Despite caveats from Yahoo and AOL that they weren’t directly challenging the dominance of the broadcast and cable upfront market with their respective ad industry presentations over the past few months, it was clear the intent was to siphon off at least some of the $9 billion going towards the fall TV season. But Mediaweek reports that those attempts hardly achieved the meager objectives of getting advertisers’ attention. (We reported on the initial outcomes of Yahoo’s Infront presentation here and AOL’s First Look event here). “Every year [these sites] get closer to trying to create an upfront,” said Margaret Clerkin, North America managing director of MindShare Interaction. “What I don’t think they were able to do was to get people to think of online as a complement to broadcast.”

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Gregory Coleman, Yahoo’s EVP, global sales, said the purpose of the Infront was not to lead to new business, but to get buyers to keep considering digital opportunities amid the coming fanfare from the TV networks. But one digital media buyer described Yahoo’s efforts as unfocused, adding that the whole event seemed to be coming from a defensive position.

AOL, meanwhile got high marks for First Look’s more specific outline of programs and ad initiatives. The very upfront-like quality of the project was probably due to the fact that it was conceived by AOL chairman and CEO Randy Falco, former president and COO of the NBC Universal Television Group. However, there have been complaints about AOL’s lack of follow-through. Not that it seems to matter much, as MindShare’s Clerkin said that advertisers haven’t exactly been clamoring to close commitments made after the First Look presentation.