Notes from the “Heavy Hitter� panel, which includes Jacob Aqrauou, GM of classifieds for Ebay; Gordon Henry, CMO of Yellow Book; Chris Jennewein, VP interactive for the San Diego Union-Tribune; Chris LaSala, senior manager of strategic partner development for Google; Michael Mathieu, president of Freedom Interactive.
On lead generation:
Mathieu: Most small to mid-sized advertisers are not really interested in clicks. They want somebody to call them up. The phone call is more important to them than all the technology we bring to the table.
Henry: Advertisers want leads, which is phone calls and people in the door. Clicks don’t resonate with them. It’s not that they’re indifferent to the data, but at the end of the day, they want conversions.
LaSala: Advertisers who are used to working with the yellow page industry are trained to think about phone calls. What happens on the internet is that doesn’t happen. People don’t go online with the intent to make a call at that particular time. They have a different intent. They are looking for information. They are doing research. We need to find a way to education businesses that a person using the internet is doing research and that they do it at all times of the day and night.
On video:
Mathieu: Freedom is on three different tracks. On the newspaper side, we have newspaper reporters using video and still cameras to report in a multimedia fashion; on the television side, we are getting news stations beyond just the five and six o’clock broadcast. The are doing news updates five or six times a day with web centric content; and, the third piece is Freedom is trying to connect more to the community through video with their content.
LaSala: “We bought YouTube.� (laughter). Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information, and much of that information now is video. YouTube created a platform to share video, so it fits well with our broader mission. We’re still figuring out, but it’s a tremendous opportunity.
Jennewein: Over the next five or six years, newspapers will overtake TV in many of the news functions. When you have a couple hundred reporters with video cameras, you can produce a tremendous amount of video content. Right now, not all of it is good, but the quantity we can have a numbing ability to cover the community.
Henry: In the past, video was hard to get and expensive to produce, but that equation is changing. Video can now be put online at a much lower price. I think sales reps get it. I think advertisers get it.