Cross-Platform Ad Sales Still Elusive

By: Cross-platform advertising sales remain the unfulfilled promise of new media, according to panelists at the Interactive Media Conference & Trade Show sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek.

The truth is that few advertisers have the cash or the desire to run campaigns in all the media available to them, said Lisa DeSisto, vice president and general manager of Boston.com. Instead, advertisers are still more likely to limit themselves to one or two options.

In addition, a lack of cooperation among print, broadcast, and online reps within media companies is a major obstacle to successful cross-selling, said DeSisto, who offered some tips for making it work:

1) Keep the proposed campaigns simple for both print reps and clients.

2) Make one person on a sales team the contact for clients; don't expect the client to deal separately with print and online reps.

3) Have the courage to "close the file" when you're not getting anywhere; in other words, move on when the advertiser can't be sold on the cross-platform package.

4) Don't try to force a cross-platform campaign on advertisers who aren't ready for it.

5) Don't let print reps position the Internet as "added value."

Caroline Little, chief operating officer at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, said online advertising reps first must convince their colleagues of the power of the Internet before trying to sell clients on it. Her company has built 35 case studies that show the value of Web advertising - both to advertisers and to print advertising executives.

Incentives also help. Boston.com set cross-media revenue goals for the first time this year, DeSisto said.

Media companies aren't the only ones to blame for the lack of success in cross-platform advertising. David Song, vice president/associate managing director for MPG/Media Contacts, admitted that advertising agencies haven't yet "gotten it." Most of the agencies aren't integrated, with online and traditional media arms working largely separate.

Despite the difficulties facing news Web sites, inroads are being made, said Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital, who delivered Thursday's keynote address at the conference. Just last week, for example, one of his big clients said they would no longer track clickthrough rates on Web ads, instead focusing on the branding power of the medium, he said.