The prior sections discussed how advertiser-supported media are in a perpetual battle for limited advertising dollars. Spending in a particular medium declines or increases in response to advertisers' perceptions of how well that medium accomplishes two things: (1) efficiently exposes an advertisers' message to the desired target audience and (2) influences key target audience attitudes and behaviors, particularly purchase intent.

The extent to which a medium is perceived positively in these areas reflects, in great part, that medium's ability to evolve and innovate. A medium evolves when it increases advertisers' options with regard to core product offerings. A medium innovates when it moves beyond its core product to provide advertisers with new and distinctly different advertising opportunities.

Television is one example of a medium that illustrates the characteristics of evolution and innovation.

Evolution. Television's core product is advertising time - the placement of advertising either within or between its programming. While the :30 second commercial still dominates, television has evolved to offer advertisers a broad array of time choices. Ford, for example, launched its new F-150 truck with a new use of commercial time; it ran a 3 1/2 minute mini-movie commercial starring the F-150 at the start of the program "24" and ended the program with the commercial's 2 1/2 minute conclusion. Moreover, television networks are now accommodating advertisers' desire to sequence commercials within and across programs. NBC, for example, aired the first half of its commercials for the film starring Carmen Electra and the Pussycat Dolls during Will & Grace, the second half during Coupling. (For more on these developments see Michael McCarthy, USA Today, 10/27/2003.)

Innovation. Television has moved beyond its core offering of commercial time to provide advertisers with a broad array of additional advertising opportunities, for example, product placement and virtual advertising.

• Product placement now entails much more than simply showing a product during a program. Product placement now gives a product important appearances/functions in the program itself. "The Restaurant," sponsored by Mitubishi, Coors and American Express, not only showed traditional :30 commercials for these products but also wove the use of these products into the program itself (i.e., American Express was contacted for small business advice and the American Express card was used to pay for meals). NBC calls this "organic product integration." Beyond the interweaving of products into a program, entire program plots have been written to revolve around specific products. In the soap opera "All My Children," the cosmetics company Revlon "starred" opposite actress Susan Lucci's own fictitious cosmetics line. (For more information on product placement see Embedded Ads in TV Stories and What Is Product Placement?)

• Virtual advertising is the placement of ads within television programming in a way that only those viewing at home are able to see the ad. Princeton Video Image has pioneered this approach, which is illustrated in the two pictures below. Only those at home see the ad for Coke.

(Photo from What Is Product Placement?)

Virtual advertising extends beyond the sports field. Charles Schwab, as part of its Super Bowl ads, paid to have colored signs inserted into the hands of fans, so that international viewers saw "Schwab" spelled out in the stands. And, "virtual" cans of Coke have been placed on tables and into the hands of television characters after all filming was completed. (See Shelly Emling, Austin American Statesman, 9/26/01.)

In the remainder of this section, you'll see how both print and Internet yellow pages have evolved and innovated to meet advertisers' needs.

Print yellow pages directories are organized into sections (headings) by business classification. Within each classification there is an alphabetical listing of all of businesses falling within the heading that are located within the directory's area of circulation. These basic name/address/phone number listings are provided free of charge. Businesses that want to attract more attention can pay to supplement and enlarge their alphabetical listing (referred to as in-column advertising) or they can place a stand-alone ad that will either precede or surround the alphabetical listing (referred to as display advertising). These two types of advertising are print yellow pages' traditional advertising options.

In-Column Ads

In-column ads are used by businesses both to attract attention to their alphabetical listing and to communicate additional information (such as locations, hours, special product lines) about their company, products or services. In addition, some publishers allow a business to include their web site URL within their in-column ad as a way of driving traffic to the business' web site. In-column advertisers also have the option of using color. In many directories, in-column advertisers can add red, green or blue to their ad and/or they can "knockout" the background, so that the ad appears on a white background.

The partial page from the "Florists" classification illustrates how advertisers have taken advantage of in-column advertising options.

