Vertical ad network mania has reached into the Village of New York City as AdWeek’s Mike Shields details the new Village Voice vertical ad network titled, “Voice Local Network.” Within the NYC-branded network is Lockhart Steele’s triumvirate of local blogs – Curbed, Eater and Racked – with its young, influential consumer audience as well as checkoutmyink.com, a rad tattoo site. Speaking of which, AdExchanger.com tattoo, anyone? We’re buying. Note: all tattoos must be “above the fold.” WAH-wah.
Mark Walsh reports that the buzz from the recent RBC Capital Markets conference was relatively, all-things-being-equal, apocalypse-postponed, bullish for Q3 of this year. Walsh paraphrases a research note by saying, “most online ad industry executives expect the third quarter to mark a turning point in the industry’s rebound from recessionary trends.” Walsh adds that RBC hedged their bets regarding display due to regulatory concerns around behavioral ads (yawn), but RBC offered an estimate that behavioral accounts for $1.8 billion of the $9 billion online display marketplace. Always handy to have estimates, don’t you think?
Traditional media show favorite the Cannes Lions conference in France is taking a hit with attendees expected to be 40% fewer than the year prior according to AdAge’s Laurel Wentz and Rupal Parekh. Though not necessarily apples-to-apples, Ad:tech’s San Francisco did not suffer from the biggest economic slowdown in the past buh-zillion years. Has interest turned in favor of the online advertising world?
Not so fast, the Wall Street Journal’s Emily Steel has the world worrying with “Web Ad Sales Open Door to Viruses.” The subhead is even better: “Complex System of Middlemen, Resellers, Auctions Creates Vulnerabilities.” Oof. But, a great quote from Alex Gounares, a VP at Microsoft, who said this regarding malicious ads, spyware, etc., “I don’t know if it will ever go away. The world has evildoers.” (roll tape with spooky music.)
