Herb Gordon, Former ADM President/CEO Has Died

There are always people who you run across in your personal and business careers that make a lasting impact.  For me, Herb Gordon was one of them.  It saddens me deeply to tell you that Herb Gordon, retired former president and CEO of the Association of Directory Marketing (ADM), passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Saturday, May 4, 2013.  Herb is survived by his wife, Annemarie, three sons, nine grandchildren, two sisters, and a large extended family.

Herb led ADM (which merger with what was then the Yellow Pages Association – YPA – more info) for eighteen years, retiring in June 2009, after the merger.  During his tenure, he served on the Boards of ADM, the YPA (now Local Search Association), and Association of Directory Publishers – the only person in the industry to have the unique honor of serving on all three boards.  He served at a time when the industry was just starting to experience unparalleled change.

It was during the time that he was on the YPA board that I got to work directly with Herb.  Simply put, he was a gentleman no matter how passionate a discussion got, he was a masterful politician keeping the peace between publishers and CMRs who were always at each other’s throats, and he was a passionate supporter of the national channel.  I can say I didn’t always agree with him, but I did have a great deal of respect for him no matter his views.

Previously, Herb held senior management positions at Ketchum Communications, including president, Ketchum Yellow Pages, and executive vice president, Ketchum Specialized Services, and was a member of the company’s executive committee and board of directors.

Herb was a well-educated man.  He was a graduate of Tufts University and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.  And he was a patriot, having served as a U.S. Air Force missile officer from 1960 to 1965, working on the country’s first inter-continental ballistic missile unit.

Following his retirement from ADM, Herb continued to write the NMD Flash newsletter.  He enjoyed finding articles of interest for readers and kept up to date with the industry.  In his spare time, Herb played tennis (a lot of tennis as he wasn’t a big fan of golf), cheered on Pittsburgh sports teams, traveled, played bridge, researched WWII history and enjoyed gardening.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 11, 2013, 11:00 a.m., at St. Andrew’s United Presbyterian Church, 801 Beaver Street, Sewickley, PA 15143.  Contributions may be made to the Salvation Army, 700 North Bell Avenue, Carnegie, PA 15106; or the American Cancer Society, 320 Bilmar Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205.  Remembrances may be sent to the family at 310 Maple Lane, Sewickley, PA 15143.

Herb was a unique man in with a great enthusiasm and passion for life, and equally as enthusiastic and passionate about the industry.  People like Herb aren’t replaceable.  So he will unquestionably be missed.

Search Starts Here – A Preview of the Upcoming Local Search Association Conference

It only comes once a year, and it’s about to happen again. The Local Search Association annual event – Search Starts Here: A Blueprint for Making Local Pay Off will be kicking off April 13-16 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

This year’s event has a diverse agenda and speakers from across the pond and the search space to discuss current industry trends, lessons learned,  success stories, new technology applications, and useful innovations in the local search industry.

To get a better understanding of what to expect at this conference we sat down with Association president Neg Norton find out more.  The conversation occurred just after the Associations major legal victory against the City of Seattle’s distribution ordinance.

YPT:  With the court victory in Seattle, will we see you doing a couple of big victory laps at the conference?

Norton:  I would but I don’t want to pull a hammy! There is no doubt that a lot of our efforts have been focused on legislative activities over the past year. Clearly, this was a big win for the industry. However, we need to keep doing what we’re doing, promoting the Opt-Out site, honoring consumer choice and ultimately getting the industry back on a path to growing again.  We plan to get into all of that at our upcoming conference. We’ve got a great agenda and some really top-notch speakers.

YPT:  We noticed your recent announcement about your keynote speaker. Tell us more.

Norton:  We were excited to announce that Jean-Pierre Remy, CEO and President of PagesJaunes Groupe will be our keynote speaker on opening day.  What’s exciting about this is that PagesJaunes is one of the greatest transformation stories across any media; newspaper, magazine, YP as they moved from print to digital media.

For those that may not know, PagesJaunes is the Yellow Pages publisher in France. Approximately 59% of their $1.5 billion in annual revenue comes from its digital offerings.  They also enjoy 45% margins. So Jean-Pierre Remy gets credit for having led this remarkable transformation from France’s traditional print publisher into one of the world’s most progressive local search companies.

For publishers in North America, Jean-Pierre can provide some insights on how to use their “cash cow” print products to help fund their digital development as the transformation continues. Generally, many companies are still trying to find the most effective and efficient way to market an array of products and services to local businesses with limited budgets.

