Bigcommerce currently powers e-commerce for nearly 40,000 businesses around the world including some brand names everyone would recognize. Its flexible templates are also used by many, many SMB’s to power their e-commerce and a significant percentage of their customers fall into this important business classification. In addition, the company has hundreds of design partners that use Bigcommerce’s offer as part of a larger bundle of services to business owners. These partners use the dynamic nature of the Bigcommerce platform to craft highly customized solutions particular to whatever the merchant desires. The e-commerce platform Bigcommerce has created also has capabilities to help with demand generation and content marketing, invaluable features given how important the latter is to the SEO challenge.

Knowing that web marketing can present a new series of challenges for business owners, Bigcommerce has a special team that works with local businesses to help them navigate through the e-commerce world. Dubbed the “Success Squad,” these resources help business owners with training, integration, strategies for growing traffic, tips and tricks, plus suggestions on how to save those consumers that abandon their carts during shopping.

SMB’s can also implement a chat feature on the platform to help customers looking for assistance. Some merchants that are afraid of e-commerce having a negative impact on foot traffic can offer coupons to help increase store visits. Bigcommerce also works to help the SMB understand the process for upselling customers that come to the site.
Of course, consumers come to SMB websites on a multitude of devices. The Bigcommerce platform has mobile-optimized design built into it to make sure that the consumer has a consistent experience no matter the device.

As Bigcommerce looks to expand its footprint across the business community, it will be looking for more design partners that are eager to help local businesses expand their sales on the web.

The post 40 Million Reasons to Love E-Commerce for SMB’s: An Austin tale appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The title of this event represents a bit of a change for us. BIA/Kelsey has always focused attention on the local SMB community. That business group continues to represent a significant revenue opportunity for those in local media.

We’ve observed a shift. National brands are now quite interested in using local interactive media platforms as they seek to grow sales. The large national brands do see a distinct benefit of “localizing” their messaging and marketing.

The question for local media brands is simple: are you in a position to offer these national brands the assistance they need?

Marketers on a national level are increasingly aware of the dangers of watching millions of dollars in brand/product messaging get lost or become ineffective because of poor execution at the local level. Store managers and franchisees can be forgiven for allowing these subtleties to pass them by but that doesn’t hold true for the corporate marketing department that gets stuck living with these mistakes.

If you are in any way related to the development of revenue in your company and you’d like to learn more about what national brands are doing to localize, you need to join us in Boston next week. Visit our website (www.biakelsey.com/LeadinginLocalBoston) to learn more and take a look at our agenda.

Hope to see you there.

The post National Brands=Local Revenue? appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Nielsen reported yesterday that ad spending on national cable networks has caught up to where their broadcast network brethren now stand.

That’s a big acknowledgement that the investments in programming and promotion that have been made by the content providers have shown an excellent return. Cable has always suffered the “little brother” syndrome in the TV business, but it’s clear that those days are history. Given that the upfront market is about to break for the coming TV season, this news can’t help but give cable sellers a little surge of pride as they request a bigger slice of the ad budget from the media buying community both nationally and locally.

Moving into local markets, there’s still work to be done to allow that catch-up with the local broadcasters. As anyone that has bought or sold local cable knows, the vast majority of ad dollars being placed on local systems tend to go to relatively few of the available networks. The usual suspects that take the great majority of the ad revenues include ESPN, USA, TBS, TNT, Fox News, CNN, etc.

About a month ago, RPA reported that the ratings for the Top 25 networks from September 2011 to mid-January 2012 had actually seen a downturn of about 2 percent in aggregate with C3 (Live plus three) numbers. The biggest hit in the C3’s landed on Viacom’s new nightmare, Nickelodeon, where the numbers dropped by nearly 30 percent. The remainder of the top 25 networks didn’t suffer erosion anywhere nearly as large and therefore will likely remain safely ensconced on media buyers’ lists for future ad buys.

Where cable networks gained ratings was at the mid-tier level. The local avails on these nets usually get filled by the wholesalers like Cross Media or by Direct Response advertisers as the audience numbers in these venues aren’t usually compelling enough to get local ad buyers to include them in schedules. The biggest gainers, according to RPA, were Food Network, Adult Swim and Discovery. I’m sure given all the interesting press surrounding the ongoing ratings and revenue shortcomings of OWN, this news about the upswing of the heritage network that put Discovery Communications on the map was likely more than a little welcome in an office building complex in Silver Spring, Maryland.

