While investors and Yellow Pages pundits continue to bang the drum telling everyone that the “younger generation” isn’t using print Yellow Pages to the degree it should, and that without this younger demographic of users the book can’t deliver value to small and medium-sized businesses, they may in fact be ignoring the book’s greatest strength. The …

 
 As an innovative way of promoting its Yellow Pages and Yellow Frontdoor, its magazine-styled directory focused on home improvement and decorating, Yellow Pages Group New Zealand is now the main sponsor of New Zealand’s largest home show as reported by New Zealand’s Thread Magazine. Within the environment of a slowing real estate market and the …

As many of us have read over the past week, some major hotel chains — Hyatt and Hyatt Place Hotels, Omni and some Starwood properties – have made the decision to remove Yellow Pages directories from their hotel rooms. (Although a call to our September conference hotel, Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency, revealed it has yet to receive …

One of the hard and fast truths about print Yellow Pages advertising is that the ads at the front of the heading almost always generate more calls and leads compared with those further back. The current trend is for small-business advertisers to move some or all of their directional media budgets from print to online believing …

In this economic downturn, I’ve heard so much talk about one medium or another making claims that it is delivering all the leads and traffic a company needs. Online selling against Yellow Pages, Yellow Pages selling against newspapers, newspapers selling against online classified sites, and the list goes on and on. The reality is no …

A recently released research paper from Integrated Media Measurement Inc., based on data from 3,000 panelists in six major markets, finds that multi-platform advertisers see increases in the number of consumers they reach while also significantly improving conversion rates. 
According to the IMMI paper:
Increasingly, major advertisers are launching multiple platform campaigns and media companies are …

Grazing the current crop of business news mags, I happened across the June 2 edition of BusinessWeek. The cover article, “Beyond Blogs,” is on how social networking is changing key aspects of the corporate marketing tool kit. One of the examples cited in the article is that of Best Buy, the ubiquitous consumer electronics chain. …

“Extraordinary change means extraordinary opportunity,” Merrill Brown, founder and principal of MMB Media, told the audience at last month’s Drilling Down on Local conference. Few people are more knowledgeable about the impact of new technologies on society than Brown. Before he was a founder of RealOne, before he was the first editor in chief of …

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the Easter holiday talking with friends and family about the economy and how they are dealing with the budget crunch we are all experiencing. One of the common threads of all these conversations has been the need to stay close to home, combine shopping trips and call …

S&MM online columnist Robert Grede shared some interesting insights in a recent article on how local advertisers can survive in a down economy and what local media sales reps should be communicating to their advertisers and prospects. While many of these items are not surprising, it is surprising how local media reps can get so …

It was interesting to see the Yellow Pages Association release its usage data showing print usage was stable at 13.4 billion and IYP usage had increased to 3.8 billion in 2007. While the overall usage figure is a 3 percent increase from 2006, which is encouraging, zeroing in solely on usage may be taking away …

When a local team headed by ad agency and PR veteran Brian Tierney bought The Philadelphia Inquirer and related holdings 18 months ago, it was seen as a possible model for how “new thinking” could transform the newspaper industry.
Since then, Tierney and his team have had a tumultuous time, with major union problems, declining circulation and …

‘Tis the season for shopping and at times endless aggravation finding stores that actually have the items you want in stock. I’m all about anything that can help ease the stress of the shopping experience. And one thing I rediscovered as an essential shopping tool is the Yellow Pages (thanks to, of all things, a …

MerchantCircle has apparently changed its tact for getting small businesses to sign up. In the past, there have been numerous reports that it autodialed SMBs and notified them they had to check out the company’s Web site to see their “bad review.” Now, the message is much more positive.
An acquaintance in New York City transcribed a …

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 …

Last week Bebo, the global social network, announced its new OpenMedia platform partnerships. The network has partnered with major media brands to deliver premium content to its 40 million users.
Partnerships include CBS, MTV Networks, ESPN, the BBC, Channel Four, ITN, Yahoo! and BSkyB, as well as emerging media companies like Music Nation, Next New Networks, …

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 …

National advertising dollars remain mostly elusive for independent Yellow Pages publishers. They get just 5 percent of total revenues from national, as opposed to 14 percent for incumbent publishers.
But working to change the situation is the CMR Gateway, an effort placing national advertising from Certified Marketing Rep firms such as TMP, Wahlstrom and others across …

Under-served small communities are getting more attention. Companies like TownNews, Grayboxx and Topix have set out to focus on small town and exurban residents, and aggregating those local users for advertisers.
As we wrote in April, Topix – a 25-person company that is 80 percent owned by Gannett, Tribune and McClatchy – has been aggregating local news from …