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{ 06 MAY 2008 }

Advertising that really matters

A new generation of networks and search engines is helping to
custom-tailor advertising campaigns and minimize wastage

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” This adage from 19th century U.S. merchant and advertising pioneer John Wanamaker symbolizes the uncertainty of marketing in the pre-digital age. And this would truly be a tremendous waste of money, as the global advertising market totaled some $450 billion in 2007. The emergence of the Internet marked an improvement in the situation, as it enables online visits to be tracked much better than listening to the radio or reading. So the online advertising market is booming, reaching a volume of $36 billion in 2007. More recently, a new generation of technology-driven start-ups has been paving the way out of the Dark Ages of marketing and shedding light on the preferences and needs of millions of consumers.

All these companies have two things in common: They are mainly technology companies, which means that they are altering the processes of this creative industry from the ground up. And they are overcoming the widespread feeling that ads are a necessary nuisance and are proving that they can transport valuable information. Both of these trends have prompted IBM Global Business Services to predict that the next five years will bring more change for this multi-billion dollar industry than the previous 50 years. more ... »

Advertising with an optimum RoI

A great example of this new breed of advertising networks is the Adconion Media Group; in a nutshell, ad networks act as an online marketplace between publishers and advertisers. Founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned online advertising executives, the company already numbers among the largest independent global digital advertising networks and is today delivering 290 million ad impressions per day.

Now in its fourth year of existence, it already ranks number 5 in the U.K. in terms of reach. By leveraging a revolutionary ad-serving and optimization technology, ads can be served at a significantly higher performance rate. The Adconion ad platform combines audience targeting (naturally conforming to stringent European privacy standards) and predictive optimization, and is thus able to deliver online advertisements that are relevant to the user.

Largest online media venture financing round
in European history. Adconion recently closed a record-breaking $80 million round of funding. The company will use this money in order to continue to operate at the very forefront of technology trends in online advertising. The acquisition of Frontline Direct in March 2008 adds e-mail as an additional delivery channel for its advertising. For several years, e-mail had been underestimated as a delivery medium for advertising and lead generation. Over the course of the past 24 months, though, companies like Frontline have proven the effectiveness of e-mail advertising, and analysts expect to see strong growth here, especially in the area of direct response and lead generation marketing.

Trend toward verticalization. Parallel to the growth of advertising networks, there is also a trend toward verticalization of target audiences. Some advertising networks are focusing on only a single vertical segment, like Glam.com, which recently announced its intention to develop the leading online ad network catering to female audiences. Other vertical areas include gaming and entertainment. Their big plus: These kinds of companies usually have a very intensive understanding of their audiences and deliver highly relevant focus to advertisers.

Adconion is one of the world’s fastest growing performance-driven Online Advertising Networks headquartered in London with offices in Germany, France, the U.S., Canada and Australia. Adconion delivers online ads using its proprietary technology that provides better results for advertisers and optimal revenue for publishers.

www.adconion.com

Adconion News

Adconion receives investment
of US$80 million ... more »

Adconion continues North
American expansion with
acquisition of Frontline
for US$20 million ... more »

Online ads are booming

Advertising follows content

In addition to audience targeting, the other complementary way to target online advertising today is through context. Contextual advertising is mostly used in the growing number of small or specific publishing environments, and with AdSense Google has shown the kinds of revenue streams that are possible in this market.

A second generation of search specialists, like Proximic, has developed in the shadow of Google. During the past six years, this German-origin start-up has developed a radical new search technology called “pattern proximity,” which makes it very simple and effective to deliver context-relevant content or advertising to a reader. Ennobled by Business Week as a challenger to Google, Proximic’s language-independent approach automatically reads and matches content according to interconnected “patterns” that are not based upon words but upon the structure of a document.

Key industry agreements. The company has recently signed agreements with players like Yahoo! Shopping and Shopping.com, which are entrusting their online catalogs to Proximic’s indexing technology. Each of their 50 million individual inventory items could now become a context-specific ad served alongside online content. So while reading about “fly fishing rods for trout in Maine,” advertisements about this exact topic would be shown to those users who have a very strong affinity for this subject. A simple comparison between the in-depth advertising repository of 50 million possible ads from Proximic and the estimated one million that are currently being run by Google quickly makes the potential of Proximic’s technology very clear to see.

Munich-based Proximic provides publishers with a better way to monetize their content on their own sites and across the Web. Powered by a radical new search technology called "pattern proximity" the network delivers relevant content to the reader at performance levels that outclass other technology approaches.

www.proximic.com

Proximic News

Proximic scales new online advertising network with key industry agreements ... more »

Technology is opening up a tremendous market. Targeted, and therefore relevant, advertising will play a key role in the further growth of online advertising. Over the next three years, market volume is expected to nearly double to some $60 billion, driven by new technologies that will lead innovation and growth in less explored areas, e.g. mobile, video and widgets. All of these new areas have one thing in common: Targeted advertising is possible thanks to technology, further shrinking the volume of wasted advertising dollars!

The Internet is heading for #3