Right before Jean-Pierre we have Paul Plant, Founder & Principal, of Radicle Consulting who has worked a lot with John Pierre’s team. Paul will comment on his work with PagesJaunes as well as a recent report published by the MIT Sloan School of Business/Cap Gemini Consulting titled “The Digital Advantage” that featured PagesJaunes.

 YPT:  Tell us more about the overall agenda

Norton:  The agenda has a good mix of strategic and tactical topics including discussions about transformation, sales effectiveness, what’s working in mobile, how print directories fit in the product mix, the Hispanic market and a lot more.

On Day 2, we just added Jason Finger, CEO of CityGrid and Dan Levy, Director, Small Business, at Facebook where he is responsible for sales, marketing, and service for the millions of small businesses who use Facebook to connect with their customers and grow their businesses.   He’s going to talk about the new Facebook’s “Nearby” feature that has captured a lot of press recently.  We expect he will share insight into some of the recent updates to Nearby as well as plans for future updates such as the addition of information from third-party services.

Facebook’s Nearby combines the social elements of Facebook with its geo-location services by allowing users to find local spots that friends have checked into or “liked” such as restaurants or other local stores and businesses. In addition to social information, users are provided with addresses, contact info and hours of operation for these local businesses. Facebook also goes a step further by tapping into the hugely successful online reviews space with features that allow users to rate and review local businesses and recommend them to friends.

Prior to Facebook, Dan started his own marketing business – Justarrive, and spent seven years at PayPal.

 YPT:  You really are pulling in some big digital players for speakers.

Norton:   It’s a good mix of key players across the local search space.  Greg Sterling is working with us on the agenda and he’s helped tremendously with the content and is also participating as a speaker.

YPT:  What are you expecting in the way of attendance at the event?

Norton:  Our internal goal is 500. We’re cautiously optimistic as we are actually ahead of pace in registrations from where we were in prior conferences, and we’re also doing well on sponsorships, but there are still several sponsorship positions available. It’s a great way for people to have their businesses featured at the event. People can call Terri Stabnick at 248.244.0743 or email her at terri.stabnick@localsearchassociation.org to find out more.

 YPT:  In a time of tight corporate travel budgets, why should people want to attend this event?

Norton:  We try to present an event that has strong content so people can come learn from others who are doing interesting, creative things. We also have a lot of opportunities for people to network, to get to know others in the industry better. And of course, it’s Vegas so there’s always an opportunity to have a little bit of fun.

 YPT:  Is there any discounted pricing for the conference still being offered?

Norton:  Yes.  If people register by February 13th they can receive the Early Bird rate, which is $200 off the full registration price.

 YPT:  Are you still planning to do the Strategic Exchange Sessions?

Norton:   Most definitely.  And if people sign up today for a Strategic Exchange Session (SES) sponsorship, they also get one full registration to the conference on the house! But they have to hurry. The sessions are where attendees can meet and discuss strategic opportunities with the industry’s key partners and suppliers.  We have sold out sponsorships for the sessions at our last couple of conferences.

Sunday’s agenda starts with our annual golf tournament, the Strategic Exchange Sessions, and in the evening the Industry Excellence Awards ceremony.  Just a reminder for your readers that the Industry Excellence Awards, which showcase the industry’s most creative marketing ideas, plans and communication tools, creativity, know-how and implementation compare to the competition are still open for submissions until February 8.   (For past winners, categories and more, click here!)

YPT:  What can we expect to be different this year?

Norton:  This year you might expect to see a lot of new faces in the crowd, people from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yelp, and other heavy hitters from the online space.  In addition, we plan to feature start-ups with new products/services during the Lightning Round session.  We started this last year and people really liked it!

YPT:  What can we expect to hear in your presentation?

Norton:  Good question. I’ll have to start thinking about this! Obviously, I am going to talk about the marketplace changes and how the LSA is evolving to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our members. We had a lot of success this year and we want to make sure we keep the momentum going we earned this year.

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone in Las Vegas at the Planet Hollywood Casino & Resort!

 

ADP Launches “Power of Yellow” Campaign to Fight A “Virus of Misperception”

In a packed meeting room on Friday in Chicago, the Association of Publishers rolled out a new multi-phase effort entitled the Power of Yellow™ , to increase the factual understanding of advertisers, consumers, and the press about the continuing value of print Yellow Pages, and to immunize the industry against the “virus of misperception” that it believes it threatening the industry today.

