Internet Ads Reach $15 Billion, First-Half 2011

Internet ad revenue rose 24.1% to $7.7 billion in Q2 2011, contributing a 23% uptick to $14.9 billion in the first half of the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. stats.

Display-related advertising-banner, rich media, digital video and sponsorships rose 27.1% to more than $5.5 billion in the first six months of 2011.

Breaking it down for the first six months, display-related advertising revenue totaled $5.5 billion or 37% revenue, up 27% from the $4.4 billion reported in 2010. Banners took 23%, or $3.4 billion; rich media, 5%, or $763 million; digital video, 6%, or $891 million; and sponsorship, 3%, or $467 million.

Aside from display ads, paid search ads continue to take the majority of the media buy. Search — which remains the leading format since 2006 — accounted for 49% of Q2 2011 revenue, up 47% to $3.8 billion. Search revenue for the first six months of 2011 totaled $7.3 billion, up 27% from $5.7 billion in 2010.

Brands also spent more on video and lead generation. Digital video rose 42.1% to $891 million. Lead generation grew 25.4%, compared with the first six months in 2010, accounting for 5% during the first six months of 2011, or $805 million.

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Casale Partners With Turn To Enhance Publisher Reach

Casale Media on Thursday is expected to announce a partnership with demand-side platform Turn. The union combines Turn’s roster of Fortune 200 brands with Casale’s network of nearly 3,000 publishers.

Amid a wave of interest (or what critics call hype) around demand-side platforms, Turn is quite popular these days. Just weeks ago, it partnered with Nexage to power real-time bidding for mobile advertising inventory through its media-buying platform.

Last month, Turn struck a similar deal with Web video ad company TubeMogul to power real-time buying of mobile video ad space for TubeMogul’s PlayTime DSP.

Such partnerships help Turn expand the scope of the inventory it provides. “Having scale and access to quality inventory from partners like Casale is critical for our clients,” said Bill Demas, president and CEO of Turn.

Take Snagajob, a provider of talent management solutions for hourly employers, which currently uses Casale’s CasaleX exchange to help sell its ad inventory of some 250 million monthly impressions.

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How Online Advertising Incentives Influence Brand Perception

Brand messages and incentives make consumers pay attention to ads, according to a recent study. In fact, combining the two strategies increases interaction by 91% and brand perception by 38%, as well as improved recall and purchase intent, according to findings from KN Dimestore and SocialVibe released Monday.

While 48% of survey participants reported they may initially opt-in to engage with a brand for the incentive, they stay and pay attention to the brand message.

SocialVibe calls the strategy “value-exchange brand advertising” and defines it as ads that ask for a consumer’s attention in exchange for something they want, such as virtual currency for social games or making a donation to charity. It differs from offer-based, cost-per-action (CPA) advertising, which requires a sign-up or purchase of something.

The study, which gathers data from more than 30,000 survey respondents, set out to determine if and why incentives prompt people to engage with the advertisements, how they affect consumer perception of the brands, and whether they influence people to visit the company’s Web site or tell a friend about the offer. Participants interacted with ads from U.S. brands across financial services, CPG, entertainment, e-commerce and technology categories between June and July of 2011.

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Media’s Mobile Presence Doubles, Ad Presence Still Low

The rapid acceleration of mobile Internet use is not restricted to consumers. Media companies are responding just as quickly, if not comprehensively, according to new research from Company Data Trees that shows a near doubling in the share of publishers that have mobile-ready presence.

In January, the researchers found 14.67% of publishers among the top 10,000 sites to have mobile-friendly sites, measured by Alexa. By early September, that share had escalated to 25.67%.

According to Company Data Trees CEO David Engel, the company used its proprietary technology called Mobile+Positive. “It loads each Web site on five different mobile OSes and on 10 devices,” he says. In this context, “publishers” were defined as any mobile site that sells ad impressions, and it netted about 66% of the total universe of top 10,000 sites as measured by Alexa.

The jump in the number of publisher sites with mobile destinations rose 75% between January and September. The rate at which publishers are adopting mobile outpaced the full range of Web site providers, which rose 66% in the same period. According to Engel, once you move outside of Alexa’s top 10,000, the rate of mobile adoption descends.

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Collective, Rentrak Bridge TV To Internet Ad Gap

In an industry known for magically serving relevant messages, tying television content to Internet ads seems like the next logical step in ad targeting. TV Accelerator — launched jointly by Collective, which provides display and video advertising, and Rentrak, a multiscreen media measurement platform provider — allows advertisers to target consumers with online ads related to content they viewed on TV.

Advertisers that spend millions on hundreds of campaigns running 30-second commercials across 15 programs during a 30-day time slot can also target the TV viewing audience online with what Joe Apprendi, Collective CEO, calls “data-driven accuracy.”

Rentrak’s database knows households’ historic viewing habits. Data models are built based on 3,240 segmentations and matched with the audience cloud to identify users online before targeting them through video or display ads. Privacy guidelines prohibit one-to-one targeting, Apprendi said, so the company built a model that comes as close as it can without violating guidelines.

Five companies have begun testing the combined platforms, but Collective and Rentrak aren’t the only companies with this idea. MStar and Channel Island have collaborated to advance TV advertising and applications in set-top boxes. The software supports profiling and geographic targeting for video ads. Network operators receive audience measurement and response metrics that include behavioral information

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AOL Eyes Yahoo For Possible Merger

In the wake of Carol Bartz’s ousting, AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong has reportedly reengaged Yahoo about a potential merger.

Armstrong has already held talks with private-equity firms and investment bankers from Allen & Co. that are working with Yahoo, Bloomberg reports, citing sources.

Amid increasing criticism and pressure to right AOL’s ship, Armstrong expressed interest in a merger with Yahoo last year, but was spurned by Bartz.

Last month, Armstrong confirmed retaining two big M&A specialists — investment banker Allen & Co, and law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz — but said there were currently no deals on the table, and that AOL’s strategy had not changed.

Regarding the merger rumors, neither Yahoo or AOL returned requests for comment on Friday. In a Friday tweet, however, CNBC reported that a source close to Yahoo said the company had no interest in a merger.

Whether a merger would improve either company’s prospects is far from certain. For one thing, AOL’s market value — at about $1.6 billion — is currently lower than Yahoo’s $18.2 billion.

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