At a time when cable is organically getting a more sympathetic look from agency ad buyers and local businesses, it’s not a bad thing to suddenly find yourself with more salable inventory at your disposal. Removing wholesale advertisers and replacing them with retail-priced ads on several networks could provide yet another boost to what should be a decent ad sales uptick for MSOs in 2012.

There’s also a movement in place that will eventually unite the disparate ADS platforms into one local sales organization. The telcos moved here first after their efforts at establishing local sales forces didn’t bring the desired results. The major telco video providers, U-verse and FIOS, are now working in combination with MSO sales forces. As the satellite providers perfect their local insertion technology further, it will make as much sense for them to throw in with their bitter rivals in a show of co-opetition as it did for Verizon and AT&T. A combined local sales force selling these three platforms as one will be a greater force in local markets and provide more competition for local broadcast television stations.

Local sellers will have to make sure the process of combining and delivering accurate spot rotations across three different venues is as seamless as possible for this to work. Once that’s done, I believe it will be possible that local “cable” finally tops local broadcast television in the ad sales arena.

The post Happy Days in MSO Land… appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Aereo plans to offer MDU (multiple dwelling unit) residents in New York City the chance to view their local, over-the-air TV stations over the Internet and on their IP-connected TV sets, tablets and mobile devices.  Aereo follows along on the heels of other companies (e.g., ivi.tv) that have tried to do much the same with television signals but have been shut down by the courts acting on behalf of the owners of local television stations and networks. To take advantage of the down American economy and the perceived cord-cutting trend, Aereo plans to offer this service for a low, attractive monthly fee. Those economics make it a perfect complement to apartment dwellers in the city who already have or are considering subscriptions to OTT services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc., but like having their local news and broadcast network content, too. 

Aereo plans to work around the obvious legal issues involved with not paying local TV for content by placing small, thumbprint-sized antennas (one per subscriber) on a rooftop in Brooklyn and then using those to steer the OTA (over-the-air) content to the Internet where it’s delivered and consumed by the individual subscriber. Aereo wants the courts (and broadcasters) to believe that it’s really only complementing and adding OTA coverage and viewership in homes where over the air reception is a challenge for our current television standard (i.e., difficulty penetrating buildings).  

But broadcasters and those that provide content to them (a.k.a. The Networks) now have a vital financial stake in the preservation of the current economics of cable, satellite and telco video providers (like FiOS).  It has taken broadcasters nearly 20 years since the original Cable Act in 1992 and some hair raising standoffs with MVPDs to finally get access to some cash for content. Don’t expect them to roll over on this one or immediately buy into the notion that they stand to increase profits thanks to Aereo. 

Aereo is a bullet clearly aimed at killing that current coveted model. Expect the federal court docket to be adding several new cases soon.  

As an aside, the cable providers have not exactly sat quietly as the cord-cutting phenomenon has gathered momentum. Most have rolled out some sort of lower priced, smaller network bundles to try to mitigate those that are cutting service due to the economy. For the MVPDs, Aereo is just more of the same in the subscriber killing column. 

The big question with Aereo is does it possibly add to a station’s viewership with its limited over the air signals and possibly increase ratings for stations by narrowing choices in the former cable/satellite and telco homes it will most likely cover? That math is a little complicated, and it’s going to be a hard sell to television owners.

Just taking WNBC-TV as an example, based on revenue estimates for 2011 coming from BIA/Kelsey’s Media Access Pro, we estimate that it earns about $38.50 per year or $3.21 per month in ad revenues per TV household in the New York City DMA. Add in the current retransmission revenues that WNBC-TV receives, which we estimate between $6.00 and $12.00 per year per household, and the ad/retrans combination totals between $44.50 and almost $51 per TV household*. Should Aereo achieve 5 percent penetration of current MVPD households in New York, WNBC would stand to lose a few million dollars a year as would every other New York broadcaster getting retrans money. This immediate math problem probably guarantees that the broadcast community will see Aereo’s immediate impact as only cannibalizing this long sought source of station and network revenues.    

*Estimating $255,750,000 in 2011 ad revenues for WNBC-TV divided by 7,155,000 New York DMA TV households. Assumes WNBC receives retrans payments between $0.50 and $1.00 per sub per month from New York MVPDs.