Traditional Display Advertising

Display ads provide advertisers with the opportunity to present advertising that is as creative and visually-appealing as that seen in other print media. (Recommendations for creating print yellow pages display advertising are presented in the next section.) Display ads allow advertisers to use four-color process, detailed photographs and unique typography to create ads that break through the clutter, improve company perceptions and motivate contact.

The following illustrate the range of standard display advertising. (A full-size version of each ad can be opened in a new window by clicking on the ad.)

As you can see, display advertising comes in many different sizes, with size dictating the order in which ads appear. Within a classification, larger ads precede smaller ones. Research has shown that while display ads generally work well to attract readers' attention, larger display ads, because of both their size and placement, attract more attention than do smaller display ads.

Extended Display Advertising

Print directory publishers recognize that in order to meet changing advertisers' needs, they must provide increased advertising options within each classification. That is, they would have to offer more than traditional display and in-column advertising if they were to continue to convince advertisers that advertising in the print directory has the potential to both reach and influence their customers. The following are examples of different publishers' approaches to expanded and evolved print directory options.

Beyond new opportunities for advertising within headings, print directory publishers have created new ways for advertisers to promote themselves outside of the headings. Many of these new approaches involve new directory areas for ad placement. (Note that not all options are offered by all publishers in all directories.)

Directory Covers and Spines

Directory advertisers are not limited to standard cover and spine advertising. Verizon, for example, offers enhanced cover advertising through the use of gatefolds: double-sided, non-perforated extensions of the front or back directory cover.

And what about an advertiser who wants the exposure provided by cover advertising but doesn't need (or can't afford) to purchase an entire cover? For these advertisers there are additional options.

Snipes allow an advertiser to purchase the upper right hand corner of the directory cover. Sponsorships are a prominent but less then full page cover ad. Billboards are small, typically square ads that run along the bottom of the front cover. Tip-ons are ads that are affixed to a directory's front or back cover. Paper Tip-On ads (generally about 4" by 6") are printed on both sides and are attached to the directory with special adhesive allowing it to be easily removed. Because the tip-on is printed on both sides, the reverse side of a paper Tip-On ad can include a coupon offer, map with directions or any other pertinent information about an advertiser's business. Magnetic Tip-On ads (generally about 4" by 4" and offered only on selected directories), are affixed to the directory in a way that encourages their removal and placement on a refrigerator, file cabinet or other metal surface.

Tabbed Pages

Many directory headings such as Attorneys and Physicians are very crowded. For these types of headings, advertisers have the option of placing their ad on a front-of-heading tabbed page. A tabbed page is a full size, full-color ad printed on a heavy paper stock paper that extends beyond the edge of the directory, creating a natural opening point for consumers about to search that heading. Because tabbed pages lead consumers to the heading, they give an advertiser a significant competitive advantage.

Special Sections

Internet Listings

Finally, print directory publishers have responded to the needs of Internet businesses in two ways. First, many Internet businesses have the need to publicize not only their web address but also their address and telephone numbers. Second, many Internet businesses, while not wanting to publicize their address and telephone number, still have the need to reach as many people in their target audience as possible. Both of these needs can be satisfied through new options in print directory advertising.

BellSouth, for example, offers Internet blue listings. (Similar products are offered by other directory publishers.) In the Bell South directories, standard blue listings (the blue representing a hyperlink) add a business' URL to its in-column listing while the Internet Blue Bold Listing lets businesses advertise their Web address even if they are not a local business or are strictly a Web-based company.

Ride-Along Advertising

All of the prior advertiser options used the directory as the medium in which the advertising appears. Print yellow page directories can also be used as the medium that literally delivers the advertising.

The yellow pages ride-along program allows advertisers to package their direct mail piece, insert or product sample with the print yellow pages directory. SBC, for example, uses a bag (see illustration) to deliver both the directory and the advertising materials. Advertisers can use two types of ride-along delivery. The New Mover First program delivers the direct mail piece, insert or product sample to individuals who have just moved to a particular area. Delivery typically takes place within seven days of having a telephone connected. This type of targeted advertising opportunity is important because new movers tend to make many purchases just after they've moved in, for example, furniture, household goods, appliances and pizza. The Total Market Coverage program delivers the direct mail piece, insert or product sample with the annual directory distribution, allowing an advertiser to reach virtually every home and business in the directory's area of distribution.