The genesis of the campaign comes from a desire on the part by independent publishers to initiate a “Got Milk”-grass roots style of campaign for the Yellow Pages industry.  Larry Angove, President of ADP, indicated that earlier efforts to work with the former Yellow Pages Publishers Association (YPPA) on a campaign were rebuffed.

This is the first coordinated industry marketing effort since the mid-90′s when the then named Yellow Pages Publishers Association (YPPA), tried a light bulb and the tagline in the “Get an idea”

Unable to achieve any significant traction with the new branding (traction that could be verified through higher sales) the “Get an Idea” campaign was abandoned two years later.

This new, multi-faceted program general first-phase components are being provided to all ADP members at no cost, and include templated adds that can used in a range of media

• Phased Media Releases
• Television Spots
• Radio Spots
• Print Media Ads
• Newspaper Op-Ed Articles
• Magazine Feature Articles
• Directory Filler Ads
• Sales Presentation Video
• Coordinated Sales Collateral

Support for the effort also includes:

• Placement Guidelines and Schedules
• Offensive Talking Points
• Defensive talking Points
• Advertiser Testimonials
• Data Source Documentation

A unique feature of this new program is the inclusion of four of the industry’s leading research experts to “star” in a series of 30-second television and 30-second radio spots proclaiming the Power of Yellow™ which publishers can then add their own product information to for local release.  Featured in the spots are:

1. Dr. Dennis Fromholzer, President, CRM Associates
2. David Goddard, EVP, IMS Local Search Authority
3. Paul Gordon, Vice President & General Manager, Catalyst Paper USA
4. Steve Sitton, President & CEO, Market Authority, Inc.

In presentations at the kickoff event, each of these industry experts noted key aspects of the factual arguments this effort will present:

Dr. Dennis Fromholzer:  “….the value of a lead from print yellow pages is 25X more valuable than a click to an online ad”

David Goddard:  “….people where saying print was dead 10 years ago.  We project the print/digital revenue mix will not reach 50/50 until 2018 at the earliest…”

Paul Gordon:  “…the reality is the industry isn’t knocking down trees solely to make paper for its products”

Steve Sitton:  “…print is not dying on schedule as many said it would.  Our research has found that the migration to digital is slowing.  That’s a very inconvenient truth”

At YP Talk, we have long advocated that the industry needs to begin to confront its many critics about print.  As far back as 2005, we made several calls to action (here, and here are just two examples).  As Goddard noted at the kickoff, if the Seattle and San Francisco opt-out ordinances had held up, they could have resulted in a $500+ million hit to the industry.   In June, we advocated that the industry reconsider the use of the iconic walking fingers in its local marketing efforts (June article here).  As a result, we are ecstatic to see this new initiative from ADP and will be supporting it fully as it rolls out.

As Sitton noted at the kickoff, it’s time to stop this “virus of misinformation”.  Amen.  But the industry needs your support.  Do we have it??

BIA/Kelsey SMB Kicks Off Busy Fall Conference Schedule

We are entering a busy industry conference season starting next week with the BIA/Kelsey SMB Digital Marketing 2012 conference, which takes place Sept. 17-19, in Chicago.
 Time is running short to join the digital marketing community, which is gathering to discuss the incredible SMB marketing opportunity for media, commerce, and engagement solutions. As of this point BIA/Kelsey has assembled an impressive lineup of nearly 50 speakers from across the SMB digital marketing space, including keynoters from Demandforce/Intuit, Constant Contact, Dex One, Facebook, Groupon and ReachLocal and featured speakers from Google/Wildfire, Deluxe, Yelp, Angie’s List, Belly, and many more.

YP Talk is looking forward to a conference program which is designed to provide valuable takeaways with topics that include local sales strategies, merchant outreach, SMB engagement/promotions, local search, social media and mobile strategies.   This conference historically offers the rare opportunity to meet with leaders in the SMB digital marketing solutions space.  Organizers are expecting more than 400 senior executives from over 150 companies at the conference.  To see the current list of companies attending go to: http://www.biakelsey.com/SMBDigital/companies.asp.

Save some money:  LinkedIn members who are also BIA/Kelsey group members can receive an additional $200 off the registration price by using the promo code SMBIN when registering.

SIGN UP TODAY. The registration price increases Sept. 17. Register today with promo code SMBIN at for greatest savings.

