Actual Findings on Internet Advertising

Although Web advertising becomes a significant portion of marketing budgets, advertisers are still unsure on how to unlock the potential of the Internet. Current findings show that:

- Consumer brands spend only a fraction of their advertising budget on on-line advertising.

- Technology companies spend five times more on advertising in the WWW.

- While banner campaigns are still popular, there is no standardized solution for on-line advertising.

- Ad pricing is based on CPM (costs per 1.000 visitors), rather than on results.

- Personalized targeting has not yet taken hold. Instead advertisers mainly target on content.

At the moment three dominant models are used for Internet advertising:

Destination Sites: They use entertainment, high production values and information to pull users in and bring them back again.

Micro Sites: Content sites or networks host small clusters of brand pages.

Banner Campaigns: Those include other forms of Web advertising like sponsorships.

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"Attention Brokerage"

"Attention Brokerage" is one of the latest developments in the field of online advertising. The first Web-site applying the concept of selling and buying attention is Cybergold. Users, who want to earn money have to register and then look at ads, which, of course, they have to prove by e.g. downloading software. Attention, according to this idea, represents a good, which is worth being paid for.

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"Stealth Sites"

"Stealth sites" account for a particular form of hidden advertisement. Stealth sites look like magazines, nicely designed and featuring articles on different topics, but in reality are set up for the sole purpose of featuring a certain companies products and services. "About Wines" for example is a well-done online magazine, featuring articles on food and travel and also publishes articles on wine, which surprisingly all happen to be from Seagram.

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Public Relations and the Advertising Industry

The public relations industry, the same as advertising, is concentrated in the hands of few dominant firms. Still, the striking element about corporate public relations is that PR firms are tightly related to advertising companies. Nine out of the ten biggest international PR agencies have close ties with the advertising industry. Also, looking at the largest acquisitions involving U.S. PR firms from 1997 to 1999 it is apparent that money coming from advertising agencies has played an important role.


Table: Top 10 PR Firms 1998


Rank 1998

PR Firm

Advertising Agency Related

1998 Net Fees (in U.S. $)

1997 - 1998 % Change

1

Burson-Marsteller

yes

258,417,000

4.2

2

Hill and Knowlton

yes

206,000,000

8.9

3

Porter Novelli Int.

yes

183,050,000

23.6

4

Shandwick

yes

170,300,000

7.3

5

Fleishman-Hillard

yes

160,692,000

19.1.

6

Edelman PR Worldwide

no

157,840,530

18.1

7

Ketchum

yes

125,248,000

29.6

8

BSMG Worldwide

yes

118,963,000

93.0

9

Weber PR Worldwide

yes

83,166,000

36.2

10

GCI/APCO

yes

79,667,957

28.4




With many PR agencies sold to advertising companies, the advertising industry's influence further increases; enabling them to offer their clients not only advertising services, but also know-how in marketing, public opinion, crisis and issues management and political lobbying.

Table: Acquisition of PR Agencies (1997 - 1999)

Acquired Company

Buyer

Buyers Industry

Estimated Purchase Price (in millions of U.S. $)

International PR

Interpublic Group of Cos.

Advertising

230

Fleishman-Hillard

Omicom Group

Advertising

85

Ketchum

Omnicom Group

Advertising

60

Dewe Rogerson

Incepta

Advertising

40

Financial Rel. Bd.

BSMG/TN

Public Relations

33

Weber PR

Interpublic Group of Cos.

Advertising

15

Alexander

WPP Group

Advertising

15

Charles Barker

BSMG/TN

Public Relations

15



Source: Odwyerpr.com.

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Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

DSL connections are high-speed data connections over copper wire telephone lines. As with cable connections, with DSL you can look up information on the Internet and make a phone call at the same time but you do not need to have a new or additional cable or line installed. One of the most prominent DSL services is ISDN (integrated services digital network, for more information click here ( http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0,5716,129614+15,00.html )).

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0...
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Assembly line

An assembly line is an industrial arrangement of machines, equipment, and workers for continuous flow of workpieces in mass production operations. An assembly line is designed by determining the sequences of operations for manufacture of each product component as well as the final product. Each movement of material is made as simple and short as possible with no cross flow or backtracking. Work assignments, numbers of machines, and production rates are programmed so that all operations performed along the line are compatible.

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International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC)

The ICPC aims at reducing the number of incidents of damages to submarine telecommunications cables by hazards.

The Committee also serves as a forum for the exchange of technical and legal information pertaining to submarine cable protection methods and programs and funds projects and programs, which are beneficial for the protection of submarine cables.

Membership is restricted to authorities (governmental administrations or commercial companies) owning or operating submarine telecommunications cables. As of May 1999, 67 members representing 38 nations were members.

http://www.iscpc.org

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Robot

Robot relates to any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner. The term is derived from the Czech word robota, meaning "forced labor." Modern use of the term stems from the play R.U.R., written in 1920 by the Czech author Karel Capek, which depicts society as having become dependent on mechanical workers called robots that are capable of doing any kind of mental or physical work. Modern robot devices descend through two distinct lines of development--the early automation, essentially mechanical toys, and the successive innovations and refinements introduced in the development of industrial machinery.

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