Here at ILM 09, the BIA Kelsey folks released some fascinating survey stats on sales channels — where local businesses go to spend their online ad dollars. The vast majority, 49%, use self serve to buy search ads. 24% go to yellow pages sales teams. 8% to ad agencies. 8% to newspapers. And 9% go to local TV and radio sales teams, up from 3% the year before. Why the big jump? BIA Kelsey analysts say it may be the broadcast sales teams are finally catching up with online ad products that resonate with local businesses.
Here’s the kicker: BIA Kelsey said of all the different sales channels, businesses say they’d rather work with local TV and radio sales teams. To me, this translates into a big opportunity for broadcasters to retool to become the trusted place for businesses to access all kinds of interactive ad products across many local experiences.


