New CEO Scott Klein presented Idearc Media’s first-half results and previewed his plans for reorganizing and reenergizing the company. The main theme of the presentation was a “Journey of Transformation,” which is truly what Idearc needs based on the results of Klein’s eight-week evaluation of the organization and its second-quarter results released today.
Financially, the …

TKG’s recently completed Global Yellow Pages and Local Search Forecast underpinned most of the discussion at last week’s Local Online Media: London 08. Today it launches officially.
Each year the forecast measures the size of the local search industry and applies the most current analysis of trends to project growth of key segments. These have included …

Nearly 100 executives in The Kelsey Group community participated in a half-day session that we hosted in London titled Local Online Media. The panel I moderated was “The Financial Future of Directories and Local Search in Europe.” The panelists were Paul Gooden, equity analyst, ABN AMRO, and Paul Kuipers, director, media and telecom corporate finance, …

The Kelsey Group has generated considerable attention (and some confusion) in the media and on the blogosphere from a statement that appeared in an Advisory issued by our Marketplaces program on Jan. 4 offering picks and predictions for 2008 (each TKG research practice issued a similar document).
The statement in question reads as follows (referring …

A year ago, my colleagues Neal Polachek and Charles Laughlin predicted that Internet Yellow Pages as a percentage of total U.S. Yellow Pages revenues would climb from about 6 percent in 2006 to 24 percent in 2011. While the base is higher in most coutries outside the U.S., the trend is the same. The issue becomes whether the convenience …

Since at least 1997, when we gave a presentation at the YPA annual conference titled “Six Trends that Will Change the Yellow Pages Industry,” we have been making forecasts and predictions about our market coverage areas. Tomorrow the program directors and senior analysts responsible for our three businesses will once again make predictions for how …

2007 U.S. advertising spending is expected to grow just 0.7 percent over 2006 to US$283.8 billion, according to McCann Erickson’s well-respected advertising forecaster, Robert Coen. In his biannual Insider’s Report, Coen downgraded his 2007 forecast for the second time in a year. In his June 2007 Insider’s Report, Coen forecasted a 3.1 percent increase over 2006, and …

It is hard for me to comprehend, but we are finally finished with ILM:07. We were grateful to have had 650 interesting and enthusiastic attendees from all over the world, 72 stimulating speakers, a full load of sponsors and an excellent partnership with SES.
Our next conference, April 30-May 2 at the Westin in Seattle, will …

Stuart McKelvey, president and CEO of TMP Directional Marketing, gave ILM:07 attendees a second look at their online user study to help clarify its results and provide insight on how this can serve to help more effectively plan both online and offline media. National advertisers drove the demand to track this information for both online …

Interactive Local Media: 07 is ready to roll Nov. 28-30 in L.A. That’s next Wednesday through Friday!
The show, which is being produced in partnership with SES Local, has attendees from all over the world. One exec told me he is coming on Wednesday, taking the red eye to New York that night due to …

The numbers are looking very, very good for the Interactive Local Media:07 conference in L.A. Nov. 28-30. Internally, we think this one is a record breaker. Register and book the hotel while you can. The latter tends to sell out.
In recent weeks, we’ve been putting the final touches on the program. For instance, we’ve added …

Name the three countries that ZenithOptimedia predicts will be the fastest-growing ad markets by percentage growth from 2006 to 2009. Not even your ad agency friends are likely to get that question right.
I have always taken umbrage with any company that forecasts global advertising expenditures by medium and leaves out Yellow Pages. However, this October report, according …

Big names, interesting people, compelling research. Forgive the commercial message here, but we’re set to deliver the goods at The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media 2007 (ILM:07), Nov. 28-30 in L.A.
I think there’s something for everyone. And this year, as most of you know, we’ve partnered with Search Engine Strategies for a series of practical …

Two articles. Two perspectives. Two headlines.
Yesterday, Chris Smith wrote in Search Engine Land the following headline, “Google Trends: Yellow Pages Will Be Toast in Four Years.” He went on to back up his thesis using statistics. “My gut feeling is that the Google Trends graph for searching for ‘Yellow Pages’ is likely representative of a …

While I am in Reston, VA, attending Kelsey’s Directory Driven Commerce conference, I thought it would be a good time to start talking about our next show, which I am co-producing: Interactive Local Media 2007. The show is being done in tandem with SES Local, takes place Nov. 28-30, and is at the Los Angeles …

Universal McCann has been the definitive word in advertising forecasts for more years than most of us have been alive, and team leader Bob Coen has been consistently conservative yet accurate. In December, he predicted that Yellow Pages would come in at about $14.6 billion for 2007. In his recent update, his prediction for Yellow …

A challenge that every marketing person faces is to determine the unique selling proposition (USP) for a product or service and then convey it in an interesting manner that will encourage the target market to buy. Today, after six months of research, interviews, searching through records, analysis, writing and editing, our directory team has completed …

Summary
Research just released from Hitwise and WebCollage shows that shoppers are more likely to shop in stores and visit Web sites of retailers that provide comprehensive product information, including inventory data. This is a growing trend in the local search space being addressed by the likes of StepUp Commerce, ShopLocal, NearbyNow and Krillion. This also …

Summary
An article yesterday on the SeekingAlpha blog examines a recent wave of investment consolidation in the online media space. This signals, among other things, an impending acceleration of advertising shifts from offline to off, and a revenue diversification play on the part of search giants. As this happens, TKG data suggests vertical search sites will …

The Kelsey Group’s Global Print Yellow Pages, Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search Forecast is out today. The forecast has a five year outlook, comparing 2006 figures with 2011 projections. At a high level, here are some of the key takeaways:

 The global print and online directory market is expected to grow at 4.9 percent …