The post Oh, Oh, Aereo… appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Clear Channel, which has 850 stations in the U.S., was the first radio firm to “go really big” after the Telecom Act of 1996 deregulated the market. At one time, it had more than 1200 radio stations.  Clear Channel has had some measure of success but had a number of setbacks tied to various management problems (e.g., excessive expense cutting, endless reorgs, selling too much commercial time.)

After the exit of founder Mark Mays from the family business, Clear Channel has been in  pursuit of a permanent CEO that could lead a company with a lot of legacy media and propel it into its digital future.  Enter Bob Pittman, the co-founder of MTV who cut his teeth at Roberts Radio. After MTV, Pittman was CEO at Century 21, making it the first truly national real estate brokerage; CEO at Six Flags Entertainment; and President of AOL Time Warner, his highest profile position. Recently, he’s been a very active investor in both broadcasting and digital media. Some of his investments include Thrillist, Daily Candy, Group Commerce Inc. and others.

Since joining Clear Channel as an investor and chairman of its media and entertainment platforms, Pittman has focused on iHeartRadio, a Pandora rival.  Clear Channel used the incredible promotional power of its radio properties to bring to market a digital audio product that it believes will surpass Pandora.  The lead up to the event that launched the new service was all that radio has delivered for its clients for years but with a digital hook of their own at the end. 

With Pittman at the helm, Clear Channel now has a CEO that has the street credibility in the digital world that has to be taken seriously by all of Clear Channel’s competitors both locally and nationally.  That credibility should make it easier for Pittman to sell his vision to his internal team, too. 

“The problem is that advertising comes slowly to any new medium or product,” Pittman told The Los Angeles Times in May. “When I was at MTV, we projected $10 million in ad revenue for the first year. We did $500,000 and almost went out of business.”That’s how slow advertisers are to warm up to new media. But over time, it will grow.”

The post Pittman Promotion Lifts the Volume of Radio appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

While this news has been out for a little while, we thought it was interesting that a company with powerful TV assets would initiate a deal with a company that provides high-quality, affordable video commercial content for local advertisers. After all, isn’t this what TV has been doing since the ’40s. What gives?

Anyone who’s ever sold or sold against TV operators knows the costs of commercial production can be a deal killer. TV sales executives try their hardest to find ways to bury the costs of production in their schedules, but that doesn’t always work. Other media reps also understand the process and sell against TV by scaring local advertisers about those production costs. It’s been going on forever. 

So, what’s new? TV stations are now involved in many more multiplatform selling opportunities than ever, and Fisher Communications is no exception. Video is a critical and highly seductive element in the minds of most advertisers and an enormously effective advertising tool whether used on air or online. Simply put, local production houses are not equipped to scale to meet the new demand for on-air and online video. The turnaround time and costs associated with doing local production are burdens for both the station and advertiser. The Fisher deal with SpotMixer allows their sales teams to put commercials together on their connected devices right in the showroom of the advertiser, if needed. 

For years, newspaper and radio reps have always been instructed about the power of the spec ad to close a deal. With this arrangement, TV and online reps working for Fisher have the same power at their disposal without costing the station thousands of dollars in time and effort, while providing a video that any business owner would be pleased to have carry his or her brand and identity.

Further, this lower cost option allows Fisher to extend the power of video to a lot of smaller local clients that might have had “video envy” over the years. Other local media companies have also been tying up with video providers over the past few years, but this is clearly local TV’s space to defend.

The post Scaling Local Production? Fisher and SpotMixer Boost Video Creation Opportunities for Local Advertisers in Seattle and Bakersfield appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

While this would be a first, should this really be a surprise? 

Broadcast’s gains have to be measured amid the fact that it has benefitted from a surprising spike in spot demand given its ongoing ratings declines. The gains in CPM are a combination of higher unit rates and the impact of continued ratings erosion as each spot delivers less audience on average than it once did. So, in theory, even rates that are flat in a program would carry a higher CPM than it did one year ago if that program has a lower audience level. As the years go by, it takes an increasing amount of commercial inventory to reach target demo delivery goals than it did a few years prior. While it might have taken 20 spots to reach 100 demo points five years ago, it now takes maybe 25 or 30 to reach that same targeted delivery. While there were impressive CPM gains ranging from roughly 9 percent to 15 percent depending on the network’s place in the hierarchy, this year’s upfront totals will not equal the broadcast industry’s highpoint in 2004 thanks, in part, to that continued decline in delivery assuming a constant in the percentage of sold inventory. 

