Collective Media

April 10, 2007

COLLECTIVE’S RESEARCH SHOWS AD NETWORK ADOPTION TO GROW IN 2007

66% of Online Media Buyers to Spend More; Use by Brand and Direct Marketers Vary Greatly

NEW YORK, NY (April 10, 2007) Collective Media, a leading online advertising network, today announced key findings from its 2007 Ad Network Study. This study is the first of its kind and offers new insight into the role that online advertising networks play in the overall online media mix.  Findings show that ad networks are gaining in popularity not only among direct marketers, but with brand advertisers as a complement to online publishers and portals.

This is the first of a series of Collective Media surveys designed to better understand how publishers and advertisers are using ad networks. Collective Media conducted its analysis of more than 100 U.S. agency and advertiser respondents in February 2007.  The objective was to identify major trends in the use of online ad networks among interactive agencies and advertisers, including why these same online media buyers exclude ad networks from certain media plans.

“The study demonstrates that advertisers with diverse objectives, whether branding or direct response, are using ad networks in much more creative ways today,” says Joe Apprendi, Chief Executive Officer of Collective Media.  “While reach and efficiency continue to be primary drivers, the results provided greater insight on other factors that matter to advertisers, including inventory quality, transparency and audience targeting practices.”

Key Findings:

• 66% of advertisers plan to increase their usage of ad networks in 2007 with 88% of respondents planning to use online ad networks in 2007 (up from 77% in 2006).  While usage and ad spending is growing, respondents believe there are too many ad networks in the marketplace, making it more complicated to select which ad networks with which to work.  The vast majority of media buyers surveyed (over 62%) felt there were too many ad networks.
• Despite the fact that online marketers felt there were too many ad networks, they still overwhelmingly believed that ad networks differed from one another with only 17% of respondents believing that all ad networks are alike.
• When trying to determine what criteria makes one ad network different from another, over 57% of respondents believed how an ad network targets audiences was the #1 differentiating factor.
• Reach (at 52%) and Efficiency (at 66%) were still the key drivers for why agencies/advertisers include ad networks on the buy.  So, while not fundamental advantages when comparing one ad network to another, Reach and Efficiency still mattered most when determining why ad networks should be included on the buy in the first place.
• When analyzing why agencies/advertisers limit their use of ad networks, editorial control was the biggest barrier at 59%. Audience duplication caused by publisher overlap among ad networks was a solid #2 at 38%.

For a copy of Collective’s 2007 Ad Network Study, please email Collective Media at contactus@collective-media.com. 

About Collective Media
Collective Media is a leading online advertising network specializing in audience targeting and optimization solutions to increase relevancy and yield for both publishers and advertisers, reaching 79 million unique users monthly.  Collective is comprised exclusively of high quality, brand-name publishers and offers the largest network of online news sites including The Associated Press, Gannett, Tribune, Belo Interactive, Hearst Newspapers, and NBC Universal.  Collective’s innovative approach enables both brand and direct marketers to achieve superior results through sophisticated audience targeting technology, including context, behavior, geographic and re-targeting.  Founded in 2005, Collective Media is privately held and headquartered in New York City.   Learn more at www.collective-media.com