CNET, WSJ and Yahoo! Finance are Online Sales Powerhouses

Myers Survey of Advertising Executives Results

Four companies are closely grouped as the leading online sales organizations among 13 business and technology sites in the sixth annual Myers Survey of Advertising Executives on Online Sales Organizations. CNET was the top rated site with an Overall Performance Power Score of 50.0, followed by WSJ.com and Marketwatch. Yahoo! Finance ranked fourth with an Overall Performance Power Score of 48 and there is a seven point gap between it and the next sales organization, CNNMoney.com. Compared to the 125 websites rated in this years' survey, the top business, tech and science sites ranked in the top quintile. The business, technology and science category represents 13 sites including online sales organizations from traditional media franchises (e.g., Forbes.com, WSJ.com), finance sections of major portals (e.g., Yahoo! Finance) as well as independent sites like Motley Fool and CNET. Additional details are available at jackmyers.com.

Prior to asking about specific websites, we asked respondents for their unaided recall of "online media sales organizations that provide the best overall support for your marketing and media buying needs." Overall, there was very low unaided mention of Business, Technology and Science Sites. CNET was mentioned by 7% of respondents and Forbes.com by 3% of our sample.

Overall Performance Power Score

Myers Power Scores provide a unique view of the overall performance of each site across all attributes, with attributes weighted according to their importance and influence on the media planning and buying process. These scores were used to determine the sales organizations that have the highest quality relationships with advertisers and media decision makers.

The Overall Performance Power Score attributes evaluated include:

• Sales Reps are responsive to my needs and interests
• Sales Reps have knowledge of product, content & competition
• Organization delivers on promises
• Organization offers valuable non-traditional opportunities
• Overall value of the relationship to you

• POWER SCORES: Among the sites measured in our 2006 survey, CNET, WSJ.com Marketwatch.com, TheStreet.com and Bloomberg.com had significant increases in Overall Performance Power Score in 2007*. Forbes.com and BusinessWeek.com declined year over year.

• USAGE BY ADVERTISERS: Usage of business, technology and science sites for online media buys remained relatively flat year over year (in contrast to many other categories which had high growth). About.com is the only web site that experiences increased usage (perhaps due to their integration with NY Times Digital). Usage of Forbes.com and Marketwatch.com declined since our 2006 survey.

• MEETING WITH SALES REP: Overall Performance Power Score for About.com on average were three times higher among those who met with a rep as those who did not meet with a rep (32 vs. 10). A greater percentage of our respondents met with Forbes.com and About.com reps in 2007 versus 2006. The other top sites were relatively flat year over year (in contrast to other categories like social networking, entertainment and search engines that saw large increases in sales rep penetration).

• AVERAGE ATTRIBUTE RATINGS: The average ratings for each attribute were relatively high compared to the other categories we measured. Across the five attributes rated for each website, knowledge of products, content and competition and responsiveness of sales reps rated higher on average across the 13 sites included in this category than the other attributes (both were 43% top two box).38% of our respondents gave a top two box rating for the organization delivering on promises(compared to 31% for portals and search engines). 35% gave a top two box rating foroverall value of the relationship to you, while only 24% gave a top two box rating for organization offers valuable non-traditional opportunities.Coming up with some creative offerings in this category may be an opportunity to improve overall perceptions.

• OVERALL VALUE: CNET, WSJ.com, Marketwatch.com, TheStreet.com and Bloomberg.com each increased significantly on overall value of the relationship in 2007. Forbes.com was the only site in this category that had a significant decline in their top two box rating of overall value.

• ONLINE SPECIALISTS: Those who spend less than 75% of their time focused on online media, had higher Overall Performance Power Score for WSJ.com (61) than among those who spend more than 75% of their time with online media (43 Overall Performance Power Score). This may be a halo effect of clients or media buyers who also purchase media on the Wall Street Journal. Across the business, technology and science category there were not significant differences in Overall Performance Power Score among advertising clients and agency personnel (in many other categories clients gave the websites higher ratings).

The sales organizations of one hundred twenty five (125) websites were evaluated for the 2007 Myers Survey of Advertising Executives. Respondents evaluated each sales organization on five attributes, using a one to seven scale, with one representing extremely poor performance and seven representing excellent performance. The performance rankings incorporated into this report are based on the percent of respondents who rated each organization "6" or "7" on the seven point scale, also referred to as top 2 box percentage. Additional details are available at jackmyers.com.