As marketers have to use more channels for reaching audiences, those who facilitate the aggregation of content -- or as is often the case, the aggregation of audiences -- become more important to the media planning and buying process. And the number of companies offering to do this has grown more numerous as the number of channels and the amount of content carried on them have grown.
iMedia Connection would like to help you make sense of this growing category by providing you a brief summary -- a crib sheet -- of a number of ad networks, mobile advertising providers, and other unique opportunities for you to find these audiences spread out over so many places. Here you will find quick-look information about audiences, targeting capabilities, and unique offerings of a number of these new New Media companies.
Here is the list of networks covered, in alphabetical order by company name:
- Advertising.com
- BlueLithium
- BURST! Media
- Casale Media
- Claria's BehaviorLink
- ClickDiario
- DRIVEpm
- Gorilla Nation Media
- SpecificMEDIA, Inc.
- TACODA
- Third Screen Media
- Tribal Fusion
- 24/7 Real Media
- ValueClick Media/Fastclick
While this list is thorough and, we hope, helpful, it is not exhaustive. There are other ad networks -- some of whom we invited to participate in this special In Focus feature but could not reach by press time. For more coverage on these networks and others, check out iMedia Connection's extensive archive of ad networks feature articles, interviews and other coverage
The ongoing fracture of the media landscape is nothing new. The advertising industry has been talking about it since the advent of cable. With greater choice in the kind of media and content that exists for our consumption, the more specific audiences' demands for content become. The human desire has been refined with atomic precision, and the media landscape is meeting that desire with increasing specificity. It is no longer about a few choices for the millions, but millions of choices for the few.
So let's get started.
Next: Advertising.com
Jim Meskauskas has spent the last ten years working in media at advertising agencies, handling both online and traditional media accounts that ranged from Nestlé Beverage to Amazon.com to Schering-Plough. Most recently he was partner and Chief Strategic Officer with Underscore Marketing. He is also a principal and Vice President of Media with Pericles Consulting, an online political marketing agency, whose clients have included the Bush-Cheney 04 re-election campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Jim is iMedia Connection's Media Strategies Editor.