Online Advertising and Reluctance

Scott Karp discusses in his blog, Publishing 2.0, a new report from McKinsey & Co. about advertiser behavior. The report concludes that advertisers are reluctant to spend ad dollars online because of the "absence of meaningful metrics and adequate capabilities."

As Karp notes, the metrics excuse is unfounded. It is only when advertisers rely on models designed for other mediums that the metrics are unreliable. When a platform like Google Gadget ads is used, the metrics are extremely accurate.

Karp writes: "The reality is that the attitudes expressed in the McKinsey report are all a smoke screen, intended to protect vested interests and organizations adapted to static media models, which went unchanged for decades, and not the dynamic innovation of the web. But they can’t deny that the future of advertising and marketing is online."

With a webcast, we can tell you who registered, who watched, for how long did they watch, what questions did they ask, how did they respond to live polls, how did they respond to post-event surveys, what browser they used, what player they used, was it Windows Media 9 or Windows Media 10, etc.

I would say those metrics lead to a straight-forward calculation of ROI.