Ad reps make new connections with the Web.

Ever-changing Internet creates new opportunities

Conventional wisdom says advertising is the key to making money on the Internet. But once a company has a popular site on the World Wide Web, how does it sell the site to advertisers? And how does an advertiser figure out which Web sites are the best places to distribute its message?

A handful of cutting-edge advertising agencies think they have the answer to both questions.

The newest business trend to grow out of the dizzying expansion of the World Wide Web is the creation of a new breed of ad representation firm, one that sells space on popular sites to companies that want to advertise there.

Hermosa Beach-based Interactive Media Sales is one such firm, and the only one based in Los Angeles County so far. But there are already at least five other Web advertising representation firms in existence, most of them in New York, and many conventional ad agencies with interactive divisions are considering a foray into the business.

Interactive Media Sales was created in April 1995 as a division of Interactive Marketing Inc., a developer of promotional vehicles for the Internet. Co-founders Robert Colvin and Andrew Batkin started the agency because they realized that even the owners of large, popular Web sites were finding it economically unfeasible to hire an in-house staff to sell advertising space.

Client roster grows

After less than a year in business, the agency has already attracted a client roster that includes Web sites from the National Football League, Playboy Enterprises, Yahoo! Corp., Fodor's Travel Publications Inc., and Santa Monica-based Hollywood Online Inc.

Thus, when an advertiser that wants to appear on the Web approaches Interactive Media Sales, the firm can demonstrate which of its clients would be the most appropriate vehicle for the ad message and sell space on those sites, according to company President Robert Colvin.

Advertising on the Internet usually consists of a "banner" that appears on a given Web site. For example, if Coca Cola wanted to advertise on Hollywood Online, a popular site for people seeking information about motion pictures, it would pay to place a Coca Cola icon on Hollywood Online's site. Clicking on that icon would then connect the user to Coke's own Web site.

Competition hurts profits

Analysts say the emerging Web rep firms, and the Web site owners seeking advertiser support, will have a tough time making profits in the short term, because they have to compete with a wide range of other Internet marketing options that are currently available.

For example, there are several directory services - in essence, online Yellow Pages - that provide advertising space.

Karl Reichman, an interactive multimedia and Internet consultant based in Los Angeles, said he advises companies seeking wider exposure through the Internet to first get their Web sites listed on the various search engines, such as the browser systems developed by Yahoo and Netscape Communications Corp.

After that, they might want to seek listings or ads on the online Yellow Pages. And then, if it's feasible, they might advertise on other popular Web sites.

"l believe (Web advertising rep firms) will have a strong position in six months, a year down the road. But not today," Reichman said.