Forbes: The Rush To The Local Display Ad Marketplace Is On

Yahoo is in a headlong rush to get local.  The king of online display advertising sales is turning to local businesses for growth and to compete with Google's newest pushes into display.  What's bad news for local media outlets like newspapers and regional radio stations is great news for marketers doing business in communities around the country in all kinds of businesses. The old media's loss of ad revenues is online display advertising's gain.   Laurie Burkitt of Forbes reports:

This year the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's sales reps are going after big companies with outlets that advertise in local newspapers and on regional radio stations and Web sites. These marketers include Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, Pizza Hut, State Farm Insurance and Home Depot. The list goes on and Yahoo intends to call every advertiser on it, offering them the opportunity to target regionally and reach millions of people online.

Yahoo's focus on local markets comes as Google is diving into the display world to grow beyond its core search business. Having launched a new ad exchange system similar to ones the stock market uses, Google is heating up the competition, adding more clients to its growing roster of display advertisers. Google is also going after some of the same customers--the burger joints and home-improvement centers--as Yahoo, pitching similar opportunities to reach TV-sized audiences without TV prices. It makes for a big battle.

Big battle indeed! The way I see it, every local business can, through targeting, reach their customers online with efficiencies and reach that compete with local newspaper and radio - and of course with the interactivity, trackability and engagement that those media can never deliver. Effective display advertising is about to get more popular than ever by working for the gargantuan local business marketplace.

Read the entire Forbes article.