Below are two interesting articles, each taking a different stand on display banner advertising:

• 5 Unalarming Stats About Banner Ads  – Article For Banner Advertising

• Summary: Companies continue shelling out big dollars each year on banner advertising, despite the fact no one clicks on them, because they can still bring in positive ROI. Uses pretty mindless examples to make the point, but the point is still made…

• Summary: Banners are a waste of money because no one ever sees them and they are not impactful enough, blah blah blah…

So which article makes the best case?  In my humble opinion, they both make some decent observations.  However, the imbecile behind the article against banner advertising is missing the point.  The purpose of online banners is never “impact”.  TV commercials can definitely be more impactful and yes, it is more common to hear people discuss the latest cool television ad than it is to speak of the last cool banner ad they’ve seen.  Talking about an ad is one thing but resulting in a sale is a completely other thing.  I may talk to friends about the last impactful TV spots I have seen, but that doesn’t mean I am going out to buy a Fiat or Axe Body Spray any time soon (hey, don’t judge my definition of impact).

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The New “Marketing Technology” LUMAscape Underscores the Complexity of Evolving Your Internal Technology Marketing Platforms

At Just Media, we have the pleasure of working with a variety of marketers across a multitude of industries: B2B Tech, Consumer Tech, Healthcare / Life Sciences, Financial Services, Human Capital Management, Energy, etc. However, they all face the same challenge – evolving internal marketing technologies to optimize, measure and track the flow of users from inquiry/interest through revenue generation. Only a select few have it nailed. In looking at the new “Marketing Technology” LUMAscape, it’s easy to see why. It’s simply overwhelming, some might even say depressing.

And guess what?  Internal marketing technologies are just the tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t take into account all of the equally daunting 3rd-party marketing technologies that deliver bigger and better ways to target users through outbound marketing. For that, have fun navigating all of the other LUMAscapes. Yes, there’s Display, Search, Video, Mobile and Social, just to name a few.

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Native advertising has been the latest buzz lately in the world of advertising.  It has been around for years, but now more and more brands are adopting this media and breaking through the clutter of banner ads, that at times can be somewhat intrusive or completely ignored.

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Initially I wanted to discuss some of the limitations with measuring mobile ad performance, but while digging into the subject, I uncovered some very interesting info. Before today, I was under the impression that we could only track clicks and that was the furthest engagement we could track. However, I’ve discovered that we can actually track much beyond that. With traditional display, we have the ability to track post click and post impression activity, which provides us insight about brand awareness and brand engagement. I came across a company called InMobi and they have a solution called “InMobi Ad Tracker” which is a conversion tracking platform that helps you track the post-click conversions of your mobile web and app campaigns across all your advertising channels.

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Amid tremendous growth for the independent media agency, Just Media continues to build world-class team capable of outpacing larger networked agencies in specialty arenas.

Emeryville, CA – Just Media today announced the addition of Patrick Fenton as Director of Media Operations. Mr. Fenton is tasked with further evolving Just Media’s operations between the growing analytics, media and partnership development teams to ensure the best possible execution for clients. In the past 6 months, Just Media has landed 14 new accounts.

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More than 90 years after its introduction as a commercial medium, radio is still known for its broad reach. To this day, approximately 92% of consumers age 12 years or older listen to radio each week. Radio is unique in its ability to reach consumers on-air, on-site and on-demand – - whether they are at home, at work or in their car.

Like the rest of the media world, radio is experiencing unprecedented change at warp speeds, and the dollars that are shifting to new platforms are not going to return to traditional media. The Radio Advertising Bureau in February reported total 2012 revenues (including over-the-air and digital) totaled $16.5 billion a 1% increase over 2011.  Digital accounted for $767 million (8%) of the radio industry’s total revenue.  A report from BIA/Kelsey indicates radio station’s revenue mix will continue to shift and income from online advertising is expected to rise at a rate of 10.8% annually over the next five years versus 2.5% for over-the-air.

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Priorities are always changing and the media landscape is ever-evolving. I am an ardent believer that it is extremely valuable to watch and learn from what other media vehicles are innovating. When it comes to innovating the way ads are served, there seems to be a gap between digital and traditional media.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are innovations taking place in traditional media side in regards to market research. A good example is radio’s transition from diary to PPM or out-of-home’s eyes-on research. While innovations in market research are great, what about in innovating the way some mediums are bought? Maybe I don’t necessarily want to target a specific demo, or a specific daypart, but instead want to target someone who is being exposed to content relevant to my business or product offering?

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March has become synonymous with the word Madness, as college basketball fans of all varying degrees tune into the annual tournament.  This also attracts the casual fan as they are attracted to the hype around the tournament.  With a huge audience paying close attention to the tournament, advertisers have the chance to reach over 181 million viewers who tune in.  Fans spend countless hours on social media talking about March Madness.  Between social media and television ad spots, advertisers have the chance to bring an influx of awareness to their brand through March Madness.

Companies are spending more these days on March Madness ad buys than on Super Bowl ad buys.  At the beginning of the tournament, total TV ad revenue surpassed $1 billion, making it the first time any sport has hit $1 billion for their post-season event.   With more playoff games than the Super Bowl, March Madness allows for more ad spots.  The post-season for the NFL reached $976 million in total TV ad spending, $537 million for NBA’s post-season, and $354 million for the MLB post-season.  March Madness ad buys went for $1.4M per 30-second commercial spot.  March Madness ads are beginning to rival that of the Super Bowl, where ads went for up to $3.8M per 30-second spot.   At lower costs per ad buys and more games, Companies are able to reach more for their money with March Madness over the course of the month.

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At the on-set of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and his team constantly questioned the place of advertisements on Facebook. With Facebook just beginning to gain momentum with college students, they feared that introducing advertisements too early on in the development would be a turn off and ruin Facebook’s “coolness” factor. 9 years later, with Facebook being the most popular social media site and with over one billion users, I think we can all agree that the site does not have to fear the use of advertisements anymore.  In fact, they’ve actually been ramping up delivery of ads over the few past months.  With the announcement of a new layout, Facebook user’s can expect to be hit with new ads as they browse news feeds and connection timelines.

Beginning last year, Facebook rolled out Exchange Ads which allowed marketers to show ads to users based on their online browsing history by using cookies.  Exchange Ads proved to be very effective and performed the strongest out of all the Facebook ad units.  This was successful because marketers were showing Facebook users ads that they were already interested in.   Case in point, cell phone companies such as Samsung or Apple would be able to reach their target audience by showing their ads to Facebook to users who were recently browsing cell phone brands online.

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Last week, Just Media CEO Dick Reed moderated a Panel Discussion with leading B2B Adtech players.  These data players included Retargeter, Adroll, and Demandbase.  They faced off to discuss the latest and greatest offerings in data-driven B2B advertising and go over strategies that organizations can undertake now to leverage data to enhance display advertising, reduce waste, and deliver more meaningful results than ever before.

View the archived footage here: B2B Advertising Summit.