Borrell Associates, Inc

New Industry Paper - 'Assessing Local Digital Sales Forces'

The rush is on to hire and train great AEs who can drive digital sales. But the big question is, how should they be paid, and how should multimedia sales staffs be organized? This 27-page report sheds light on what’s happening with the army of 81,000 local ad-sales reps in the U.S. as local media companies retool for the digital age. It includes 14 charts detailing the size of the various sales forces across traditional media and pureplay Internet companies, how many are “digital ready,” and their managers’ evaluations on their levels of effectiveness.

New Industry Paper - 'Main Street Goes Social: SMBs Give a Big Thumbs-Up to Social Media'

Local businesses have arrived en masse at the Social Media cocktail party. The sluggish economy has constricted their ad budgets, and posting messages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter not only feels good, but also feels free. But it’s not. This report takes a deep dive into the attraction of social media to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and gauges their current levels of spending, forecast to double in 2012 and again in 2013.

Keynoter Bob Garfield Tells Us, 'There Is No Future In Hyper-Local News'

Are We All Doomed?

Fragmentation, ad avoidance and audience defection have played havoc with media at every level -- just as Bob Garfield predicted in his prescient series of articles and book titled "The Chaos Scenario." But where does that leave us? Bob offers his unflinching -- and surprising -- analysis in his keynote, Wednesday, March 21, at our Local Online Advertising Conference in NYC.

>>Conference Info | >>Watch Video

In other conference news -- we have combined forces with the Mobile Marketing Association to bring you a fantastic three-hour, high-yield program designed to deliver best-in-class sales training on mobile advertising. Join us for the “Mobile Sales: Train for Success” workshop on March 20, the day before our Local Online Advertising Conference in NYC. (You can attend just the workshop and/or the whole conference.) >>Workshop Agenda

New Industry Paper - 'Budgeting for 2012: Local Online Advertising Forecasts and Key Growth Opportunities'

Our latest report, “Budgeting for 2012: Local Online Advertising Forecasts and Key Growth Opportunities,” points to two amazing phenomenon. First, traditional media companies are gaining online share over pureplay Internet companies. And second, in a few short years, the vast majority of what we know as "online" will be served up on mobile devices. We are forecasting 18% growth next year as local online advertising goes from $15.7 billion to $18.5 billion in 2012. This report details the categories and formats pegged for growth, as well as individual market estimates.