The New York Times reported today that Pepsi-Cola North America is unveiling a new calorie-free, carbonated beverage called Tava with its own Web site (www.tava.com), banner ads, promotions and sampling events. (Tava will also be sent gratis to tech-happy employees of Google, Apple and MTV).

One of the reasons Pepsi’s approach is so revolutionary: Tava is not supposed to be the new hotness for Paris Hilton compatriots. The caffeine-free, fruit-flavored drink is being aimed squarely at the minivan brigade — the 35 to 49 demographic, The Times reports.

“There used to be an assumption this target was not online,” Frank Cooper, vice president for flavored carbonated soft drinks at Pepsi told The Times. “But there’s a group in that category that’s ‘reborn digital.’ They’ve lived through the change and learned to adapt to it. This consumer spends significant time online, although what they do may differ from the younger consumer. They’re not I.M.-ing their friends; they’re looking at e-mail or looking up information about travel, music, food.”

Tribal DDB Worldwide, the digital arm of DDB Worldwide, is handling the campaign. Banner ads will reportedly appear on AOL, chow.com, CitySearch, oprah.com, People and weather.com, among other sites.

Microsoft will add Rapt’s online advertising programs to the array of publishing tools, the Atlas Publisher Suite, it got along with aQuantive – which it bought last year for $6 billion. Microsoft also recently purchased digital advertising companies AdECN and Massive in a bid to compete with Google Inc.

The company’s recent, intense focus on display advertising was clearly a strategy adopted in anticipation of Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick.

Microsoft also met with Yahoo Inc. earlier this week to discuss their unsolicited takeover bid – but the talks were reportedly not fruitful.

“Jivox was founded on the premise that businesses are ready to move beyond ineffective banner ads and costly search advertising by adding online video ads to their marketing mix, but they need help tapping into this new medium. The Jivox platform allows local businesses, independent professionals, and small enterprises to get their products and services in front of the right customers in a way that is rich and compelling and drives new business,” said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Jivox. “Just as Google enabled small businesses to promote themselves online with the introduction of Google AdWords, we believe Jivox can empower small businesses to take advantage of the burgeoning advertising opportunities within online video.”

The Jivox platform combines a video ad creation tool, proprietary targeting technology, reporting capabilities and a growing network of publishers to offer advertisers a complete, do-it-yourself service for online video ads.

Online video marketing is the fastest growing segment of digital online marketing because their click-through rates are generally much higher than banner ads and their ilk. The cost of creating the ads was discouraging smaller businesses, which is where Jivox and its low-cost alternatives come in for customers like The Diamond Broker.

“Google search advertising has been the primary means of advertising for us at The Diamond Broker. We specialize in GIA Certified Diamonds with Excellent Cut grade, and feature nationally known jewelry designers and our own custom designs, so the visual part of what we do is very important. Unlike our search engine advertising, with Jivox video ads we are able to reproduce our in-office experience online. For our product, video advertising is particularly compelling, as the beauty of diamonds and diamond jewelry is best expressed visually,” said Jeff Richardson, founder of The Diamond Broker in Los Altos, CA. “We are very excited by the capabilities Jivox offers us to create unique ads featuring our diamonds and fine jewelry.”

In other news, Jivox raised $2.7 million in a seed round of financing led by Opus Capital, a venture capital firm. Jivox says it will use the money to develop its online video ad platform and expand its sales and marketing forces.

Those who are most influenced by sponsored links have an average age of 40.7 – and 62.6% are Caucasian.

Adults who are anticipating major life events in the next six months are more likely to be influenced by sponsored links: starting or having a child start college was the biggest motivator (12.3%), while getting married (7%) and expecting a baby (5.3%) were also significant triggers.

Consumers who are planning to make major purchases within the next six months were also more likely to be influenced by sponsored links. Computer-buyers led the pack (27.3%), followed by TV-buyers (25.7%) and furniture-buyers (23.5%).

“Consumers who are influenced by sponsored links appear to be on a mission due to some event in their lives. As a result, they are self-directed when using media, which is why they prefer digital media options that allow them to get the information they want when they want it,” said Gary Drenik, president of BIGresearch. “Advertisers looking to reach people in the market to buy should look at this consumer segment as an important part of their ad mix.”

Those influenced by sponsored links are most likely to be triggered by magazines to start an online search (52.7%). Coupons (50.8%) and TV Broadcasts (47.5%) round out the top three.

