Jarvis Coffin, CEO of Burst Media
As we embark on the second half of 2008, the online advertising industry in the U.S. continues to advance despite the challenge of a stagnant overall economy. The last time the industry faced such tough times in 2001-2, it was mowed down. But today it seems we are stouter and of surer foot, having matured our business and client base considerably over the last seven or eight years. Last time the Internet got battered by the real world it fell down. Back then, no one sought refuge online. Today it is television and newspapers that are feeling the pain as buyers and seller look to the Internet as high ground.
Much of the gains in online ad spending over the past year can be attributed to the flood of performance driven advertisers taking advantage of the deluge of low cost inventory coming from social networks and portals. However, brand advertisers are not sitting back and just watching. They are as eager as ever to fish where the fish are, which is clearly online, and the industry is responding to this demand with a number of solutions that address their needs. The one getting the most press attention is the rise of Vertical Ad Network.
Vertical Ad Networks introduce brand marketers to the targeted audiences and interest-based destination web sites that users depend on in their daily lives. Burst Network, with its history of strong publisher relationships, brings these sites together and can craft a network that is highly content focused and highly relevant to a particular demographic that a marketer seeks to reach. Currently Burst Network operates several Vertical Ad Networks including Burst Moms Network, Burst Green Network, CDKitchen Cooking Network and RealGM Sports Network among others. Since the beginning of the year these networks have enhanced our relationship with brand advertisers, and they resonate well with brand-focused media planners. These networks are transparent, perform well, and provide the kind of brand lift that marketers dream of.
Why do vertical networks matter in a down economy? Let’s compare them to traditional ad networks like Advertising.com and large vertical sites like iVillage. Burst’s vertical networks offer a hand selected set of engaging, well-designed, audience-focused sites. Large ad networks do not provide the level of transparency required by brand owners, and single sites do not offer the diversity of interests that a target audience may have. For example, a Mom may be on a parenting site, a career site, and a news site within one session. Burst’s Moms Network captures all of those “sides” of Mom through sites like Coolmath.com, BlueSuitmom.com, and MomsWhoThink.com. The reach that an advertiser gets from the Burst Moms Network is 9%, nearly identical to the reach of the iVillage Women’s Network. Furthermore, the Burst Moms Network has a greater saturation of women 25-54 with children in their household (composition index 8 points higher) than iVillage, and a greater diversity of content to reach Moms in a more contextually relevant ways. What this means for an advertiser is minimal media waste, and for the publisher it means better CPMs from their ad network partner.
While I don’t believe the Internet will emerge unscathed from the rising tide of uncertainty, it will emerge more confident and, ultimately, dominant. Leadership emerges in trying times. Expect the Internet to lead the way forward from these.