For a more international flavor, consider attending the 2012 ADPAI Annual Conference in Bangkok on November 5-6, 2012.  This event being run by the Asian Local Search and Media Association (ADPAI) will have major players in the local search and media space for the

The agenda is focused on the regional opportunities arising from the explosive growth that the social, local and mobile spaces have been experiencing in Asia.  We can verify there is a lot of action in Asia as we found in our interview with ADPAI Chairman – Oscar Sousa Marques, the CEO of Directel Macau yellow pages (full interview here).

Session discussions will also include how to re-train and reorganize your sales force so to effectively sell digital media, how to identify and make the most of opportunities that lie in mobile advertising, how regional companies can use social media as a tool for acquiring and maintaining customers, and much more.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Neal Polachek
• James Sanders, Google
• Charles Laughlin, BIA/Kelsey
• Peter Buxton, Yellow Search Today
• Mattias Wedar, Eniro, Sweden
• Trevor Nadeau, Turkey Yellow Pages
• Pavel Dolezal, SEO/SEM/SMM Specialist, Czech Republic

All the information is available online at www.adpai.com including the registration form and the sponsorship packages.

The ADPAI event is then followed by the Yellow Search Today!  Annual Conference which will be held November 14-15, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany.  Peter Ch. Buxton of Buxton Independent Consulting and Jesper Simonsen of J.S. Consulting ApS, who combined more than 30 years of operational and practical experience in the directory markets of Europe, have changed the events focus somewhat to the broad market of operators offering online, digital and mobile advertising services to the small and medium–sized business.

This event will have a theme of how to drive revenue by effective customer segmentation:

• Which products do we offer to which  segments?
• How does segmentation increase the salesperson’s credibility?
• How do we put segmentation into action?

It is also an event which provides attendees with a great opportunity to meet fellow industry colleagues and develop new relationships.

Dex One and SuperMedia to Merge

Well, the long rumored merger of Dex One and SuperMedia is now real as plans to merge were formally released this morning.  The combined entity will be called “Dex Media” and will have approximately $3.1 billion in revenue (based on 2011 results).

Peter McDonald, the current CEO of SuperMedia will lead the merged operation.  Dex One CEO Alfred Mockett will step down at the completion of the merger, which is expected in the fourth quarter.

For the industry, this is the type of merger which had been expected for some time.  It really was only a matter of which companies, and who would finance the move.  As a result the U.S. Yellow Pages market will have three big players, YP Holdings (the old AT&T), the new combined Dex Media, and Yellowbook/now Hibu. Beyond these leaders, industry analysts such as BIA/Kelsey believe that further merger activity will coming from companies such as No. 4 sized Berry, as publishers look for the most efficient, sustainable platform in the rush to move from an all traditional print to a blended print/digital business.  It is a little like speed dating – better find your partner before the music stops.  Logic tells you that the pace of mergers should pick up now as others rush to find those partners.  The band is getting a little weary.

For the employees of the two merged companies, you would have to expect more layoffs in operations and staff positions after the merger is completed.

For the Local Search Association, this provides more challenges as they have lost a major dues paying member.

This merger should add some more excitement to the upcoming BIA/Kelsey – SMB Digital Marketing 2012 Conference which will be held 9/17-9/19 in Chicago (link to conference information).  Dex’s Mockett was scheduled to be one of the conferences keynote speakers.  Won’t that be an interesting presentation…..

On a lighter note, does this mean the new marketing campaign will have the Dex Knows nerd wearing a cape????

Larry Angove, President of ADP to Retire

The Association of Directory Publishers (ADP) has announced that Larry Angove, their President and Chief Executive Officer since 1997, is planning to retire on or after June 30, 2013.

As a result, a Presidential Search Committee consisting of independent publisher leaders — Danny Bills, Wally Downey, Jim Hail, Steve Skinner, and Vernon Smith has been formed to  coordinate the search for Larry’s successor.

Recommendations/expressions of interest are being directed to Danny Bills at  dang452@aol.com.  All recommendations and applications will be kept confidential by the Committee.

 

 

Can you “hibu”?

Yell/YellowBook has recently announced it will rebrand as “hibu”, (pending the approval of its shareholders in July) in an effort to be more identified as a service provider to SMBs that goes beyond just traditional print Yellow Pages.  A study using 165 cases of company rebranding  found that no matter whether a rebranding comes from a change in corporate strategy (e.g., M&A) or constitutes an actual marketing strategy (change the corporate reputation), the effort aims at enhancing, regaining, transferring, and/or repositioning the corporate brand equity.

