Gamespot.com and UGO Lead Gaming Ad Sales Organizations; MySpace Leads Social Networks

Myers 2007 Survey of Advertising Executives Results

Gamespot.com and UGO had the highest rankings in Overall Performance Power Score, followed by Heavy.com and IGN in the sixth annual Myers Survey of Advertising Executives on the Sales Organization Performance of 14 Gaming & Social Networks. At number five, MySpace.com had the highest ranking among all of the social networking sites (The survey was conducted very early in the development stages of Facebook's sales organization.) Among the 125 total website sales organizations ranked in this year’s survey, the top three gaming sites ranked in the top ten based on their Overall Performance Power Score. Gamespot.com and UGO were ranked third and fourth respectively, and Heavy.com was ranked 10th. Although these sites are relatively niche brands, clearly they are making a positive impression on the online advertising community. The gaming, entertainment and social media category includes 14 sites. Since gaming sites ebb and flow in popularity, there are a number of new sites tracked this year, including ATOM entertainment, UGO entertainment and Heavy.com. Additional details are available at jackmyers.com.

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.

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.” Of the 23 websites that were mentioned by more than 3% of our sample, MySpace.com was the only gaming, entertainment or social media site (cited by 5% of our respondents).

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 top ranked web sites, each had significant increases in their Overall Performance Power Score from 2006*. Gamespot.com and UGO Entertainment’s Overall Performance Power Score nearly doubled from 30% to 57% in 2007. MySpace.com’s Overall Performance Power Score increased from 28% to 48% year over year.

• USAGE BY ADVERTISERS: Usage of entertainment, gaming and social networking sites as advertising platforms has increased dramatically since 2006. Two thirds of our client and agency respondents used MySpace.com in the past 12 months versus only 39% who had used it based on our 2006 survey. Facebook.com usage has increased to 38% (from 21% in 2006). Usage of IGN has doubled in 2007. UGO Entertainment, Atom Entertainment and Heavy.com were not measured in 2006, yet one third of our respondents used each of these sites based on this years’ survey.

• MEETING WITH SALES REP: Similarly, a much larger proportion of our respondents met with a rep in the past twelve months than in our 2006 study. Two thirds of our respondents met with a MySpace.com rep in 2007 (versus 37% in 2006). Facebook.com doubled their visibility in the advertising community; 44% of our respondents met with a rep in ’07 versus only 22% in ’06. These in-person meetings can have a huge impact on perceptions of the websites. For Facebook.com, those who did not meet with a sales rep gave it an average power score of 9% versus 30% among those who did meet with a rep.

• AVERAGE ATTRIBUTE RATINGS: The average ratings for each attribute were higher for entertainment, gaming and social network sites than the average for portals and search engines. 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 16 sites included in this category than the other attributes (42% and 40% top two box respectively).32% gave a top two box rating foroverall value of the relationship to you, while 34% had a top two box rating for the organization delivering on promises. The average top two box rating for organization offers valuable non-traditional opportunitieswas 31% (note: the average top two box rating for portals, search engines and commerce sites on offering non traditional opportunities was 22%, and 38% for television and video sites). This is a potential area of improvement for gaming, entertainment and social media sites.

• OVERALL VALUE: The proportion of respondents who rated Gamespot.com as top two box in providing overall value in their relationship doubled from 29% in 2006 to 58% in 2007. MySpace.com’s top two box percentages also doubled from 23% in 2006 to 48% in 2007.

• ONLINE SPECIALISTS AND CLIENTS: Those who spend at least 75% of their time focused on online media rated MySpace.com higher (51% Overall Performance Power Score) than those who spend less of their time focused on online media (43% Overall Performance Power Score). This difference was smaller for Facebook.com (25% Overall Performance Power Score for online specialists versus 23% among those who spend less than 75% of their time on online media). Advertising clients also rated MySpace.com higher than agency personnel (59% Overall Performance Power Score versus 45%).

Additional details are available at jackmyers.com.