Nobody's surprised: Internet-advertising revenues fell slightly in the first half of 2009, according to numbers released Monday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The trade group found that online-ad revenues dropped 5.3 percent to $10.9 billion year over year, representing a total loss of $610 million. That's an understandable loss, given how much the media business has had the wind knocked out of it, thanks to the recession. But the slide in digital advertising isn't nearly as dire, when compared to the overall ad industry, which fell 15.4 percent.
The IAB also brought up numbers from Nielsen indicating that online advertising is essentially flat--and that the only sector of the ad industry that is growing is cable television.
PwC partner David Silverman called online advertising "a vibrant, sustainable industry," and he reiterated that it's an "industry that really didn't exist more than 12 years ago."
There was not much talk about social-media advertising, which has made somewhat of a breakthrough in recent months: after much criticism that it would never be able to make much money, social ads got a boost from Facebook's announcement that it had reached a cash flow-positive status several quarters earlier than expected.
The social network, which now has more than 300 million active users, has been dipping a toe into virtual-commerce revenue streams but is still supported primarily by advertising.
A coalition of advertising industry trade groups have agreed on new guidelines for privacy related to behavioral targeting on the Web. Officially released on Thursday and expected to go into effect early next year, the set of principles concern what advertisers can do with personal data collected in order to zero in on target audiences.
The groups involved are the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
The guidelines take the form of seven principles, ranging from a commitment to better consumer education about behavioral targeting, to a focus on keeping potentially sensitive data secure.
"Consumers deserve transparency regarding the collection and use of their data for behavioral advertising purposes. I am gratified that a group of influential associations--representing a significant component of the Internet community--has responded to so many of the privacy concerns raised by my colleagues and myself," Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour said in a release.
"These associations have invested substantial efforts to actually deliver a draft set of privacy principles, which have the potential to dramatically advance the cause of consumer privacy. I commend these organizations for taking this important first step."
Lawmakers have paid close attention to the evolution of online behavioral targeting over the past few years, especially as the vast amount of personal data on social networks makes it possible for advertisers to target more and more specific niches. Some have even suggested that behavioral targeting should be opt-in by default.
Last month, several subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce hosted a hearing about behavioral ad standards, and executives from companies like Facebook, Yahoo, and Google testified. At least one of those companies has come out publicly in support of the new guidelines.
"One of the key strengths of the principles is the fact that they apply to a broad range of companies participating in online advertising--advertisers, publishers, and ad networks," a post about the new measures on Google's public policy blog read.
The growing economic slump doesn't appear to have fully struck Web advertising.
Internet advertising revenues for the third quarter were nearly $5.9 billion, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
The bad news is online advertising appears to be slowing down. The third quarter in 2008 was up only two percent from the second quarter. For the first three quarters of the year, however, ad revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion for the first three quarters of 2007. The IAB said the $5.9 billion quarterly results were the second best ever.
Meanwhile, ComScore issued an ad-focus ranking for October. Platform A, AOL's ad platform reached 173 million Americans or 91 percent of the 190.6 million American's online. The Yahoo Network came in second by reaching 164 million people and was followed by Google's Ad Network with 158 million.
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