iMedia's new VP of Market Intelligence talks with us about the big new broadband report and Wednesday's "Broadband Breakfast" in Chicago.

This month will mark the release of an extensive report produced by iMedia and presented by Advertising Age: "The Rise of Broadband and Implications to Marketers and Advertisers." It is the first publication from a new iMedia division, iMedia Reports, providing quarterly releases on the most important topics facing the interactive marketing industry. What sets iMedia Reports apart are their in-depth interviews with top industry minds that provide clear advice and insights for marketers.

What's the next topic for iMedia Reports? Behavioral Marketing.

Chicago Alert! iMedia's new vice president of Market Intelligence, Neil Perry will discuss top findings from "The Rise of Broadband" at a breakfast briefing at Swissotel Chicago this Wednesday. Seating is already tight, so click here to reserve a spot while you still can!

Neil Perry took time away from his preparations to sit down with iMediaConnection to discuss highlights of the report and preview Wednesday's event.

iMedia: Tell us about your decision to join iMedia and what your new role involves.

Neil Perry: I have been working with iMedia pretty consistently now for some time as a marketing consultant. In addition to liking the people at iMedia a lot, I really liked what they were doing for the industry. When the opportunity came along, it seemed like a perfect fit for my desire to be an evangelist for the interactive world, and now working for the company that positions itself as the leading nationwide advocate for interactive. My work will include leadership in two areas: iMedia Reports and the iMedia Video Magazines.

iMedia: Let's talk Reports. iMedia Reports' first release is "The Rise of Broadband and Implications to Marketers and Advertisers." Why broadband? What's there to know?

Perry: That's the whole point. Most marketers don't understand how fundamental an impact broadband has on the online advertising environment. And with rapid adoption of broadband by the public, it's important that online advertisers understand how to approach and take advantage of these higher connection speeds, and all that it offers to marketing professionals. It's not too late either. In a few months it may be, but we found that now is the right time for advertisers to start taking advantage of the strengths of this evolving medium.

iMedia: What are some of the major findings of this report?

Perry: There are a number of major findings. So many that it's difficult to identify just a couple. A lot has changed because of broadband. We could talk about major findings about audience size, what the audience is doing and how broadband makes audiences so favorable for advertisers. We could also talk about rising ad formats, new sponsorship opportunities and much, much more.

But if I were to pick a few, one of the big ones would be the number of ads that broadband users consume. Most of us know that broadband penetration is around 55 percent, but that doesn't mean they get half of the ad impressions. They get a lot more. Did you know that four out of five ads are served to broadband users?

Through our research, we also found studies that show online video is just as strong as television for branding. That's huge. So is the fact that internet ad dollars are definitely coming from television pool.

The growing dominance of rich media, that's another big finding. We discussed a report that predicts rich media will be bigger than search in a few years. And we found that a lot of insiders agree, and they believe broadband is the big catalyst. Ads are quickly evolving from motionless banners to much better rich media creative and that's significant because of how much more successful rich media performs.

Another big finding had to do with the access point. We found a big shift from access at work to access at home, and this is very important for marketers to understand. According to executives at AOL and elsewhere, the shifting access point changes what content users are requesting and their overall behavior varies dramatically as well. Advertisers need to understand this.

Now, the biggest finding was a little word that came up again and again: more. People are online more often, visiting more sites, requesting more pages, seeing more ads, spending more money, spending more time online, going online more frequently… more, more, more. If you're an advertiser, you need to understand this and hear about the ways "more" is affecting the biggest advertising budgets.

iMedia: How is this report different than the rest?

Perry: What makes the iMedia broadband report different is that it's more than a compilation of stats, charts or graphs. We have those, but we go a lot further. This report is more a collection of interviews, conversations and advice from all corners of the interactive marketing industry: publishers, ad agencies, brand marketers, research companies and rich media vendors.

iMedia: What can attendees expect on Wednesday in Chicago?

Perry: Expect a full house. You need to register soon. We've gotten a lot of response and the seats are filling up fast.

If you make it in, we're going to discuss some of the top-line findings in detail, single out some examples from big names in the industry and look at some verticals where broadband has really changed advertising. We'll discuss the shifting access point, a great interview with AOL, some of Jeff Cole's findings on the broadband audience, rich media's growth and plenty of other examples.

Additional resources:

Request an invitation for Wednesday's breakfast

Learn more about the iMedia Broadband Report

Neil Perry joins iMedia as VP of Market Intelligence