Nearly Two-Thirds of SMB Advertisers Express Willingness to Buy Online Vertical Advertising

CHANTILLY, Va., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- While only 5 percent of small and medium-sized businesses say they currently advertise in online vertical directories, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) express a willingness to buy online vertical directory ads, according to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor study. It is this local vertical advertising opportunity that will be the focus of BIA/Kelsey's upcoming Marketplaces 2010 conference (www.kelseygroup.com/marketplaces2010), which takes place March 22-24 in San Diego.

"More than half a billion dollars have recently poured into the local vertical media and advertising space," said Peter Krasilovsky, vice president and program director, Marketplaces, BIA/Kelsey. "At Marketplaces, we'll take a close look at the market opportunity in verticals, and we'll hear from the companies that are successfully using vertical approaches in search and content to drive audiences and value."

The Marketplaces 2010 program will feature more than 50 influential executives from across local media, vertical sites and services, including five keynote addresses by Jon Brod, Executive VP, AOL Ventures; Jay Herratti, CEO, Citysearch; Andrew Mason, Founder and CEO, Groupon; Sam Sebastian, Director, Local & B2B Markets, Google; and Craig Smith, CEO, ServiceMagic.

The conference will also include 11 general sessions, a bonus pre-conference session devoted to the latest tools for marketplaces success and a SuperForum focused on the mobile vertical space.

Marketplaces' "Mobile Vertical SuperForum" is a fast-paced series of micro-sessions on the rapidly changing mobile vertical landscape. The SuperForum will include a mobile kick-off address, product demos and deep discussions around the growing opportunities in mobile. Companies participating in the Mobile Vertical SuperForum include Big in Japan (ShopSavvy), CallSpark, LocalAdXchange, Loopt, MoVoxx, OpenTable, RepairPal and Yelp.

Highlights from the conference agenda include:

• Vertical Ad Networks Revisited
• Applying Social Media to Vertical Marketplaces
• The Engines of Vertical Search
• The New Content Aggregators
• Small Business Marketplaces
• The New City Guides
• The New Directory/Marketplace Plays
• Back to Square One: Refocus on Revenues

Conference sponsors include Acxiom, AgendiZe, Amdocs, Local.com, Local Matters and Localeze. Groupon is the promotional partner for Marketplaces. Association partners are Association of Directory Publishers (ADP), Great Outdoor Network (GON), International Classified Media Association (ICMA), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). The conference media partner is the Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIM Group). For more information on Marketplaces 2010, visit www.kelseygroup.com/marketplaces2010.  

About Local Commerce Monitor

Local Commerce Monitor is BIA/Kelsey's annual tracking survey of small and medium-sized businesses, conducted with research partner ConStat since 1999. The survey measures where SMBs are spending their advertising and promotional budgets and how their media usage and spending habits are evolving. Local Commerce Monitor draws its sample of business respondents from a mix of nationally scoped MSAs, which include first- and second-tier markets. Local Commerce Monitor Wave XIII was conducted in August 2009 via an online survey of 302 SMBs.

About BIA/Kelsey

BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through consulting and valuation services, research, Continuous Advisory Services and conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directory markets, as well as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey's annual conferences draw executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com. The company's blogs are located at http://blog.bia.com/bia/ and http://blog.kelseygroup.com/, and it can be found on Twitter through http://twitter.com/BIAKelsey.

SOURCE BIA/Kelsey

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