While conducting some research today on local advertising, I came across a great article that exposes the almost sold out local advertising spots for Superbowl.  Superbowl XLII will be played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.  The price of advertising has skyrocketed for local advertising during the Superbowl because it is the first time in 7 years a New York team has made it to the Superbowl.  Additionally, this will allow TV Stations in the area to raise advertising rates for 2008 because of the surge of viewers watching during this time.  And this does not include the future increase in pricing if the New York Giants win. 

So I went to Phoenix.com and Glendale.com as any good geo domainer would do to see how they were taking advantage of this lottery location from the football heavens.  And low and behold, they are operated by companies.  Nothing on their sites selling any merchandise, hotel reservations, car rentals, or advertisments for this unique event.  Millions of visitors are typing Phoenix.com and Glendale.com into their browser bar for additional information on the local area and the Superbowl since the location was announced.  What do they find, nothing, absolutely nothing.  It is expected that there will be over 90 million viewers watching the superbowl.  Just imagine how many consumers are typing these addresses into their browser bar.  I imagine record breaking traffic for a city.com name. 

While it is great for the two companies who own these elite names to get exposure on their services, it is plain stupid to not capitalize on this once in a lifetime event to take in millions of dollars in advertising revenue to add to their bottom line.  It is safe to say that if a geo domainer owned one of these geo names, they would have earned a couple of million dollars just in the month leading to the Superbowl.  Of course advertising revenue would increase after the event as consumers found what they needed on the site and would return.  Additionally, some other major events are taking place at the same location that will draw thousands more to the same domains; Fiesta Bowl, as well as the BCS National College Football Championship

Simply amazing how millions of dollars have been left on the table for this once in a lifetime event.  City.com owners are siting on gold mines.  With the right blast of dynamite, they will hit the jackpot and scream “EUREKA, I/WE STROKE GOLD!”     

(via cranesnewyork.com) 

The first Super Bowl in seven years to feature a New York team is expected to score even higher than the usual blockbuster ratings. The matchup between the underdog New York Giants and the unbeaten New England Patriots has already increased the number of listeners of sports radio programs and sent television station managers scurrying to add more game-related coverage.

But the big winner in the local Super Bowl advertising sweepstakes will be WNYW, Channel 5.

In addition to its extensive pregame coverage, the Fox-owned station has inserted four hours of specials leading up to the game in Phoenix on Sunday.

Media observers say that with the writers’ strike causing a shortage of first-run shows, advertisers are more eager than ever to take part in Super Bowl programming. Having the Giants in the game is more icing on the cake.

“Fox is in the right place at the right time,” says Mary Barnas, director of local media at Carat. “We have a local team that hasn’t been in the Super Bowl in a while, it’s first-run programming and it’s exciting.”

Channel 5 is making no secret of its glee about the Giants.

“It’s like hitting the Lotto,” General Manager Lew Leone said in a press release announcing the programming changes, which include moving anchors and reporters to Phoenix for most of the week.

Came across this article today written by Greg Sterling that contains a good overview on Local Advertising in 2008.

Many people I speak to still ask the familiar question, “Is this going to be the breakout year for local?” while expressing frustration or disappointment that “local hasn’t yet lived up to expectations.” But local is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s also more complex than the general search market, which features an ecosystem built around a small number of large and highly visible companies. Even though many of those same companies are focused on local, one could almost flip that equation when discussing the local internet: it’s about a very large number of mostly small companies.

In the spirit of that “Is this the year?” question, I thought that for the first Locals Only column of 2008, it’s worth taking stock of where we are and what the coming year likely holds for local.

Internet now a primary medium for local consumers
Study after study has confirmed that consumers research products before buying (mostly offline). However, perhaps more strikingly, the internet has now surpassed the venerable print yellow pages and newspapers as the primary local resource for consumers looking for services. This is not to say that print newspapers and yellow pages don’t have meaningful usage anymore, but we’ve reached an important “tipping point” of sorts.

The two studies that independently reflected this shift in 2007 this were from TMP Directional Marketing-comScore and WebVisibile-Nielsen. Both studies showed search and/or the Internet generally as the medium with the greatest reach among U.S. consumers for local information:

Accordingly, the internet is now a critical consumer resource that drives increasing volumes of offline (local) transactions, whether for products or services.

More product inventory information coming online
Though it’s uneven and not always accurate, the depth and volume of product inventory information online is gaining. There have been tremendous strides over the past couple of years and this year should see local inventory information become even more common and widely proliferated online (and in mobile). More retailers are adding popular “buy online, pick up in store” capabilities. This requires a real-time inventory database, which can then support syndication and distribution of that information. Furthermore, a growing list of companies is making headway on the problem of helping consumers find where they can buy desired products locally. As I’ve written before, this expanding group includes: ShopLocal, TheFind, StepUp/Intuit, NearbyNow, Krillion, Where2GetIt, Channel Intelligence, Yokel, GPShopper, AskTheLocal and a few others.

(MORE)

How effective would online TV and video ads be on geo domains?  With a large amount of targeted traffic, I would conclude they would do better than TV, banner and link advertisements.  How would you go about getting the local businesses to place their TV ad on your geo domain?  This is oviously an additional revenue stream for geopreneurs.  Here is a study I came across (via techcrunch.com) that got me thinking of the multiple possibilities of video ads on geo domains.

“A new study by Simmons, a unit of Experian Research Services has found that consumers are 47% more engadged by ads that run with television programs viewed online than those watched on a TV set.

The study also found that viewers are 25% more engaged in the content of TV shows that they watch online than on a TV, are 18% more engaged in ads online, as opposed to print versions (magazines etc), and they are 15% more engaged in magazine articles online than in print form.”

A partnership would have to be established with local Ad/Media companys.  Additionally, a platform should exist for small business owners with limited cashflow to construct their own video ads either thru your site or an affiliate to ensure you capture every angle.  Interesting concept, have any of the city.com owners pursued this avenue yet?  

Geopreneurs, what are your thoughts on this?

Steve

Here is another blog article focusing on local advertising from an expert with a twist of domains. This is a excerpt from Greg Sterlings Blog.

”Here are the top-level findings reflected in the release:

63% currently advertise in a printed Yellow Pages directory, the most commonly named form of advertising among the respondents by nearly a 2-to-1 margin

Small businesses ranked the printed yellow pages first as the medium that generates the most calls from potential customers

About 53% said they expect to buy online ads featuring videos within the next couple of years

About 23% advertise online currently, and two-thirds have their own Web site

More findings:

20% expect to spend more on Internet Yellow Pages

38% expect to spend more on Internet banner ads

43% said they spent more on keyword-search traffic this year compared with last year, and 34% expect to keep increasing that spending next year”

As you can see, small businesses plan to spend much more on local keyword-search traffic next year. Geo domains will contain these keywords they will be paying for. There will be alot of deals established with these types of advertisers and geo domain owners in 2008 as businesses now understand the value of a targetted geo domain name. Read more on the article.

Enjoy!

 

Here is an article that AssociatedCities.com published recently on local advertising forecasts for 2008. An eye opener for many on the data presented by the Borrell Study.

“Driving most of the growth is the popularity of local search and online video advertising,” the Borrell study said. “Local search advertising will more than double [in 2008] to $5 billion while locally placed online video will triple to almost $1.3 billion.”

Another article Labeled: No Slow down in ad spending on the internet.

In 2008, I believe we will see geo domains rise in value, turn into revenue generating machines, and sell more often to end users than traditional generic domains. It will be an exciting year for the geo domain niche, especially if your niches are cars, realestate or recruitment.

Steve