Understand more about the power of vertical ad networks as digital marketing continues to buck the ad spend freeze by delivering better solutions for publishers.

As a result of the continued global economic concerns, tied in no small part to whisperings of recession in the U.S. and slow consumer spending in the U.K., the advertising market as a whole is once again stagnating with budgets frozen across the board. However, whilst overall budgets have not increased in 2008, the percentage share applied to digital advertising has continued to grow as the number of users with digital access increases (the number of users online increased by 6 per cent across Europe between 2006 -- 2007 [source: The European Interactive Advertising Association]). More importantly however, audience diversity has also continued to grow and allied to the fact that users are visiting a greater range of sites than ever before, the result of this audience fragmentation is that they are proving harder to reach for agencies and their advertisers.

For the major publishing companies, the paradox of a growing digital audience but stagnating unique user base has required an overhaul of their digital strategies. With advertising budgets increasing in the digital sector, the major publishers have had to reassess how they can retain their current market share -- in part, but not solely, to offset the stagnation in the offline advertising market. As a result, and added to the unique market conditions, the next 12 months represent a watershed, or tipping point, as the major European publishers rapidly embrace the concept and commercial necessity that is the vertical ad network.

Major European publishers Reuters, The Guardian, Reed Business Information, Itchy Media Group PLC, Wilmington and Accord are amongst the first media owners to embrace the concept of vertical ad networks across the European market, having signed up with Adify, who focus on vertical online advertising. The fruits of the partnerships will see each publisher launch their own branded networks, sidestepping the issue of audience fragmentation and effectively tapping into the long tail of the internet, which is sure to attract significant interest from the agency community, keen to demonstrate a justifiable ROI in a fluid market.

Other leading European publishers are set to follow suit with as many as three per week signing up with Adify to launch their own branded networks -- a clear indication that the tipping point has been reached. For example, Adify is now powering 91 out of the top 101 vertical ad networks.

By creating bespoke vertical ad networks, based around their core competencies, enterprise publishers can now offer agencies and their advertisers the ability to create high quality, targeted campaigns across multiple handpicked sites but only create one insertion order, scrutinise one report and only pay one invoice. Thus making the agencies job easier, quicker and far more cost effective.

Rob Proctor is head of business development EMEA, Adify.