“Since being acquired by Lingo Media in October 2007, we have consistently achieved our Speak2Me development milestones,” stated Michael Kraft, CEO of Lingo Media. “Most important among these was the technically arduous task of preparing our suite of CD-ROM English learning products and speech recognition technology for use on the Internet. That achievement allows Speak2Me to offer an online English learning service in China at www.speak2me.cn.”

Speak2Me patent-pending Conversational Advertising platform takes product placement to a new level by allowing advertisers to place their products in Speak2Me’s library of more than 300 lessons – so instead of seeing a banner ad, users learn to converse in real-life situations in the context of an advertiser’s product.

No one knows, because the business is too young to have a track record.

Already, there are indications that some of the Web’s biggest sites are feeling the same spending pinch that has started to impact traditional media properties like print. Mighty Google has seen its shares drop sharply as investors fear the economic downturn could affect its market-leading search-based ad business.

But the Internet is vast, and outside of the big names, a struggling economy could turn out to be a boon for some players.

“I don’t want to say everything is going to be rosy,” said Ray Costa, president of Flatiron Media, a firm that sells ads for Web properties, “but sites that have engaged users and are targeted to a particular niche should do well” in a slow economy.

“In a weak economy, people will look for efficiencies,” agreed Brad Agens, a senior vice president of advertising sales for Gorilla Nation, an agency that represents roughly 500 Web sites.

The Internet — which still gets less than 10% of ad spending across all media — is far more measurable than traditional media.

“It is a more accountable media for brand advertisers and I’m confident people will look to spend money wisely online during a slowdown,” said David Friedman, president of the central region for online marketer Avenue A/Razorfish.

There is reason to believe online advertising will not be immune to a spending slowdown. A late February report from ComScore showed that Google’s paid clicks for ads slipped for the first time in January compared to the year-ago period.

But Google specializes in search-based ads “and companies are getting smarter on how to allocate money between search and other vehicles,” said Friedman. “They often overspend on search. As companies get more sophisticated about online advertising, you will see more move away from Google.”

That’s why he and others believe online advertising should keep growing during a slowdown.

In 2007, the online ad industry continued its torrid growth rate. Preliminary results from the Internet Advertising Bureau show online ad spending should reach a record of $21.1 billion, a 25% improvement over 2006, when final figures are released in May. During the fourth quarter of 2007, when recession talk grew amid a worsening housing market, spending hit a high of $6 billion, the figures show.

Hope Pryor, owner of CooksRecipes.com, a fast-growing site that caters to the everyday chef, said she isn’t worried.

“My numbers go up every year,” she said of the site she founded as a hobby in 1999 that attracts more than 1 million unique visitors a month. “They are still going up.”

Her site belongs to one of the fastest growing categories on the Web for generating ad revenue, what’s called “vertical” sites, or those with a niche focus.

“We are increasingly supporting these sites,” Friedman said. “As they have gotten bigger and better at improved targeting, they really are starting to meet the needs of our clients.”

Pryor said that’s because the products advertised on her site have a direct relationship to the editorial content — recipes, in her case.

Spending has reflected this trend.

Media billings hit $735 million for Avenue A/Razorfish in 2007, with the buying spread across 1,800 Web sites. That is double the sites the agency targeted money at in 2006. Some of the sites receiving those dollars included Habbo.com (an online virtual world for teens), BallerStatus.com (a site for hip-hop culture) and StyleHive.com (a fashionista social network).

Web portals, on the other hand, could be vulnerable to a slowdown. Friedman compared portals like Yahoo to traditional media properties, which already have seen ad revenues fall as the economy slows. Yahoo said in January it would eliminate 1,000 jobs after fourth-quarter profits dropped sharply. Many analysts believe the company’s deteriorating financial picture was a catalyst behind the timing of Microsoft‘s unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo.

Yet there is one big unknown in a recession that could have a big impact on online advertising: consumer behavior. People curtailing their spending because of economic concerns might be less likely to shop — online or off.

“How will consumers change?” asked Friedman. “Already a lot of people use the Internet to comparison shop before making a purchase. During slow times they may rely more on the Web.

“So there’s a good possibility a recession may be great for the Internet.”

Eric Benderoff is a reporter for Chicago Tribune.

Compliments of Chicago Tribune.

AdBrite has subtly shifted its focus recently, putting larger sites in its crosshairs. “We’ve expanded from our roots as a self-serve tool for small pubs to serve a diverse set of sites, including some of the biggest premium publishers,” said Paul Levine, VP of marketing at AdBrite in an e-mail. “This scale – across large and small sites – is significant in that it allows advertisers to reach their target users across a wide variety of geographies, demographics, behaviors and contexts.”