Given the demand present and despite the constant harangue of digital sellers with dollar envy, a number of advertisers have made it clear that television remains the primary focus of the marketing budget. But if the points aren’t there in broadcast, where do you turn? 

The growing appeal of cable networks have been both a cause and beneficiary of the ratings decline of broadcasters in terms of viewers and ad dollars. Cable’s timing has been impeccable as this increased demand for its ad inventory comes when the industry is putting forth better and more highly rated content than ever, including more first run, local news and sports programming, across a wider array of its networks. Upfront reports confirm that the continued decline in broadcast audiences is translating into ad buyers buying much more deeply into the cable network universe this year in order to meet the television campaign goals of their clients. It also appears that the gap between broadcast and cable pricing continues to narrow. These are the fruits of the continued fragmentation of the television world. Buys that might have been five or six networks deep in years past are now going past 10 or 12. The gains are moving beyond the first tier networks of ESPN, TNT, USA, TBS, Discovery, etc.

What does this mean for local markets? It’s hard to imagine that what we’re seeing play out in the upfront won’t also happen there. Local advertising buyers will also likely find themselves buying more spots on broadcast stations and more local avails on a deeper selection of cable networks from the MSO’s than ever before just like their national brethren. We can all debate the impact of cord cutting or cord shaving in this Netflix-influenced era, but one thing is pretty clear-cut: It doesn’t much matter whether you’re cable or broadcast these days, just as long as the word “television” follows. 

The real trick for both broadcast and cable TV sellers is figuring out how to grow the ad pie in their local markets instead of poaching each other’s clients and prospects. The strength of their traditional assets, including their brands and television inventory, plus their growing digital offerings give them great allies in that effort. 

I guess it’s not a bad time to be selling TV advertising, is it?

The post Is This Really News? Cable Upfront to Surpass Broadcast appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

For broadcasters, it is an article of faith that “localism” is a point of differentiation that adds value to their operations. Localism tends to mean local news, sports, weather, traffic, local events, coverage of local government, and other promotional and volunteer involvement in the community. There’s a lot of chatter about what it takes to succeed with true “localism.” This past year has seen some notable localism failures. Other efforts are in a nascent stage.

One case in point is Allbritton Communications, based in the Washington, D.C.-area. Its television stations are affiliated with ABC, with the largest property being WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in the Washington, D.C., market.

Our primary interest was the fall 2009 announcement of Allbritton’s plans to launch a Washington, D.C.-focused news site that will combine with the WJLA and NewsChannel 8 television and Web operations. To launch this new local news site, Allbritton hired Jim Brady, the former executive editor of Washingtonpost.com. The site is set to launch in spring 2010 and will have about 50 more news staffers on hand.

We recently talked with Allbritton’s senior vice president of legal and strategic affairs, Jerry Fritz, who supports Robert Allbritton (the family-owned company’s chairman and visionary) and Fred Ryan. These three executives are the key architects of this strategy. Fritz has a long history with the company that spans more than 20 years.

While the timing seems very fortuitous, Fritz tells us it’s really the culmination of a plan that was devised back in the late 1980s, when Allbritton (who used to own The Washington Star) saw an opportunity to build a strong local franchise to compete with the news-gathering prowess of The Washington Post.

The first effort under the plan was the launch of NewsChannel 8 distributed over local cable systems. NewsChannel 8 was, at first, a separate operation from the local broadcast television station. A truly, locally focused news operation, NewsChannel 8 broke down its news for the area’s three separate and distinct geographies with a mix of local, lifestyle and political programs. It was a pioneer and in its early days it was a tough sell for audiences and advertisers. Its programming and appeal have grown as the product has matured and its mix of local news and lifestyle shows (political talk to local golf) now attract larger audiences plus a mix of larger and smaller advertisers. NewsChannel 8 also has benefited from the growth in the news product on WJLA. WJLA has completely rebuilt its local news operations following a downsizing many years ago.

From its base in local television, Allbritton leveraged its core assets across media platforms to exploit some of the unique attributes of the D.C. market.

