According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), $5.9 billion was spent on Internet advertising in the U.S. in 2010 Q1, the most ever for a first quarter.

If you buy digital media to promote your events or sell online advertising to generate incremental revenue streams, and want to drill down deeper into trends in online ad sales, check out the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report full-year results for 2009. The data in this report comes from an industry survey conducted by PwC and sponsored by the IAB.  Keep in mind these are macro numbers. Specific digital media spends in your space may look much different. However, the key trends here are worth noting, and should serve as a catalyst for some questions.
 
1. Despite the challenging economy, online advertising continues its forward momentum.  Are you embracing your target audiences’ changing media habits, and allocating sufficient resources to online advertising to both promote your shows and engage advertisers in your online ad products?
 
2. Performance-based pricing — the leading pricing model — continues to grow, while CPM continues to decline. Are you using only CPM when buying and/or selling digital media, or are you also using performance-based models?
 
3. Digital video revenue increased 38 percent from 2008 to 2009 and the growth rate is much higher when you compare 2008 Q4 to 2009 Q4. Are you currently using video or evaluating the potential of this fast-growing format? Have you looked at what others are doing in your space with video? Do you offer video as an option to advertisers?