SANTA CLARA, Calif. — At the BIA Kelsey Group “Interactive Local Media” conference, Kelsey’s Matt Booth said “Uncertainty is the fertile ground of the next set of winners.”

In local advertising and small and medium businesses, what are those prospective winners?

Booth’s answers:

- Advertising will have to have immediacy, with no latency and full transparency on return on investment.
- Lead tracking that’s simple and easy to understand. (He said most lead-tracking is still difficult and largely unused.) “That’s why e-mail and direct mail are so popular,” because the advertiser spends money and immediately sees and can measure results, he said.
- “Pulsed advertising” that can be turned on and off by season. Clearly, that bodes ill for the traditional print yellow-page book, published once a year.
- A “conversation and reputation management tool,” incorporating a dialog between small and medium businesses and their customers, and also between and among small and medium businesses.
- A blend of content and advertising that works together. Booth said the traditional walls between editorial and advertising will die, and advertorial, community content and context, and comments and recommendations will be a key to winners in the future.

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