Stations Seen Winning With Localism

BIA/Kelsey today released its top five trends and industry developments to watch in 2010 in interactive local media, mobile local media, broadcast, global Yellow Pages and vertical directories and classifieds. These predictions were drawn from analysis of more than three-dozen anticipated developments the firm provided to clients of its Continuous Advisory Services.

"For some time now, BIA/Kelsey analysts have been predicting that 2010 will be a watershed year," said Neal Polachek, president, BIA/Kelsey. "As the economy inches toward recovery and digital media continue to gain ground aided by mobile and social momentum, 2010 will certainly be a pivotal year to track."

The top five predictions for 2010 are outlined below.

Broadcasters win with localism -- The top prediction from Digital Strategies for Broadcasters, BIA/Kelsey's new Continuous Advisory Service, suggests local broadcasters have three incredibly valuable assets: local brands, local content and local sales forces. DSB analysts are advising clients to expect to see some creative broadcasters bringing these assets together in very compelling business models.

The return of a competitive search market -- BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media analysts believe the next two years will fundamentally alter the local media market landscape, based on the thesis that the economic implosion over the past year and a half will irrevocably change advertiser behavior. The ILM team's top prediction is the return of a competitive search market. They have advised their clients to expect traffic acquisition costs to start to rise. If AOL moves to the Bing camp, the "tri-search-fecta" of Bing-Yahoo-AOL brand would be a competitive one.

Location, location, location -- BIA/Kelsey's Mobile Local Media analysts believe the mix of technology, usage and advertiser trends will further define the pace and change of mobile media and affirm the core role mobile will play in the $140 billion local media industry. In 2010 the MLM analyst team predicts location and geo-targeted advertising will represent a long-elusive revenue stream for Twitter and for third parties that mash up Twitter streams and location data. Also expect Facebook to integrate automatic location detection into the status updates that have become central to its user experience.

Mobile monetization takes hold -- Analysts from BIA/Kelsey's The Kelsey Report believe the level of urgency for Yellow Pages publishers to diversify their mix of revenues and re-engineer their sales organizations is at its peak. Look for publishers to begin testing discrete monetization paths for their mobile search products. These will range from discrete landing pages to pay per call. The dollars will be small, but publishers will want to see how they are embraced by the sales channel and reps. They will also want to understand which approaches deliver value and which do not.

Newfangled ad networks begin to monetize hyperlocal -- Despite the general devaluation of ad networks and the impact of a poor economy, BIA/Kelsey's Marketplaces analysts believe vertical ad networks hold a great deal of promise. The vertical opportunities in marketplaces appear to be the sector of the Internet economy where many of the biggest opportunities lie. New vertical combinations could provide a certain amount of sustaining revenues from emerging players, such as networks of hyperlocal sites and local/lifestyle networks. Marketplaces analysts will be watching for agencies to ask for alternative online distribution and to put up the bucks.