ANTenna Blog -- Business & E-Business

bMighty is in the business of selling online advertising, so we tend to take it pretty seriously. That's why I didn't know what to make of three seemingly contradictory articles on the topic, all from the same source.

The three pieces all hail from Adotas, which focuses on the Internet advertising and media industry, but the similarities end there. The "Good" piece argues that the current economic troubles won't hurt online advertising, the "Bad" article says advertisers don't trust the metrics of their online campaigns, and the "Ugly" story warns that the vast majority of consumers like traditional ads better than new-media ads.

Confused yet? I am.

First, the Good: In an interview with Frank Addante founder of ad network Rubicon Project , the reasoning goes like this:

ADOTAS: How do you think the softening economy will affect online advertising?

A great example of this is Google and Overture. I believe these companies thrived (and innovated) in the last recession because they were providing services that offered efficient ways to make money online.

Next, the Bad: In a piece called Why CFOs Don’t Believe in Online Advertising, author Stephan Pretorius argues that many "business managers... are not convinced about the value and accountability of online advertising." Because metrics are often collected in silos "the numbers simply aren’t adding up in many cases." To restore credibility, Pretorius says, advertisers need to 1) track everything, 2) integrate the data, 3) compare apples to apples, 4) de-dupe the conversions, and 5) make your metrics relevant to your business.

Finally, the Ugly: This one really hurts. According to coverage of a segmentation analysis study by Mediamark Research & Intelligence, only a pathetically small 9% of Americans prefer to get their ads via “emerging media” vs mainstream media. That means 9 out of 10 would rather watch a TV commercial or see a billboard. On the plus side, emerging media fans tend to be young, fashion-forward trend-setter types.

So, what are we to make of all this?

Well, you could say it means that online advertising isn't ready for prime time. But I say it means that despite the enormous growth in online advertising over the past few years, there's still a lot of potential as metrics get better and even more people become accustomed to new media messages. Growing companies are in a perfect position to benefit from the growth of the medium.