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The lodging and travel industries are undergoing a period of unprecedented change. The advent and growing importance of the Internet and related technologies are fundamentally changing both how travel products and services are distributed to end consumers as well as how they are marketed to them. With the growing importance of the Internet both as a distribution channel to and a research resource for on-line and offline consumers, travel and lodging companies are devoting increasing resources to the advertising and marketing of their products online. Travel is already one of the leading online advertising categories relative to its share of off-line spending, with online spending accounting for 4% percent of total travel ad spending by the end of 1999. The high consideration and Internet commerce potential of travel is expected to drive continued growth in online travel ad spending. By 2005, online travel ad spending is expected to reach $1 billion or 17% of overall travel advertising and 7% of total online advertising (Jupiter Media Metrix, Dec. 2002). The growth in broadband adoption and the related growth in streaming media (video and audio) usage are revolutionizing how companies market and advertise their products and services online. Just as important as the growth in streaming media usage, is the fact that streaming media users are considered the most valuable consumer group on the Internet. Streaming media consumers have higher average incomes, are far more interactive, are more oriented to e-commerce and spend more time online compared with Internet users who do not stream. Because of this, Americans who consume streaming media are a highly desirable target audience for advertisers. Streaming ads have been shown to generate significantly better click-through rates and brand recall. Therefore, it is not surprising that spending on all streaming media advertising is growing rapidly, and is expected to reach $3.1 billion by 2005, up from $44 million in 2000 (Yankee Group, June 2001). Courtesy of: VisualFrenzy Media Inc., Toronto. |
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