The Globe and Mail reported today that online advertising in Canada broke the $1-billion mark for the first time in 2006, and is expected to grow another 32 per cent this year, according to a study to be released today.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, which represents advertisers, agencies and websites, said online advertising spending totalled $1.01-billion in 2006, up 80 per cent from $562-million in 2005. From a booklet available at their website, the Canadian Media Directors council puts all ad spending (2005) at 11.7 billion. A guesstimate total for 2006 would be around $12B or so, online advertising represents about 8.3% of the total.

Spending on online classifieds and directories showed the fastest growth, up 120 per cent to $273-million in 2006, according to the IAB. E-mail marketing grew 82 per cent to $20-million; search marketing grew 79 per cent to $353-million. And display advertising - the most mature online ad medium - grew 58 per cent to $364-million.

While a healthy Canadian economy has seen marketing budgets increase across the board, Internet advertising continues to show the greatest gains. Those findings are confirmed in a separate survey also being released today by the Institute of Communications and Advertising and Canada Post.

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I remember a time not that long ago when if you wanted something written about you in the media, a campaign had to be organized. Usually you would hire a PR firm, put together a press kit and a roadshow, arrange appointments with who you felt were the influential writers in your domain and organize a big push to meet them all. A lot of work AND money.

Today, it's a little imagination, some video editing software, and in this case Google Earth and YouTube. In a campaign against forest giant West Fraser Timber, ForestEthics has produced a video that features a fly-over of logging in B.C. and Alberta forests created from satellite images downloaded from Google. The logged-over areas are juxtaposed with images of caribou, wolves and grizzly bears. The video details what the eco-group claims is clearcut logging in endangered mountain caribou habitat.

Whether you agree or not with the politics, you have to admire the creativity of the ForestEthics group. This slick video was quickly picked up by the media and is sure to create some very high level awareness of the issues the are promoting.

Here is how they did it. PR has clearly changed!

"YouTube is frequented from everyone to teenagers after school to reporters to customers who can now all see for themselves what West Fraser's logging practices look like," ForestEthics campaigner Tzeporah Berman said Monday. "Our staff made this video sitting at their desks in Vancouver. We were able to do a fly-over of West Fraser's logging operations using Google. We have never been able to do this so quickly before."

Berman, a veteran eco-campaigner, said that the new technology can have the kind of impact within minutes that it used to take months to achieve.

"It would take us months to gather the footage. I can remember flying to meet customers in Europe with a videotape in hand that I would then put into their machines to show them. What we are doing today is fast, it's immediate, it's fool-proof and it has a huge reach."

Very cool!

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A comment from Dave Winer's Scripting News:

"User-generated content is actually on the road to nirvana, but it's not a sustainable model in itself. In all that content, which today's companies view as frankfurter meat, undifferentiated slurry, a medium for unwanted hitch-hikers, is the idea for the next iPod, or the formula for peace in the Middle East, the campaign platform for the President we'll elect in 2012, perhaps even a solution for global warming. You just have to believe that intelligence isn't concentrated among the people who rose to the top of the 20th century's ladders to believe that there are nuggets of wisdom waiting out there for the taking, among the minds that created all that UGC."

I have to agree. Buried in the massive growth of user-generated content is nuggets of gold and pearls of wisdom beyond on imagination. Our challenge in the upcoming years will be to find ways to more quickly bring this information forward to people who can use it. Sadly, it's not easy.

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One of my favorite blogs to read at the moment is the Lefsetz Letter. Bob Lefsetz is one of those entertaining irreverent writers that takes daily shots at the music industry. His post today is "The World Is Flat" and gives us a very nice concise analysis of the current state of the music world. It is definitely worth reading and digesting. Why? What's happening in the music world is happening in a lot of other industries as well. Pay attention!

Quote:

It’s a changed world.  And the world will keep changing.  If the old players don’t get up to speed it’s not the worst problem, new entrepreneurs will find a way to create a new business.  But the old players are a drag on the system, they’re lumbering giants inhibiting legitimate progress.

The days of dictation are done.  The labels and their MTV and terrestrial radio cohorts are no longer all-powerful.  If a record sucks, people won’t buy it.  They know that it sucks from Web word of mouth, from hearing the tunes online, DOWNLOADING THEM BEFORE THEY’RE FOR SALE!  The solution is not to try to inhibit the exchange of information, but to deliver higher quality product that the audience raves about as opposed to decries.  Oh, it’s tougher.  Then again, it’s tougher being IBM in a changed world.

Update: Bob added another installment on the same theme today, "Where Are We Now"

Quote:

I believe the overall music business pie, the total revenue achieved, can be greater than it’s ever been, if the acquisition of music online is paid for instead of slipping through the fingers of an industry that only wants to sell songs a particular way.  Shouldn’t be tough to get everybody to be a music customer, if the buy-in price is low enough, if they can sample and acquire a mass for a reasonable fee.  But is everybody going to buy the same limited amount of product?  Absolutely not!

We’re living in the era of niche.  Broadcasting is dead.  Just ask NBC, which reported its worst prime time ratings EVER!  People can now get what they want, exactly what they want, and they tune out everything else.  So, if you’re trying to assemble a mass, you’re screwed.  Hell, just look at the SoundScan numbers.  What, there’s one platinum release this year (Norah Jones)?

The major label model is history, except for the few superstars left.  Everybody else is going to have to slug it out in the trenches.

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