I resume daily scan of the media space after three entries in which I made the case for an association of mini media producers. What caught my eye today was a report suggesting that business-to-business online sites were just barely emerging from a long funk.
According to a “State of B to B Media” report in Media Business Online, advertising pages increased a modest 2.49 percent over 2004, which was likewise up a slim 1.44 percent after declines in 2001 through 2003. Nevertheless, the report said “most b-2-b media companies were reporting online revenue growth in excess of 20 percent.” It’s not clear to me why: higher ad rates or merchandising or a mix? There’s more to learn here but I can’t explain it today. Thanks to Paid Content for flagging this.
Before blogs there was an alternative: An article from the Association of Alternative Weeklies talks to the award-winning writers, artists and other journalists at that branch of media which preceded blogs in challenging the mainstream outlets. There is a list of weeklies on the site that is worth bookmarking.
No surprise: Tacoda, a firm that targets ads based on behavior, has done a study that says its system beats contextual advertising.
Contextual ad placement assumes that if you’re reading about dogs, dog grooming ads might appeal to you. Behavioral targeting assumes that if you’ve been reading about dogs, it makes sense to send you dog ads even if your next visit is to a site on petroleum. Contextual ad placement is far and away more common.
In a news release Tacoda reports that its behavioral targeting approach got 17 percent more looks on the first exposure and 54 percent more attention on subsequent views than contextual ads. I was led to the Tacoda study by a MediaPos t story that said the results were based on 30 consumers selected in malls in California and New Jersey. But that story pretty much missed the point that the behavioral company was touting its research over the rival methodology.
Tom Abate
MiniMediaGuy
‘Cause if you ain’t Mass Media, you’re Mini Media