CIQ Headlines for May 23, 2007

CIQ Headlines

Americans Spend Half Their Free Time Online— (Center for Media Research) According to this research, the average broadband users spend 40 minutes, or 48% of his or her free time, online. What are they doing? Entertainment and talking to others about entertainment. CIQ: We agree with one of the authors of this report, who says, “Currently, the proportion of advertising resources devoted to the Internet (about seven percent according to ZenithOptimedia) is nominal relative to the value it generates.”

Targeted Ads Are the Future— (Light Reading) Telcos stand to gain by delivering something the cable companies promised, but never delivered: The ability to more precisely serve an ad message based on time, demographic, or psychographic. This, “would be an amazing leap forward,” says one expert.  CIQ: We believe that highly targeted, permission-based advertising is the only way that advertising will be able to survive TiVo and the digital sea change.

Dems Outpace GOP on the Web(Star Tribune) Republican candidates are lagging behind Democrats in their use of the web. Traffic to candidate sites and to MySpace-type profiles is lower for Republicans, as is fundraising online. On explanation is that the very disciplined, top-down message style of the Republican party is ill-suited to the web. CIQ: 2008 may be the year where the web-factor actually influences the outcome of the election.