That included developing an online newspaper to address the market opportunity of providing news, commentary and an advertising vehicle to government contractors, lobbyists, trade associations and others seeking to influence the nation’s seat of government.

Politico.com, designed to be the ESPN of politics, was Allbritton’s initial online effort under the new strategy. While Politico was designed around the Web, readers and advertisers clamored for a print counterpart. Allbritton responded with a three-times-a-week print product that was quickly ramped to five days.

Since then, Politico has created a national network of newspapers and Web sites that share Politico stories in exchange for Web ad avails, which Politico sells to national advertisers. It is a classic win-win.

In fact, Politico’s timing has been perfect. Many newspapers have closed their D.C. news bureaus, and local newspapers are struggling to fill the news gap. Recent filings with the SEC have detailed just how successful the operation of Politico has become in a relatively short time as revenues have topped the $20m mark and cash flows have reached seven figures.

Now, both WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8 share facilities and some staff members as they gather, collect and present local news and information to the D.C. market. Adding Politico, the Allbritton operation finds itself as one of the country’s leaders in the gathering and dissemination of political news. That has positive rub-off effects on both WJLA and NewsChannel 8. Washington is still very much a company town.

So, it’s in the same vein that we look at this soon to be launched local news oriented Web site. Adding 50 journalists to an operation that already includes a prominent local television station and its cable news spinoff plus the acclaimed Politico gives Allbritton’s operation one of the largest news gathering operations in the market. As the company focuses on enabling its journalists to file news across any platform, it’s easy to see the combined Allbritton portfolio giving some heartache to The Washington Post (and few know that property better than Jim Brady). The company just recently brought a senior sales executive to lead the advertising sales effort for the new metro new site.

Allbritton already has a deal in place with the market’s leading news/talk radio station as well to share content and to provide weather reporting from its team of meteorologists. While it doesn’t seem that Allbritton wants to get itself embedded into the longer view stories that The Post covers, it does seem that there’s a probable audience for hurried Washington audience members who want to get the news in an easy, connected and time saving way.

The Allbritton mission is to produce and serve unique content which has appeal beyond the Washington market. The plan is to capitalize not only on local ad spend across broadcast, cable, print and online platforms but also to get access to content syndication and barter ad inventory nationwide. Allbritton understands that it can be profitable to serve not only local audiences and advertisers well with smart execution but that this entire operation can be leveraged to grow out of market revenues. Could this example serve as a possible model for other broadcasters looking for a digital strategy that actually makes money?

The post Allbritton Ups the Localism Ante Via Cross Platform appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

By Steve Passwaiter, VP, Business Development

We head into the New Year severely chastened by the historic revenue declines of the past year. For traditional media companies — not so much the new media companies that BIA/Kelsey also covers — they were several shades of awful.

Signs abound, however, of a modest recovery for traditional media. The broadcast networks are reporting an active scatter market of inventory held back from upfront sales. This makes the network execs who decided to hold back inventory at the upfront look like good market callers. Assuming that flat is the new “up,” some of the larger radio groups are reporting a decent December.

The American consumer seems to have provided the retail community some good news in the recently concluded holiday shopping season. The longer term outlook on consumer spending seems a little mixed but let’s take the good news for what it is.

We’re also coming up against weakened 2009 comps, but that’s a mix of good and bad news. And only assumes our frame of reference is the late 1990s, rather than the recent boom years. While current ad rates are still depressed, they could be bolstered by some advance demand.

But advertisers are still wary of the economy as unemployment remains high for a while. That will likely mean any advertising rate increases are going to be the result of some intense negotiation. That won’t be a change from 2009.

A lot of businesses — large and small — decided to cut back and/or sit out advertising in 2009. But there is a more positive outlook right now. Moreover, business owners know that they need to re-invite consumers through advertising campaigns into their showrooms in order to generate sales. There’s still business to be had but it will need to be seduced in no small part by solid and effective advertising. Can your current sales operation make that happen?

There’s some optimism for 2010 revenues as the nation prepares for its first mid-term election during the Obama presidency. This coming mid-term election is red hot and looking very competitive nearly everywhere across the country. With all 435 House seats, more than a third of the Senate and Gubernatorial races in states like California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio, it’s a big, big year in terms of advertising.

