Amidst all of the hype about SEM, a panel at OMMA East tackled the issue of the "black magic" art of SEO. (Mediapost) Unlike SEM, SEO is more difficult to sell – because the results/benefits are more… amorphous. But marketers/clients need to learn how to articulate/understand the importance/benefits of SEO, lest their site (or their client’s site) suffers.

Jupiter Research released a report that projects local online advertising (mostly classifieds and paid search)to increase 26% over 2004 – to $3.2 billion. (Clickz) That same report projects the local sector to grow to $5.3 billion by 2010.

Borell Associates also released a report on the online local ad sector – projecting 2005 revenue at $4.1 billion. (Clickz) BA’s five year projections have online local advertising surging to $8.6 billion.

First of all, do you know how hard it is to find a PG picture of Pamela Anderson? Try it yourself – type "Pamela Anderson" into Google. You won’t be the only one – "Pamela Anderson" is the most popular Internet search term on Lycos over the last 10 years (eMarketer).

TV is coming to your cell phone – both live and video on demand. Some say it’ll be 3-5 years until it’s mainsteam – but in fact, it is already here. Check out this Wall Street Journal article.

If you follow this blog regularly – you’ll find that there are a lot of content sources that require "free registration" - LA TImes, New York Times, MediaPost, Ad Week, Ad Age, etc. Anyway, you may already know about BugMeNot – which was created as:

"…a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that
require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information."

I’m going to start checking it out. Could present problems for marketers if this catches on…

EDIT: Looks like there’s already an "Internet Advertiser Wakeup Day" petition – with 1,195 signatures to date. Signers of the petition are commiting to register fake names/demographic data on "the top 10 offending sites" on November 13, 2005.

Mediapost reports that research company Borrell Associates, Inc. released a report ("2006 Outlook: Local Online Growth Continues–for Some") finding:

• Local online ad spending is projected to climb from $3.73 billion in 2005 to $4.78 billion in 2006
• Paid Local Search is projected to nearly triple – from $347 million in 2005 to $907 million in 2006
• Paid Local Search is projected to hit $4.07 billion by 2010 of a $34.1 billion online ad market

Jupiter Research released a study that finds that "Paid Search" (currently 34% of total online ad sepnding), will draw even with "Display" advertising by 2009 and surpass "Display" by 2010. The projections for 2010 forecast "Paid Search" as 40% of total. (Clickz)

Clark Kokich has been named new worldwide President of Avenue A/Razorfish – sign that the agencies are now fully-integrated? According to Mediapost, emerging media (VOD and IPTV) is going to be a primary focus. 

Nielsen//NetRatings’ AdRelevance released findings that impressions were up 9% in August – marking the fifth consecutive month of growth. (Mediapost) Wonder what’s on tap for Q4?

Mimicking the partial-stake strategy of their partial-parent (MDC Partners), CP+B has bought into a SF-based design studio – Fuseproject. (Ad Week)