Why $4+ Billion In Online Ad Revs is nothing.
- November 15th, 2006 /
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released 3Q 2006 ad revenue figures which have broken a new record of nearly $4.1 billion, but this number shouldn’t surprise any of us. Of course, ad revenues continue to climb. Just look around, YouTube is huge, blogs are exploding, and podcasts are getting more popular than ever (and all of it is content ripe for attaching ads to it). These aren’t fads; this is the future.
We are all creating content and putting it online, the creation of which requires thought and investment on behalf of the creator. The fact that we are taking the time and proving our intent says two things about us:
- Everyone has something to say and will say it given the opportunity and the motivation.
- Everyone has someone who’ll listen because the online universe is massive so chances are there’s an audience out there who’ll catch what you’re pitching.
Advertising is a representation of adoption
The reason I think the $4+ billion number is nothing is because of what I refer to as Web 0.0. 0.0 are people like my parents who do just fine without a computer. They still send letters via postal mail, read newspapers as their primary source of news and information, and demonstrate an aversion to technology. The record-breaking growth of ad revenues is just an indication that more and more of us will go online, records will continue to break, and my parents will be contributing to that number one day whether they realize it or not.
The Web is invasive and shrewd and cuddly
Ok, this is a thought that would freak my parents out, but the Web is everywhere. It’s cheap, so advertisers are pushing it hard to get in front of our eyes, and this competitive environment breeds innovation. Marketers are going to figure out how to get people like my parents to engage, not to mention how to get people like me to plug in even more. There’s a softer side of the Web, too. The myspace crowd, although somewhat cliquish, wants to be connected to as many other people as possible. In this sense, they are cheering my parents online just as much as the advertisers.
The strata of adoption is deep
I consider myself to be fairly proficient in Web 2.0, which is my way of saying that I’m online most of the day. My parents are 0.0, but in some ways I think the generation just behind my (and I mean right on my heels) is more than 2.0. In many ways, the myspace generation is very 3.0, where I work online for most of the day, they are living online. But my point is that no matter if you’re 0.0 or 3.0, we’re all components; we’re all plugged into the Matrix; we’re all members of the same ecosystem. Those of us already online are contributing to its growth, and everyone not plugged-in will inevitably contribute one day.
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Nov 15, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Applause to Voodoo for going the extra mile with each entry in this blog. These posts really have some content. Most blog’s are written for the sake of just writing one.
Nov 15, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Thanks Blake, that means a lot. We’re trying, want to share, learn and grow. We’re learning every day, but this is a lot of fun.
Chris