Such a radical name change like this certainly raises the issue of whether Yellow Page publishers need new brands to attract (and retain) new users. Company rebranding is a tricky game – remember the “new” Coke?  Some other recent examples include the company we all love to hate; cable-television and Internet conglomerate Comcast, a name synonymous with poor customer service and overcharging which in February 2010, began marketing its Internet video services under the new name, Xfinity, leaving customers to wonder what exactly the name meant. As a writer for Time magazine quipped, “Will the name change work? Probably not, but at least it’ll sound a bit edgier when you’re put on hold … with Xfinity.”

Another example would be The Gap.  In October 2010, the clothing retailer Gap abandoned it’s long standing logo consisting of a blue box with “GAP” written in white inside, for a slightly altered new version described by Marka Hansen, Gap’s president for North America, as a “…journey to make Gap more relevant to our customers.” Apparently, the customers didn’t share his view, and following a tide wave of online criticism/outrage, the company did an about-face within a week.Unique company or product names, by themselves, may not have any actual meaing to begin with. But if backed by a strong, successful branding campaign, they can come to signify whatever the companies want them to mean.  Case in point — AFLAC, a large international insurer but hardly a household name until the last few years, is now well recognized using a duck as a key spokesperson and promoter.

The success of any rebranding is more tied to the level of advertising needed to create an image around the name.  “I don’t think the name of a company is hugely important in the long run,” suggests professor David Schmittlein. He adds that even fabricated names are “real names” in the sense that “they are pronounceable words. I think of them as largely empty vessels – reliable and durable empty vessels that can be filled up with positive associations.”

The Yellow Page industry is no different.  This name change for Yell follows several recent publisher branding changes, made in order to separate the company from the “baggage” of the print Yellow Pages label as they pursue new digital products. Hence, we’ve seen names like Idearc, ZipLocal, LocalEdge, Sensis, Truvo, and Eniro.

A primary case study could be made the creation of Verizon Communications, which was formed in June, 2000, following the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. The genesis of the unique company name came from the Latin word “veritas” meaning truth, combined with the word “horizon”, all to project something more forward-looking and visionary. The Verizon symbol was also selected because it uses the two letters of the Verizon logo that graphically portrayed speed.  (Source)

In making this change, Verizon, beyond having a huge advertising budget to promote the change, had several other branding advantages working in its favor:

• A huge fleet of telephone company vehicles driving around the market each and every day (aka – rolling billboards)
• As a public utility, numerous daily articles and stories in which the public was reminded of the name change  (as in free publicity)
• A growing cellular presence which helped push the name even more quickly, even in areas where they were not the incumbent telephone provider.

Yell/Hibu is certainly handicapped in the transition without these supporting efforts.  The question for Yell/Hibu is whether its shift in branding, which accentuates its move to new digital products, can be accomplished in time.  Yell has been undergoing a radical transformation since its leadership changed in 2011 with the retirement of John Condron. Current CEO Mike Pocock is trying to shift the business from just a directory publisher to a provider of a complete range of local advertising and e-marketing services.

With a nagging debt load which contributed to a GBP 1.4 billion loss for the year and prompted the company to retain Goldman Sachs and Greenhill to help it build a new capital structure, can the company amass a big enough budget to truly promote and implement the name change?

Ironic isn’t it though that the funding for this name change for Yell Group is actually coming from the very core print products they seemed to be in such a hurray to distance themselves from (print is 71.3% of Yell revenue,  78.1% for YellowBook – per the newly renamed Goddard Report).

Certainly, the future isn’t what it use to be….

Why go to the “Search Starts Here” conference?

A couple of weeks ago we provided some information on the upcoming 2012 Local Search Association Conference in this article.  The event will take place in Boca Raton, Florida on April 21 to 24th.  We recently caught up with Association President Neg Norton to find out how the Search Starts Here themed conference is shaping up.  Since we are less than two months from the event, Neg provided some additional insights to why people should plan to attend this event.