AdBrite now serves eight of the 20 largest U.S. online properties. The network has mushroomed in the past 18 months, providing ads to 50,000 sites in February of this year, compared to 20,000 in September of 2006. According to comScore, AdBrite is the fourth-largest ad network by pages viewed.

Part of AdBrite’s swift growth has been attributed to its horizontal ad platform. “We offer text, banner, full-page ads and other innovative products like BritePic and InVideo,” Levine said. “We launched banners about a year-and-a-half ago and they’ve become our biggest movers from a revenue perspective.”

Clients also go to AdBrite for its high levels of transparency. “So many other networks are blind,” Levine said. “That’s because a lot of publishers don’t want to disclose who they’re working with. But our clients care where they run and where their positioned on the page. Brand advertisers like that we offer a suite of products that they can pick and choose from – and they can see, in a line item by line item fashion, where they’re running and how often. It helps them optimize and manage their campaigns on a site-by-site basis.”

By expanding its strength as a self-serve publisher marketplace to partner with large sites and specialty content sites, advertisers can target millions of unique visitors per month. New clients include General Motors, Sony BMG, Verizon and Live Nation.

“AdBrite helped SONY BMG deliver our artists’ products to targeted audiences across a large, diverse set of high-quality sites,” said Kyle Sherwin, VP of media at SONY BMG.  “AdBrite’s mix of ad products and transparent marketplace model have made for several successful campaigns.  In addition to providing great results, AdBrite offers terrific client service.”

Facebook announced that Sandberg will join the social networking site as COO starting March 24. Mark Zuckerberg has not conceded the throne: he will remain CEO of Facebook, the company said.

Sandberg was poached from Google, where she served as VP for global online sales and operations. She had a fabulous reputation as a relentless go-getter, developing the hugely lucrative online ad programs, AdWords and AdSense. She also managed global operations for Google’s consumer products – and helped launch Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm.

Zuckerberg plans to put Sandberg’s smarts to work while continuing his mission to connect every member of planet Earth. The company is looking to tap revenue from its 66-million plus user base and Sandberg will be set with the task of figuring out how to capitalize on the Brobdingnagian base — expand overseas, develop an ad network and guide the company’s marketing and human resources departments — without alienating it.

“Sheryl is a great manager who will help scale Facebook’s operations globally,” said Zuckerberg. “She has relevant experience and a track record of scaling business operations and building new kinds of advertising networks. Sheryl understands Facebook’s goal of connecting everyone in the world and is passionate about building a business that will enable us to realize this mission.”

Facebook’s unbridled passion for connectivity hasn’t always pleased its users: when it launched Beacon, a program that allowed advertisers to exploit data from Facebook’s internal user information to produce targeted ads. The program was swiftly derided as a privacy nightmare and users were allowed to “opt out” of Beacon.

David Fisher, currently VP of online sales and operations, will reportedly take over Sandberg’s job.

Brian McAndrews, Microsoft senior VP-advertiser and publisher solutions told AdAge that search giants AOL and Yahoo don’t even come close: “They won’t have all the components of an ad platform. I’m certainly not saying Yahoo, AOL are going away. … But I don’t see [them] competing against Atlas and DoubleClick.”

AOL’s CEO Randy Falco asserted that it does in fact have the tools to compete with the likes of Microsoft and Google. “We have Platform A, the largest ad network in the world. Microsoft and Google can ignore us and leave us off of charts if they ant, but they do that at their own peril,” Falco said, according to AdAge.

Canada’s local online search directory, ZipLocal, says selling online products Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing was a no-brainer because getting into the online ad market in Canada is no longer just one of many options.

“As online becomes a necessary advertising choice in Canada, we are thrilled to add these two leading and complementary product offerings to our existing arsenal of online advertising options,” said Elaine Kunda, president and CEO of ZipLocal. “Offering top tier search advertising products from both Google and Yahoo Canada ensures that ZipLocal can offer one-stop shopping for clients to develop highly competitive keyword search advertising programs.”

“With the addition of Google(TM) and Yahoo! Search Marketing ad products, we are poised to become a leading choice for major keyword search ad campaigns,” Kunda said. “As we see explosive growth in the demand for top tier online advertising, ZipLocal continues to keep pace. By continually adding to our offerings we strengthen our expertise as a leading online only national advertising solution.”

ZipLocal will begin reselling Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing ads on April 1.