The Challenge for 2009

"You really want to get a headache? Try to understand Internet advertising. Social networking advertising is being discounted because there is so much inventory [of available ad spots], and because methods have not yet been found to make it very effective. Will that get figured out? I absolutely believe it will. What form will it take? Absolutely unknown."

A quote from Bary Diller in the WSJ ( sub required)

This is what we all need to do next year.

Comments

[Malcolm Murdoch]

Like this bit:
WSJ: Newspapers are suffering as advertising moves online. You are a director of Washington Post Co. Do you think newspaper companies will survive?

Mr. Diller: If they call themselves newspaper companies they are probably going to be toast. It will depend absolutely on what the product is. We're still at such an early period to talk about the death of journalism.

[Jeremy]

Great honest quote, and I think your saying you agree we haven't figured it out yet?

[Jeff Palumbo]

You may want to know about UnitedMediaPartners.com. Who has figured it out.

[Dom Rodwell]

This is going to be a huge challenge, and no doubt a rough ride in 2009 as there is bound to be a shakeout of social networks economically.

I think there'll also be something of a social media crash if this year we begin to see any sniff of an online privacy backlash which I think is really going to make itself felt at some point over the next 2-3 years.

In my view this will end up in one of two ways: (a) social networks become depracated and merely end up being facilitators of interaction, or (b) they themselves become the trusted guardians of our data and act as windows upon the rest of the web.

Either way they're not destinations, they're conduits. And advertising within a conduit is surely called a blockage.