In the coming weeks, BlueLithium Inc., one of the largest online ad network firms, will officially announce the opening of its Boston office. It's the latest reason for the interactive media industry to be focused on New England.
This region's tech-centric marketing community, once considered by new-media insiders as one of the top three nationwide for digital advertising and marketing, suffered hard times when the Internet spending bubble burst.
But with the recent rise in Internet advertising, combined with local innovations in new media such as blogs, IP video and the wireless realm, local executives say New England is poised to regain its status alongside San Francisco and New York.
For its part, BlueLithium will be bringing big-name accounts such as Cingular Wireless LLC, Vonage Corp. and Monster.com to the Boston office as it builds out its team here, according to Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO of BlueLithium.
Though Chahal would not disclose an exact number of local employees, he said the new office will start small and will grow using local talent.
While the Boston office will be charged with various projects for the firm's large clients, it will also manage relationships with local interactive advertising agencies, including Media Contacts, Carat Fusion, Digitas Inc., Hill Holliday, One-to-One Interactive LLC, Connelly Partners and Mullen Advertising Inc.
The membership numbers of the Boston Interactive Media Association (BIMA) -- a division of the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) and one of the
longest-running among such associations in the country -- mimic the rise and fall of the local interactive marketing industry. At its peak, the organization boasted 1,000 individual members, while at its lowest point in 2003 it had fewer than 520. As of last month, the group had grown to 1,500, according to Mary Crogan, president of the group and a media director at Carat Fusion.
Ed Montes, managing director of Media Contacts, said some companies are already dedicating large amounts of capital to interactive media, but there is still room for the market to grow. "I see a lot of companies doing so much in the interactive space, like Fidelity, but there are other large companies in the area that aren't, like Gillette, for example," he said.
The worldwide Internet advertising market is growing rapidly. The Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that revenue from online advertising for 2005 is expected to exceed $12.5 billion when the group produces its final report, in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers, in April. That represents a 30 percent increase over the $9.6 billion spent in 2004.
With a thriving Internet advertising industry, many are looking to new media, such as the mobile environment, as the next opportunity.
With one of the most robust wireless technology communities in the country, according to Mark Lowenstein, a wireless analyst and managing director of Mobile Ecosystem in Wellesley, New England is poised to take its place in the mobile advertising and marketing industry, as well.
In first-quarter 2006 mobile ad network developer Third Screen Media Inc. in Boston landed $5 million in funding; MobileLime in Watertown, a maker of wireless customer loyalty technologies closed a $10 million VC round; and m-Qube Inc., a Boston-based developer of mobile content distribution technologies was acquired by VeriSign Inc. for $250 million.