Brand managers may talk about the value of online engagement, “conversational marketing” and other Web 3.0 virtues, but at least one Internet analyst firm says this will be the year they hunker down and seek proven performance on the Web. JP Morgan Securities has put out an annual “Nothing but Net” stock report for several years now, summarizing the prospects for a number of the most popular Web stocks and in the process commenting on what will do well on the Web this year.
The 2009 verdict from JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan: Search marketing will dominate the online marketing space because it’s built on a performance-based, pay-for-play model. Most of the audience-based media that have seen so much innovation in the last few years—notably social networks and Web video, but also display ads sold on the traditional cost-per-thousand basis—may be in for some lean times. more