Consumer marketers feeling more confident, says survey – Medical Marketing and Media.  Cegedim Dendrite survey finds that four inm 10 marketers expect DTC spend to increase in 2010.  Major areas money shifting into:   highly targeted Direct to Patient (DTP) and Physician marketing… both very good for the Internet.

Google is entering the age of transparency and has “disclosed” it’s revenue share with publishers.  They have self-reported that their revenue share on search is 51% to the publisher and 49% to Google.  The revenue share for the AdSense content network is purportedly 68% to the publisher and 32% to Google.

Read about it here straight from the horse’s mouth.

Inside AdSense: The AdSense revenue share.

What I find interesting about this is that these figures are presented in aggregate worldwide.  They are not in the AdSense contract.  So while a publisher may “feel” good about knowing this global revenue share, bear in mind that the very large Google partner publishers like AOL, MySpace, etc… are obviously skewing the average.  They are getting a much better deal than this and the smaller publishers are getting a much worse deal in order for the averages to work out.  True transparency would put the terms in the AdSense contract.

It seems Google has created it’s own conflict of interest in that search customers will logically have the potential to be “favored” by the Google algorithm if they are optimizing for Google profit (higher revenue to Google, lower payouts to publishers).

Of course there is also no mention of how revenue generated on Google.com, YouTube, and the various other properties Google owns is factored into this equation.

The  reality is their financial statements tell a different story.  They tell one of a company continuing to lower it’s cost of revenue (even if you assume ALL of this line item goes to partners, which is a stretch, it’s still declining).  See summary below ($’s in 000’s).

Wayne Friedman writes an article for Media Post, the title of which anyone could have predicted – with a theme that will be repeated many times over as data driven “audience” becomes more popular.

MediaPost Publications Advertisers Target Too Narrow An Audience 06/17/2010.

The challenge of course that publisher’s face when advertisers only want to reach 1% of their audience, is how do they monetize the other 99%?  Since tastes are fickle and constantly changing, as Friedman points out in his example of all tech titans wanting to reach Apple customers, one can’t change the model to only focus on a set 1% because next month it’s a different 1% that will monetize.

The Apple example is a classic.  As tech marketers focus their dollars on reaching “Apple” customers they are in essence funding their competitor.  After all, where’s the best place to reach Apple customers but on Apple products – many of which now carry advertising through iAds.

Forty-four percent of women research prescribed drugs using multiple sources before filling a script, according to a survey by agency GSW Worldwide’s Pink Tank unit.

They also consult, in order of influence, medical websites like WebMD, articles online from trusted media outlets, online patient reviews, blogs they trust and, lastly, company sites.

That’s another great reason to be a marketing client of ours. The e-Healthcare Solutions Consumer Network of sites is a compilation of these types of credible and trusted online resources for the female target audience.

Read more about the survey findings.

I had a friend once ask me in the very early days of Internet advertising if I really believed online advertising could ever see a $1 Billion dollar company or even ever become a $1 Billion industry.   The doubt in they way he asked the question made it clear that he didn’t believe it could… I emphatically said, “of course it will… isn’t that obvious?  And it will go way way beyond that…”.  Latest estimates show online reaching $100 Billion by 2015.

MediaPost Publications Magna Global: Online Ads To Top $100 Bil By 2015 06/08/2010.

The Behaviorial Targeting (BT) debate continues.  Kendall Jackson rants about Behavioral Targeting and Ad Network Transparency… but we need to go deeper and explore the issues behind these issues.  The Truth Or Dare Of Transparency 06/07/2010.

Interesting data from a Starch Information Sources study sponsored by the Canadian Business Press.  Shows the impact the Internet has had on trade publications of all sorts over the past five years.

MediaPost Publications Internet Bumps Trade Publications 06/03/2010.

Dave Morgan shares his insights on the likely trial and error period emerging again for publishers on whether or not to share content online for free or to charge a subscription.   MediaPost Publications Many New Media-Subscription Businesses Will Fail 06/03/2010.

When it comes to free, I say, “If you love something, charge a fee… if they come back, it was meant to be”

This kind of article makes me proud to be part of our industry.  Kudos to the pharma, biotech and device industries in NJ for supporting our states many honorable well intentioned non-profits in both good times and bad.

Latest data from eMarketer shows online advertising coming back strong with double digit growth projected for 2010 (10.8% year over year) which would put 2010 online advertising at US$25.1 Billion.  Continued projected growth puts the total online advertising spend at  US$36.3 Billion by 2014.  Recession?  What recession?