Nearly Two-Thirds of SMB Advertisers Express
Willingness to Buy
Online Vertical Advertising
Local media execs to gather at BIA/Kelsey’s
Marketplaces 2010 conference, March 22-24 in San Diego, to examine the
outlook and business opportunities in online vertical media
CHANTILLY, Va. (Feb. 10, 2010)
– While only 5 percent of small and medium-sized businesses say they
currently advertise in online vertical directories, nearly two-thirds (64
percent) express a willingness to buy online vertical directory ads,
according to BIA/Kelsey’s
Local Commerce Monitor study. It is this local vertical advertising
opportunity that will be the focus of BIA/Kelsey’s upcoming Marketplaces
2010 conference (www.kelseygroup.com/marketplaces2010),
which takes place March 22-24 in San Diego.
“More
than half a billion dollars have recently poured into the local vertical
media and advertising space,”
said Peter Krasilovsky, vice president and
program director, Marketplaces, BIA/Kelsey. “At Marketplaces,
we’ll take a close look at the market opportunity in verticals, and we’ll
hear from the companies that are successfully using vertical approaches in
search and content to drive audiences and value.”
The Marketplaces 2010 program will feature
more than 50 influential executives from across local media, vertical sites
and services, including five keynote addresses by Jon Brod, Executive VP,
AOL Ventures; Jay Herratti, CEO, Citysearch; Andrew Mason, Founder and CEO,
Groupon; Sam Sebastian, Director, Local & B2B Markets, Google; and Craig
Smith, CEO, ServiceMagic.
The conference will also include 11 general
sessions, a bonus pre-conference session devoted to the latest tools for
marketplaces success and a SuperForum focused on the mobile vertical space.
Marketplaces’ “Mobile Vertical SuperForum” is a fast-paced series of
micro-sessions on the rapidly changing mobile vertical landscape. The
SuperForum will include a mobile kick-off address, product demos and deep
discussions around the growing opportunities in mobile. Companies
participating in the Mobile Vertical SuperForum include Big in Japan (ShopSavvy),
CallSpark, LocalAdXchange, Loopt, MoVoxx, OpenTable, RepairPal and Yelp.
Highlights
from the conference agenda include:
·
Vertical Ad Networks Revisited
·
Applying Social Media to Vertical Marketplaces
·
The Engines of Vertical Search
·
The New Content Aggregators
·
Small Business Marketplaces
·
The New City Guides
·
The New Directory/Marketplace Plays
·
Back to Square One: Refocus on Revenues
Conference
sponsors include Acxiom, AgendiZe, Amdocs, Local.com, Local Matters and
Localeze. Groupon is the promotional partner for Marketplaces. Association
partners are Association of Directory Publishers (ADP), Great Outdoor Network (GON),
International Classified Media Association (ICMA), National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB) and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). The conference media
partner is the Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIM Group). For more
information on Marketplaces 2010, visit
www.kelseygroup.com/marketplaces2010.
About Local Commerce Monitor
Local Commerce
Monitor is BIA/Kelsey’s annual tracking survey of small and medium-sized
businesses, conducted with research partner ConStat since 1999. The survey
measures where SMBs are spending their advertising and promotional budgets
and how their media usage and spending habits are evolving. Local Commerce
Monitor draws its sample of business respondents from a mix of nationally
scoped MSAs, which include first- and second-tier markets. Local Commerce
Monitor Wave XIII was conducted in August 2009 via an online survey of 302
SMBs.
About BIA/Kelsey
BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through consulting
and valuation services, research, Continuous
Advisory Services and conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a
resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages
and electronic directory markets, as well as to government agencies, law
firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue
drivers. BIA/Kelsey’s annual conferences draw executives from across
industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative
ways to grow. Additional information is available at
www.bia.com and
www.kelseygroup.com.
The company’s blogs are located at
http://blog.bia.com/bia/ and
http://blog.kelseygroup.com/,
and it can be found on Twitter through
http://twitter.com/BIAKelsey.
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