The Blog Advertising Industry Needs A Champion

According to Greg Stuart, president and chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

“The IAB has not given much thought to weblogs, which aren’t seen as all that different, from an advertising perspective, from normal websites. The IAB has not had the resources to dig into marketplaces that are less than half a billion or a billion dollars. My members have not asked me to pay attention to the blog-advertising market.”

Source: Internetweek.com 02/04/2005.

Since the time of that comment (almost 3 months ago), blogging and advertising together have grown at an astounding pace. So much so that big-name advertisers (Volvo, Levis) are beginning to take notice and have dipped their toes into the blogging market, realizing what everyone else seems to know by now… that blogging is an excellent way of reaching niche audiences.

Despite blogging’s undeniable growth, there hasn’t been much talk from organizations like the IAB about blogs and advertising, except from the bloggers themselves, and a few upstart entrepreneurs. So I suppose the questions to Mr. Stuart of the IAB are, when can we expect the IAB to lend a hand to the blogosphere? Do we really have to get to half a billion before we can get somebody to notice us?

The mission of the IAB is as follows:

The IAB is the only association dedicated to helping online, Interactive broadcasting, email, wireless and Interactive television media companies increase their revenues. The quality of the IAB leadership, membership and industry initiatives, such as standards, research, advocacy and education, benefit the membership as well as the industry as a whole.

I can’t think of a better time than right now for someone like the IAB to champion blogging/advertising ‘standards, research, advocacy and education’, can you?