BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Adapting to the world of digital marketing has proved slow going for many marketers who are struggling to keep their businesses in step with the times, according to recent reports in online and print publications.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal reports that making the digital jump is one of the main topics being discussed at the Association of National Advertisers conference going on this week in Phoenix.

The "Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010" study, which will be released at the conference, states that "'digital marketing still lags the shift in consumer behavior' prompted by the Internet." The Wall Street Journal also writes that "the findings indicate that while 'eight in 10 Americans are now online" and spend as much time on the Web as on TV, most marketers allocate only 5%-10% of their ad budgets to digital media."

Only 24% of the companies polled for the study considered their businesses "digitally savvy", with "lack of experience in new media" and a "dearth of digital talent" among the reasons given for the marketers' own estimation of their digital unpreparedness.

Still, a report from Online Media Daily says that "more than 90% of the 250-plus marketers surveyed... say they plan to increase their digital spending."

According to the Wall Street Journal article, "Another roadblock slowing the flow of ad dollars to the digital side is uncertainty about how to measure the return on investment... Marketers complain about the big disparities between research companies in how they track audience measurement on the Web. Top industry trade groups such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau have asked measurement companies to remedy the problem."

The Wall Street Journal also reports that attendance this year jumped by 25%, perhaps a sign that marketers at-large are attempting to keep pace with the rapidly expanding digital ad opportunities.

Key findings from the report, as identified by the Online Media Daily article, include the fact that "technology enhances targeting capability and 80% of marketers surveyed place a high importance on behavioral targeting."

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From IBLNews.com: "Basic terrestrial radio might be the last of the truly 'free' media available, requiring no costly equipment, content subscriptions or on-demand fees. But local ad revenues have been eroding and the industry is fighting to respond to satellite radio, Internet radio and downloads, MP3, a music industry in chaos, new radio HD technology, and competition from multiple new sources... What to do?

"Dan Mason, president of CBS Radio division has said: 'For years we tried to figure out how to make the product compatible for the audience, but the issue was the platform, not the content. In the near future, every radio station will have the ability to become a TV station. We will see webcast and webisodes. There’s no reason we can’t have our own webcast shows with talent...'

"One example of the radio trying to be visualized through the Internet is CBS' 670 The Score, who has partnered with Paltalk to enable listeners to participate in live, interactive video streams of the station’s popular weekday sports talk shows. Listeners can see the on-air personalities live in the studio as well as other listeners who are streaming video of themselves. In addition, listeners interact with the hosts and each other through text, audio and video."

Read this entire story in IBLNews.com here.

Here's feedback on our coverage of the recent Arbitron report on Internet radio listening (here)...

"Here's the last 6 months of cume growth for all Ando stations..."

Here's the last 6 months of CUME growth for all Ando measured stations by month.

"Their loss for sure..."

I agree there is a large unreported on-line listenership for full time (no blackouts) stations.

We recently had to drop the "Dr. Demento" show when the syndicator wanted us to stop streaming the show. Their loss for sure. We have a small but loyal streaming base which swells a hundred fold during our webcasts of NAU football.

Thanks for your reports.

"A little bit too shady to get my respect..."

iHeard.com search engine for radio and Internet radio is behaving rather poorly in that while it wraps stations' streams so they can be played from their site, at no time do they ever link back to the original website. At most they link to station's other direct tune-in links for media players, but never to station websites from what I have seen.

If you ask me, it's a bit of an exploitation that omits the reference. At least with YouTube if you post a video on your site it still says YouTube on it visually. With radio all you get is your station IDs. Just a little bit too shady to get my respect.

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