Can you guess the three items that aren't really accurate? It has certainly been a week of ups, downs and grey areas, so let me dust off my scale and blindfold in order to weigh the positives and negatives of this week's interactive happenings.
First, Google may have missed Wall's Street's expectations, and its stock price may be plummeting, but the company did report this week that its revenues and profits nearly doubled year-over-year.
Second, the search giant may have denied a report that indicated it was looking to buy Napster (sending Napster's stock prices down about 60 percent), but Google is working with VoIP Inc. to put together a "click to call" offering that will allow Google users to make internet calls to companies featured in search results. It may not be an original idea considering the thinking behind eBay's acquisition of Skype not too long ago, but it's the first endeavor in weeks that actually seems to make sense for Google, unlike its forays into newspaper and radio advertising.
Third, adding to Google's woes, the World Association of Newspapers says that Google and other search engines are unfairly exploiting newspaper, magazine and book publishers' content. To remedy the situation, the publishers are hoping to draft some standards and policies soon, but may very well end up seeking legal action to enforce copyright laws.
On the other hand, an Outsell survey recently showed that nearly three quarters (71 percent) of marketers think that Google search ads are effective. Yahoo came in second at 62 percent, and MSN followed with 49 percent. Interestingly enough, advertisers who favored Google as "extremely effective" had smaller marketing budgets of $3.7 million on average, while the budgets of Yahoo and MSN aficionados averaged $4.6 million.
AOL didn't have quite as busy as week as Google did, only unveiling earnings this week, but its no less conflicted. On the one hand, AOL ad revenues went up $333 million in 2005 (33 percent over the year before) thanks in large part for Advertising.com and search revenues. On the other hand, the company reported 10 percent or $722 million less in subscription revenues. Overall, as the subscriber hemorrhage continued, full-year revenue at AOL fell five percent, to $8.3 billion.
Finally, JupiterResearch this week said that the average online consumer spends 14 hours a week online, which is the same amount of time they watch TV. According to the data, even the most intensive users of newspapers and magazines spend less time reading these publications than they do online or watching TV.
Echoing Jupiter, a study released by the Polk Center for Automotive Studies suggests that a whopping 35 percent of first-time vehicle buyers consider the internet to be their most important informational tool, compared to the 8.2 percent who turned to television, 4.4 percent to magazines, 3.6 percent to newspapers and 1.1 percent to radio. On the other hand, it will be a long time before we see online ad spend rivaling offline ad spend, and there is no more painful reminder of that inequality than the Super Bowl, which is commanding $2.5 million for 30 seconds this year.
For a dreamy look into the future, check out this week's Super Bowl In Focus, where iMedia's Executive Editor Brad Berens asks marketers what they would do with that $2.5 million if they didn't have to waste it on one Super Bowl spot.
Ups, downs and general unfairness aside, it's worth mentioning that MSN will be streaming all of the ads from the Super Bowl broadcast starting an hour after the end of the game, and will allow viewers to vote for their favorites. Super Bowl spots will also be available on both ESPN.com and ESPN360 during and after the game. Those ads that didn't make the cut (read: were banned from the airwaves) are already running on Heavy.com. These include a controversial PETA spot and the much-discussed GoDaddy.com ad.
To round things out, since the Super Bowl is the Oscars of the ad industry, I should probably mention that the real Oscars had a huge impact on web traffic this week, following the unveiling of the nominees. And, if traffic is any indication, Brokeback Mountain will be getting many a golden statue in March. According to hitwise, searches for "Brokeback Mountain" were over 57 times more prevalent than the next most searched on nominated movie, "Crash," and over nine times more prevalent than all other nominated movie titles combined. Also, since July 2005, the most searched on nominated actresses included "Keira Knightly," with searches peaking the week of July 16, 2005, "Charlize Theron," peaking Dec. 3, 2005, and "Felicity Huffman," peaking Dec. 17, 2005. For the week ending Jan. 28, 2006, the most searched on nominated actresses were: "Charlize Theron," followed by "Reese Witherspoon" and "Keira Knightly."
Enjoy the game and may the best ads, uh, I mean team win!
iMedia Connection Editor at Large Masha Geller is the founder of interactive marketing and corporate communications consultancy Geller Public Relations in New York. She has been covering the interactive advertising industry since 1999 as the former editor in chief of MediaPost.com, and is a widely-published thought leader in the interactive arena.