First off, they have lined up a wide range of speakers from across the local search and directory publishing industry.  Neg notes that “it’s a strong agenda and we’re doing a few things differently this year.  We have lots of different topics and more presentation formats than in prior years.”  For example, some recent additions to the speaker lineup include Peter McDonald, CEO, SuperMedia (and Chairman of the Local Search Association);  Alfred Mockett, CEO, Dex One; Ursula Worth, head of directories and web hosting partnerships, Google; Trevor Nadeau, managing director, Yellow Medya (Turkey); Chris Silver Smith, President, Argent Media; Peter Buxton, Buxton Independent Consulting (Germany) and Krishna Pillai, COO and Founder Convergent Media.

At a time when travel budgets are tight, why attend this conference?  Neg summed it up in a concise but valuable comment – “you’ll walk away with actionable insights you can put in play the first day you are back on the job.  There will be insights from several pieces of research –– forward-looking analysis of relevant market data from both LSA and BIA/Kelsey, vSplash analysis of 500,000 websites from around the world (invitation only session), insights from local media sales reps, and more.”  Clearly, the ROI for coming to the conference is real.

If you go a little deeper in the agenda, you will find keynote speeches, panels, and fireside chats.  Some highlights:

• Neg and Peter McDonald will provide a state of the association and industry overview,
• Google will be talking about what they see on social, local and mobile products.
• SMG Directory Marketing will have one of their clients focus on how a sophisticated national advertiser builds their local media plan.
• Axiom Sales Force Development will host a session focused on tools and techniques for effective sales coaching.
• A “lightening round” from new supplier members with new technologies and applications who will have just a short 4 minutes to talk about the newest stuff they are working on and rolling out.

The LSA conference will also continue the format they have used successfully for two prior conferences – Strategic Exchange Sessions where suppliers can get private meetings with key prospects. Neg indicated we can expect to see some new companies in the Strategic Exchange Sessions this year—companies like Adflexer, Willow Tree Apps, Axiom Sales Force Development as well as some faces from last year such as Yellow Magic, PlaceLinks, The Andersen Group, Amdocs, Acxiom—-to name just a few.

If you are looking to meet and talk with new companies, potential new partners, the conference has a number of social networking opportunities.  Last year the conference attracted around 400 attendees.  This year’s event is on track to reach the same levels.  Given the expansion of the association beyond the traditional directory space, expect a noticeable increase in “non-traditional” companies.  Many will be companies the industry is already doing business with; and others are looking to enter the space with their new products and services.  Here are some of the formal networking events scheduled:

• There is the annual golf tournament on Sunday morning, a more casual environment for making and building great connections.
• The Industry Excellence Awards will be held Sunday evening, with a reception that follows allows for mixing and mingling over drinks and light refreshments.
• The President’s New Member and Associate Member Reception (invitation only) offers a chance to meet the newest      members of the association, as well as those who support the local search industry.
• The Poolside Party Monday night offers a lively environment for conversation over dinner and cocktails.

And with all that, it is Florida, so attendees can maybe get a chance to enjoy the sunshine and great weather they have this time of year.  This truly is no long just a yellow pages conference; it really is a true local search happening….

Go register now at: http://bit.ly/wdQ4Ux. Tell them YP Talk sent you…

Separating Perception from Reality – Truth is Power….

“No one uses print Yellow Pages.”  “Everyone uses a mobile phone, or just does a Google search to find information.”  “Why are these books still being printed when no one ever uses them?”

Sound familiar?  How can a publisher, a sales manager, or a rep respond to this constant barrage of wild assumptions they face?  The answer is fairly simple – separate the facts from the perception …in a believable and compelling way.

The best way to do that is to engage a company like Market Authority, to help get to those facts. Market Authority offers irrefutable data, analysis and reporting on how people really look for a local business when making a buying decision. Then they bring this data to you and your sales people in a very powerful sales training. The research fully dispels the prevalent “urban myth” that the Internet is the only source for local search information.

I know, this sounds too good to be true.  But consider that Market Authority has conducted interviews with over 270,000 consumers across the world in the last 20 months, studying their technology and media habits, especially when they are looking for a local business.  The sheer volume of this research has certainly been the largest and most extensive directional media study ever performed on this issue.

Now if you‘re like me, you are always suspicious about the research methodology that is used since the worst thing that can happen is to go to market with data that has been skewed or fudged.  I challenged Steve Sitton, the CEO of Market Authority on this very issue.  His response was reassuring:

“…Our team utilizes state-of-the-art research techniques, statistical analysis, and normalization to gather accurate data.  To start, the phone numbers are randomized. We make the line of questions as concise and neutral as possible.  We conduct the interviews over the most neutral device possible …the phone. Obviously, you can’t do this type research just on the Internet since the results would be ridiculously skewed towards the digital side, which is why these other studies keep showing that digital usage is so over stated.”

