Web to be #2 ad medium. So what.
IDC reported a few weeks ago on the growth of web ads. Just another day. But then MediaPosts Center for Media Research headlines it as “Web #2 Ad Medium in Five Years” comparing the Web, as IDC did, to TV and newspapers. Only direct marketing would stay ahead of Web advertising. But this is a false metric.
The Web is a platform upon which both newspapers and TV (hello Hulu) are now being delivered. The Web as a term is also often used in place of any IP based delivery system such as downloadable gaming and video apps (Ijji and Veoh TV are two examples). Include those and you need to then include IP based television which may include all television.
In the end it’s not about Web ad dollars eating into newspaper revenues, it’s about shifting to a new media – digital (from analog or print). Perhaps what the report meant was that Web and other IP based mediums are over taking print and analog or non-IP delivered television? If that’s the case, then let’s also toss in direct marketing as the the Web provides a natural direct marketing mechanism, it simply hasn’t figured out how to make it as effective as paper based direct marketing (but plenty of people are working on it).
