Outlook for local online advertising in ‘08

Cory Bergman January 1st, 2008

ClickZ has a good article about local online advertising growth moving into ‘08. Shawn Riegsecker, president of Centro, says small and mid-sized businesses are probably “four years away” from investing in local display ads. “Out of the gates, the first spending people do on the web is pay-for-performance and search marketing,” said Riegsecker. But he said that ‘08 looks good for supermarkets, banks, hospitals and tire dealer chains. Yet local media companies, as Borrell asserted in its last report, must become more sophisticated with online sales and invest in dedicated online sales teams. Local media consultant Peter Krasilovsky warns that local media companies need to offer comprehensive Google-like reports for their advertisers or “be out of the picture by the end of the year.” All good points, and as LR readers know, I believe there’s a shakeup coming in local advertising, especially for TV stations. I wrote about it and the last Borrell report a few weeks ago here.