When you get to see the results, they are clearly shocking.   “The misconception that print yellow pages is dead is prevalent all over the industrial world,” said Sitton.  “While more and more people are using the Internet either from a terminal or a smartphone to find SMEs (small to medium size businesses), the reality is, print yellow pages still remains the dominant way consumers are finding a business in the US in 2012. This is also true in the UK and Australia.”

Market Authority then takes this data to the critical next level that local businesses still need to hear:  Approx. 65% of all money currently being spent in the US by local consumers is finding its way to those local markets through print yellow page products. Yes, that percent has been coming down in recent years, but the print products still rule.

These results support the argument of just how destructive the efforts are by the city of San Francisco (a local government that has a political agenda) to require opt-in for printed phonebooks, because they assume that no one uses print. (Sitton calls this ‘the virus of misperception’).  Market Authority has recently completed an exhaustive study of the San Francisco Bay area which shows that nearly 70% of residents still use a printed phonebook at least some of the time. That same study shows that the average person living in the Bay Area thinks print is only used by 20% of the people. The reality of print usage is more than three times that of the perception.

“The bottom line here,” says Sitton, “is the study indicates that currently nearly 50% of money spent as a result of a direct search for a local business on the part of San Francisco Bay Area consumers comes from a look-up in a printed directory. To seriously impede distribution of printed Yellow Pages directories (through opt-in legislation) would surely cause a vast reduction in the effectiveness of the current most cost effective means of gaining new leads for San Francisco Bay Area businesses. This would be damaging to locally-owned small and medium businesses, especially in this precarious economy.”

Given the current wave of anti-print noise that many consumers are experiencing, we asked what the company does to quantify the whole value of a print directory with an opt-out/opt-in question in their research.  Sitton indicated:

“We asked people in the San Francisco Bay area who report using a printed directory; (68% of the total) if a phone book were no longer automatically delivered and they had to make a call to receive one, would they do so? Nearly 50% said they would not make that call. This implies that print would lose a high percentage of its greatest fans overnight in a Opt-in world.”

Results in the UK where tilted about 8 points more towards digital, but remember their starting point was very different than it was in the US.  Currently many publishers there are already close to a 50/50 split on print/digital revenues, which Sitton says, “Is more because they’ve undersold the print than that they have effectively sold the digital”.

Steve Sitton brings an interesting background to this effort.  He has been in the directional media business for over 25 years, owning and operating 5 different Yellow Page companies during his career as a publisher.  While leading Golden State Directories in California, as early as 2007 he started to hear about the Internet from advertisers.  Immediately advertisers already thought that 50% of the money they were getting was from Internet searches.  The company started some initial research where they interviewed 1500 people door-to-door about whether people were using print or Internet. The results were so over the top in favor of print, it was alarming.  In 2007, nearly 90% of the leads businesses were getting were still coming from the print Yellow Pages.  Internet was only generating less than 12%.

Market Authority, Inc. was founded in 2009 by Steve Sitton.  Using his industry experience, he shaped the research methods to exacting efficiency. All markets they research are scanned for behavioral, demographic, technological, and directional media usage patterns. Market Authority, Inc. performs and records the research, gathers and analyzes the data, with state-of-the art precision; and now is able to define the roles the Internet and print play in today’s directional media industry.

Market Authority, Inc has also become an industry leader in training.  Sitton says: “We are a sales empowerment/market research company. That is a new mix…and it really works. I believe we have the most powerful Yellow Pages training in industry history.”  To date, Market Authority has studied over 300 cities.  Sitton and senior trainer, Layne Snyder, have conducted nearly 170 trainings with over 6500 sales people and managers in the US and the UK.

Given this shift in usage, we asked Sitton where he thought the industry should be heading.  His analysis about what to do with print was simple but direct:

• Use larger type so that Baby Boomers and Senior’s can read it. Tag this on the cover.
• In high tech areas, reduce  copies by target-distributing only those over 45 years old. (Let younger people who want a book pick them up at drop points). Use the money saved by  the reduction to make a better product for 45+ people.
• Research all your markets  and share this research vigorously with every advertiser.

