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The empire strikes back

Internet Bureau chief John Schofield has rejected accusations from other advertising execs that his firm is too dominant in the NZ online market and that advertisers are disadvantaged by the entrenched fixed-tenancy model for online space.

In an article in this weeks’ National Business Review, Schofield says that fixed-tenancy bookings remain highly effective for brand advertising, while acknowledging that CPM is suited to direct-response campaigns.

He disagrees that CPM pricing would make prime positions more accessible and that fixed tenancy creates waste by offering too high a frequency.

“Where demand exceeds supply of premium space, advertisers will have to jockey for prime spots ­ no matter what the media or the units it is sold in,” he said.

As for the Internet Bureau’s market dominance, I don’t think we can expect Schofield to apologise for the kind of success that saw the IB snapped up earlier this year by Australian agency eMitch for $8.9 million.