This has generated the usual estimates of billions of political dollars in play spread out over several early year primaries and the November election. This is great news to parts of the media business that have seen more than their share of suffering this year. If true, these projections can put a big 2010 Band-Aid on a business that needed a tourniquet in 2009.

But what about 2011 when all that political money disappears and we’re back to the normal advertising marketplace? It would seem that the additional revenue in 2010 is a perfect opportunity for traditional media companies to address their shortcomings on the sales side of the industry with both the traditional and digital sides. If you’re not happy with the ups and downs of the odd-even year symphony that’s become our business, perhaps 2010 is the convenient time to address that. The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.

The word of the day for marketers is “flexibility.” “As more media platforms become available, it is imperative that all marketers continue to assess their capabilities and select the platforms that are best suited to help them meet their brand’s goals and objectives,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA. “With this proliferation of media, marketers must work harder, survey the entire landscape available to them and create their brand’s most optimal media mix.”

It is hard to argue with that. But can anyone explain this to local marketers?  It’s time for local media sellers to step into that gap.

While we’ve all had our share of advertising agency adventures over the years, the simple fact is that your sales staffs are going to have to take more of that platform-agnostic mentality to effectively service direct local clients. The days of a single platform sale will become less common as we move into the digital age. Our local sellers are going to have to be able to construct ad campaigns that make multiple platforms work effectively in some synchronicity.

The post BIA/Kelsey Commentary: Economic Signs Looking Up for Traditional Media appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

How about that fourth screen? This growing media sector is projected to grow at an annual CAGR of 13.5 percent through 2013 with a total category take of $3.7 billion. But, trying to define what DOOH is and how to make it an effective part of any advertising campaign is still a work in progress. However, important strides are being made and this morning’s panel participants are active players across the DOOH ecosystem.

This panel was moderated by Rick Ducey, BIA/Kelsey’s Chief Strategy Officer, and our panel participants were Sonya Rosas, practice leader, DOOH for the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab; Stephen Randall, CEO of LocalModa; and Adam Bleibtreu, CEO of Retail Media Co., an owner of DOOH networks.

First some basic facts. DOOH is any combination of media assets that include digital billboards that rotate several ad messages per minute to place based media seen where people congregate from health clubs and taverns to elevators and airports. While the general outdoor market is heavily consolidated (three companies accumulate 85 percent of all dollars spent), the DOOH sector is not. It’s expected that many of the existing outdoor companies will be in the market to acquire DOOH assets as the growth in this part of the out of home sector is expected to outpace the general outdoor market ( billboards).

The panelists discussed the need for DOOH to be easier to plan and buy. There has been some improvement in the metrics used to measure the ROI of these media assets. However, there was a warning to marketers that all screens used in a campaign must be connected. The phone plays a critical interactive role in DOOH campaigns and allows the consumer to take part in the call to action on the screen. The flexibility of this new platform is quite attractive as messages can be changed on the fly to address different audiences.

Some of the new face recognition technology is allowing marketers to see who the audience is and how it changes at different times of the days. Messages can then be adapted so that there is relevance to what’s being displayed. This ability to allow the consumer to make an emotional attachment to the screen is a critical element in the success of the message. Location is also essential. Some venues work better than others (think gas pumps and elevators). Public places can make it harder to make DOOH work but it’s not impossible to do so. (Think Times Square).

The grocery stores are also great laboratories as new shopping carts can allow shoppers to enter their shopping lists onboard the cart. The cart is aware of where the cart is in the store and specific sales and promotional messages can be passed along to the consumer based on the shoppers’ profile and based on what’s on their list.

Taxis have also proven to be a good venue for DOOH. These units have been mostly limited to New York and Chicago but that’s soon to change. The GPS coordinates of these taxis allow messages to be delivered to the passenger that are based in the neighborhood of where the taxi happens to be located. These units are quite popular with advertisers and have sold out even in this difficult advertising environment.

There was also some discussion on the successful selling of these new digital and place based boards. One panelist believed that they made the right decision to partner with ABC to sell their inventory. The second sale is the hardest to make and managing the account is critical to the seller. CBS and NBC are also both in the digital out of home business with existing partnerships.

This sector is ripe for consolidation and the next 12-18 months should be interesting to watch as this new and vital advertising platform continues its impressive growth.

The post ILM: 09: Digital Out-of-Home: Expanding the Interactive Experience for the Consumer appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.