He commented deeper on these suggestions:

“The key for print is not how many people are using it, but who.  If you look at how business owners target the market, they are generally less sophisticated on the demographic breakdowns.  That’s when the sales rep needs to use these results to help the business owner focus their advertising spend.  Nearly 70% of the dollars spent across all size markets in the US are coming from Baby Boomers and Senior’s who still use print to find a business nearly 70% of time (on the average). This is the 70/70 rule. It means, even in urban areas (like San Francisco), a significant amount of money is still coming from print.  The advertiser needs to clearly know who they are selling to and who is their target.”

About Market Authority, Inc.:

Market Authority combines the most targeted print/digital research in the world and the most effective sales training in Yellow Pages industry. Sales reps will understand how to quickly and powerfully get the message across to business owners.  As former Yellow Pages publishers, Market Authority understands what empowers sales representatives, and what closes more sales.  Our nationally successful program renews your confidence and shows your sales representatives how to leverage the results in their local markets. Learn More…                       

For more information on Market Authority, Inc.’s market studies, contact Kari Simpson, at 816-537-7950.

A Peek Behind the Curtain at BIA/Kelsey ILM East Event

Typically, BIA/Kelsey ILM events are hotbeds for discussion on technology and sales innovation. While this upcoming ILM East event, March 26-28 in Boston is similar in many ways, it’s also very different from prior ones.

Peter Krasilovsky, Vice President at BIA/Kelsey, and the event coordinator for this conference, recently sat down to talk with us about what’s driving some of the unique new panels they have constructed for this event. Krasilovsky confirmed “…the industry has moved beyond a one dimensional focus on advertising models and this event reflects that. What we’ve all seen is that the relationship with SME’s is based on a wide variety of channels. Developing areas such as social media and ecommerce potentially add up to bigger and better results. In many ways we are really closing the whole transactions loop.”

The BIA/Kelsey folks believe they can achieve this transition by inviting people from a wide range of disciplines such as ad networks, major search engines, and the transaction processing providers who are increasingly coaching companies on how to get more out of their transaction processing. Krasilovsky noted that “…the deals revolution began four years ago a simple daily deal. That was mostly about customer acquisition. But it is increasingly about engagement now.” Expect a range of industries to be represented. BIA/Kelsey events are legendary for attracting senior level executives with a wide range of views and who are looking to collaborate to increase their business and be more effective.

As providers look to move beyond just the initiating the sale to now fully completing it, and then have the intelligence need to make the next sale to them. Krasilovsky commented that “local has really hit the big time. We are seeing major business players, such as the banks and credit card companies. They have a major role in the transaction cycle via their relationships, and companies such as American Express are also leveraging their own brands.“ Leslie Berland, SVP, Digital Partnerships & Development of American Express is expected to talk about the deals she has put together with FourSquare, Facebook, and the Small Business Saturday campaign they started (the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend and right after the now famous “Black Friday”).

Besides the hot new innovation areas, several ILM East presentations will focus on the basics: how to help small businesses across all the channels. Jay Herratti the CEO of CityGrid Media will discuss some of the great local advertising solutions their network has developed.

Each BIA/Kelsey conference is also renowned for in-depth local research. ILM East will feature the release of the next iteration of the Local Commerce Monitor survey, which has been tracking the transition of small business marketing dollars to online and mobile for the last thirteen years. The group is just completing the review of the data collected at the end of 2011.

I will be very curious to see how the Venture Capital panel goes. These people are where so much of the funding comes from for new projects funded. And given that the money people have little to no interest in the traditional yellow pages business right now, we need to see what they are watching and investing. Krasilovsky expects top VCs from Boston, New York, and Silicon Valley. With the Facebook IPO now out, all of us can have a deeper insight into how these new social media giants are monetizing their sites, and what they are now doing in the emerging mobile space where the margins are lower.

One cool, more tactical session with be when Local search expert Andrew Shotland holds a special ILM East workshop to provide executives with top insights into making search a strategic tool. Keep an eye on the ILM East site for more details.

The BIA/Kelsey folks have also arranged to visit the Boston Globe’s Media Lab. This effort has been a trendsetter in local media, and continues to be an industry leader in the development of marketplaces, mobile services, paid services and hyperlocal models.

Typical BIA/Kelsey ILM events attract 500-600 people. With this speaker line up, expect that you will see a similar number of registrations. I would suggest you consider registering NOW!!! One secret for you — sign up and make your travel arrangements quickly === they sold out the hotel last year. You can click here to book your hotel room!