Business-to-Business; Entertainment; Public Services; Retail; Web Media
* MEDIAN ad levels: Health; Software; Travel
* LOWER than median ad levels: Automotive; Consumer Goods; Financial; Hardware; Telecom

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Even though Hollywood executives claim this Internet thing is too new for them to figure out how much they can cut out of it for writers, the scribes pointed out Viacom seems to have an idea.

The ongoing strike by the Writer’s Guild of America has brought production of TV shows and movies to a standstill. At issue: the writer’s want a fairer slice of the revenue brought in by DVD sales and Internet content delivery.

Writers have been rebuffed in their negotiations. Michael Eisner has claimed it’s too soon to demand revenue from an unproven business model.

“For a writer to give up today’s money for a nonexistent piece of the future — they should do it in three years, shouldn’t be doing it now — they are misguided they should not have gone on the strike. I’ve seen stupid strikes, I’ve seen less stupid strikes, and this strike is just a stupid strike,” chided the former Disney honcho.

However, as Boing Boing noted in a post by Cory Doctorow, Viacom patriarch Sumner Redstone has a pretty good idea. A video of Daily Show writer Jason Rothman pointing out Viacom’s billion-dollar lawsuit against Google for alleged copyright infringement on YouTube painted Redstone as a hypocrite on the issue.

The video also zinged Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman over a statement he made this summer: “Viacom will exceed $500 million in digital revenue this year.” Web media is part of that revenue projection.

Either digital content has an identified value, or it does not. Viacom, at least, thinks both conditions can be true. The writers disagree.

Viacom, Google, YouTube, Hollywood, Writers, Strike

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Avenue A | Razorfish, an interactive agency and buyer of digital online media, have released their annual digital outlook guide for marketers and advertisers.

“Unlike traditional marketing, the impact, reach and accountability of online marketing resulted in strong growth in 2006 for many Web publishers,” commented Jeff Lanctot, editor of the report and senior vice president and general manager at Avenue A | Razorfish. “Long-time digital leaders like Google, Yahoo! and MSN enjoyed an aggressive increase in advertising spend, as did resurgent properties like AOL and new destinations like social networks and blogs.”

Avenue A | Razorfish’s 2006 online media billings were up 30 percent from 2005, and up 73 percent from 2004. Search continued to grow while display media grew more than search marketing in 2006. Large traditional marketers continued to focus their spending on digital channels with brand-friendly media and video ads proving to be effective.

The report includes qualitative research on the ‘Digital Class’, a study of the online habits of 18 to 24 year olds in the US, UK and Canada. “The results confirmed what we believed to be true from the popular social sites, but it goes beyond self-expression,” said Lanctot. “This population lives and breathes the Internet, and seeks differentiation through media, music and online networking. For marketers seeking to engage with the Digital Class, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of how this group uses the Internet and other digital channels, as well as how they view marketing. The differences are stark.”

Unlike traditional media channels, the online media environment allows digital advertisers to better track and measure their campaigns. Using customized attribution tools, advertisers improve campaign evaluation, find profitable Web sites and integrate their Web media and search strategies for a better return on investment.

Lanctot concludes, “If the marketer’s goal is to inspire customers, building a better Web site that meets customer needs is one thing. Engaging consumers beyond the Web site by connecting with them in their world on their terms is the way to build a long-term relationship.”

Tags: Online Advertising

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Ogilvy North America is partnering with Technorati to offer clients blogs, vlogs, videos, photos, and other online user-generated media. The hope is for their clients to better understand the blogosphere and improve in building their brands.

Ogilvy has previously worked with Cisco, IBM and SAP using blogs. The company will use the Technorati Conversational Marketing System to offer tools and strategies that will allow clients to syndicate content, participate in online conversation as well as build relationships with online communities that have a connection with their brands.

Ogilvy client Marianne Samenko, Director, VP, Brand Communications, Consumer Digital, Kodak, has expressed interest in Techorati’s services. “Technorati will help us understand what is going on in the blogosphere, which will be tremendously useful to our brand.”

The advantage Ogilvy clients will have by becoming involved in the blogosphere is the feedback they will receive concerning their products or services. Technorati VP of Marketing Derek Gordon compared it to a never-ending focus group.

“The voice of the customer is a vital and growing part of the marketing mix,” noted Carla Hendra, co-CEO of Ogilvy North America. “By partnering with Technorati, we can offer our clients an innovative engagement point with the Live Web. Key to this is defining measurable ways to integrate blogs and other citizen media on behalf of brands, and understanding how to listen and respond to the voice of each and every audience segment.”

While the partnership seems strong enough what will the blogosphere reaction be? As more marketers and companies move into the blogosphere will the original purpose of the blog be diminished?

On Ogilvy choosing to partner with Technorati Peter Hirshberg, Chairman and Chief marketing Officer at Technorati said, “Our Conversational Marketing System enables this game-changing method of audience engagement because we have a unique relationship with citizen publishers and our index of Live Web media is, frankly, unparalleled.”

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