For many brand marketers, social media is still an “experimental” place. Marketers seem to universally accept the promise of social media, but have yet to dedicate to it the kind of budget that other channels command. But this situation is rapidly evolving as marketers begin to regard social media as a channel on par with other digital media, and indeed, with other traditional channels like TV.
MySpace, for example, rather than competing with other social media outlets, now considers portals to be their main competition. They see themselves as competing with Yahoo, MSN and the like, for 7-figure ad deals.
Via Financial Times:

MySpace is squaring up to Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN internet portals in an attempt to win marketing campaigns from big brands reluctant to invest large sums in social media advertising.
Jeff Berman, president of sales and marketing at MySpace, said many advertisers viewed social media campaigns as “experimental”…
“In the last six months, we have really broken out of that,” he said. “Instead of going up against other social media sites for experimental dollars that might be five- or six-figure advertising campaigns, we’re going up against the portals for seven-figure campaigns.”