The Kelsey Group’s "Interactive Local Media 2008" Conference: SMBs adopt Web 2.0 technologies
Recently released findings from The Kelsey Group’s Local Commerce Monitor study reveal that 26 percent of small and medium-sized businesses plan to incorporate video on their Web sites in the next 12 months. Forty percent of the SMB respondents said they intend to add customer reviews to their own Web sites, and 30 percent will add links or place ads on social sites or blogs. This trend of SMB advertisers embracing Web 2.0 technologies will serve as a backdrop for The Kelsey Group’s “Interactive Local Media 2008” conference, Nov. 19-21, 2008, Santa Clara, California.
"Our research indicates that SMBs are maintaining their ad spending levels, even in a challenging economic climate,” said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group. “At ILM:08 we’ll take a close look at where those ad dollars are being spent and which traditional and new media players are well-positioned to serve the needs of local advertisers.
”The conference offers a 360-degree, cutting-edge examination of interactive local media, with in-depth views from top industry representatives about online video, local search, small-business targeting, multi-channel marketing, ad networks, community, local mobile and the investment climate. Featured speakers include Kevin Cuddihy, senior vice president, advertising sales, Comcast Spotlight; Angie Hicks, founder and CMO, Angie’s List; Brad Inman, founder and CEO, TurnHere; Mark Josephson, CEO, Outside.in; Larry Olevitch, senior vice president, local media sales, NBC Local; and Rodney Rice, cochairman and founder, ServiceMagic.
The agenda features two highly interactive “SuperForums” focused on SMB marketing and local online video. The SMB Marketing SuperForum will offer a thorough examination of strategies for engaging small-business marketers. The Video/Out-of-Home SuperForum will examine the opportunity for leveraging local online video to captivate small-business marketers and will look at how video is moving outside the home to coffee shops, department stores and gas stations—wherever there are attentive viewers near a point of purchase.
About ILM:08
ILM:08 is The Kelsey Group’s annual conference devoted to digital media with a local focus. This event provides a 360-degree view of the local marketplace, covering a range of important topics, including local search, Internet Yellow Pages, vertical directories, Internet video, online classifieds, social media and mobile search. Conference sponsors include Acxiom, AgendiZe, Apptus, Call Genie, DMC, infoUSA, Intelligenx, Local Matters, Local.com, Localeze, Marchex, Telmetrics and Topix. Association partners include Association of Directory Marketing (ADM), Association of Directory Publishers (ADP), International Classified Media Association (ICMA) and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). The media sponsor for ILM:08 is TVover.net. For more information about ILM:08, visit www.kelseygroup.com/ILM2008.
