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.