Now, think about ride-along advertising, and then ask yourself:

How do you reach people in their homes with a message "loose six pounds in two weeks by eating two bowls of Special K cereal" and actually demonstrate what six pounds feels like and demonstrate this at the time (around New Years) when people are most receptive?

The Kellogg Company, always looking for innovative ways to deliver their message to the public, was presented with the idea of using ride-along as an alternative to traditional TV, newspapers and magazines during their January Special K campaign. Kellogg has a high concentration of their media weight around the first of the year to capitalize on the New Year's Resolution mindset. The Special K message during this time is grounded in the Special K Challenge -- Eat 2 bowls of Special K for 2 weeks and lose 6 pounds. SMG Directory Marketing working with two sister agencies, Leo Burnett USA, Inc and StarCom Media Group brainstormed and developed an idea that Kellogg loved. The creative idea was to reference the weight of the Yellow Pages and correlate it with the loss of that weight by taking the Challenge.

The first step was to find directories that published in January. The next challenge was to find the right product to deliver the message. All options were explored; tip-ons, inserts, banners, shrink wrap and delivery bags. It was decided that the message printed on delivery bags would create the most impact. SMG contacted all the publishers with the proposal and Sprint Publishing was quick to respond that the Las Vegas directory which publishes in January, weighed six pounds. The result was the Kellogg's Special K Challenge being delivered to over 600,000 households in Las Vegas during January--the New Year's Resolution timeframe.

The relative youth of Internet yellow pages coupled with rapid advances in web-based technology has caused the evolution and innovation processes to occur nearly simultaneously for Internet yellow pages. Internet yellow pages directories are constantly in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of their current advertising options and developing new approaches to advertisers' needs. This has resulted in two broad types of directory advertising options: advertising within the listings and advertising external to results listings.

Advertising Options Internal to Search Results Listings

You know from your experiences with search engines that listings which appear first have more potential to be clicked-on. The same is true for Internet yellow pages. As a result, Internet yellow pages publishers have provided ways for businesses to improve their placement in the search results. While the names and specific techniques vary across different Internet yellow pages, all share the common approach of rewarding greater advertising commitment with listings higher in the search results.

Enhanced placement listings are offered by almost all Internet yellow pages publishers, although specific terminology and options vary a bit across directories. This approach to improving search results position allows advertisers an economical way to appear earlier in the search results listing.

Superpages.com allows an advertiser to enhance their listings through the addition of larger type, special typography, highlights, backgrounds and colored type. You can visit the Superpages.com site for an interactive demonstration of how different combinations of these elements results in different ad appearance. Advertisers can also improve their listing placement by adding hotlinks to their ad.

DexOnline allows advertisers to improve their placement in the search results through the addition of links and buttons to the basic listing. Advertisers can use links to: provide additional information on products and services; create maps and driving directions, and/or direct customers to their own web site. Buttons can also be used to create informational notices such as current sale information.

AOL Yellow Pages provides advertisers with two options: featured listings and enhanced listings. Featured listings provide premium placement in search results as well as an old business name, a business logo or graphic, a business tagline, four additional lines of promotional text and a link to the advertiser's business web site. Enhanced listings allow an advertiser a bold business name, a business tagline and a link to the advertiser's business web site - all placed on a colored background to help the listing stand out.

Yahoo! Yellow Pages provides three tiers of advertiser options. Options vary by the size of the ad, the graphics permitted in the ad and the amount and type of advertising copy allowed to appear in the ad.

Advertising Options External to Search Results Listings

As discussed in Section 1, all Internet yellow pages sites provide an individual with the opportunity to search by name or by category for businesses located within a specific geographic location. In addition to providing the results of these types of searches, some Internet yellow pages sites have also prepared subject matter guides for the most common search categories. Both search results and guides provide opportunities for advertisers to reach potential consumers before they begin to view the list of specific search results.