Key takeaways:
- Ad executives think social media is overhyped.
- Advertising on social media & user generated content sites is risky.
From the “2008 Prospects for Media Mergers and Acquisitions” survey released by AdMedia Partners.
The doubts about the growth prospects for social media networks and user-generated content are not unreasonable, given that what makes them attractive to consumers also makes them very risky for advertisers who can’t predict the nature of the content that forms the context for their ads.
Content remains king, but the only ones selling for marketers are real content – not fluff. The noise with social media networks is only getting advertisers impressions – not a connection or a sale. Online should and can be a sale driver, much more valuable than an impression generator.
About the survey: ADMEDIA PARTNERS, INC. conducted its fourteenth annual survey of nearly 1,600 senior executives at leading media companies in December 2007 to elicit their iews on merger and acquisition activity among U.S. media companies in 2008. Executives from the U.S. and abroad, whose companies operate in a variety of media – many in more than one – responded to the survey.
