We might be guilty, here at Qumana, of being enthusiastic champions of the notion that the emerging field of social media is helping to create, reinforce and accelerate changes to online advertising.  We have written about that before several times.

So has Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0.  In this most recent look at online advertising (excerpts below), he provides us with an update that reflects his (and our) perspective that the rapid changes to advertising may not be breathless enthusiasm nor hype, and that the pace of change may actually be accelerating.

These excerpts pertain to television advertising, but undoubtedly relate to the growing presence of advertising online.  More pertinent to online advertising, particularly advertising to social networks that are forming, growing or shifting, are the points outlined in the last excerpt, which we found on Netanel Jacobsson's Net. blog.

The Accelerating Pace of Change in Advertising
A few weeks ago the ad industry was predicting that the 2006 TV upfront would hold flat — things are changing, but not that fast. Let me requote:

The 30-second spot, maligned as it is, “still works, despite TiVo and clutter,” says Andy Donchin, director of national broadcast at media-buying firm Carat North America. “[Let’s] stop talking about how the upfront is broken. It works for clients, it works for networks, and it works for agencies.”

“I see TV budgets holding,” says Heather MacPherson, a managing director of ad giant Ogilvy & Mather. “Most of the shift [to the Web] is coming out of print.”

..........



Scott says "No need to worry — it will surely take a while for the house of cards to collapse."

And then continues ... "But today, just a few weeks later, we learn (from MediaPost)":

THE REALITY OF THE UPFRONT is now clear and financially brutal: Program prices for many broadcast networks will be lower than year-ago upfront deals–an event that hasn’t happened in a number of years.

In a slow-moving market, about 20 percent of network inventory has been sold so far to advertisers, with CBS, Fox, CW, and NBC making deals late into Tuesday evening, according to media buying and selling executives.

Contrary to earlier reports, pricing is much lower than first assumed, with most deals lower in price than the upfront of a year ago.

[Snip ...]

 The CW is posting CPMs about the same as WB prices last year.

“It’s slow, real slow,” says one veteran media-buying executive. “Agencies are in one place and networks are in another. The money is just not there. The market is much closer to negative than people think.”



Scott has made many predictions foretelling radical change to media and advertising economics (here - "Consumers Are The New Medium", here - "TV Industry Will be Downsized Online", here - "The Death Of The Intermediary" and here - "What If Media 2.0 Is less Profitable Than Media 1.0 ?", for example).


Social Media Sites Start Snagging Big-Name Marketers

Adage is reporting that social media sites start signing up big marketing names.

MySpace has secured deals with Walt Disney Co. and Pepsi-Cola, while the daily value of its home page inches toward 1 million dollars. Bolt Media has signed three big-name brands to sponsor highly interactive microsites through the summer:

Toyota Motor Sales USA
Procter & Gamble Co.
Wendy's got a head start last week with a site has already drawn more than 365,000 page views


As Netanel states in the last line of his blog post ... "Social media networks are really the new networks"

Tags: , , , , ,

Powered by Qumana