Market View

Ready to spend in online advertising?

I recently read an article that included the following 2 statistics. In combination, and as a digital marketing die-hard, they made me very nervous… The article covers a new study from Booze & Company on Middle East planned advertising spend in 2009.

• Middle East regional spending on online advertising is expected to grow by 25-35% in 2009
• Only 25 percent of marketers consider themselves savvy enough to capitalise on opportunities in online advertising

This sounds like a mounting and predictable outcome. If spending is set to increase, then this is a grand opportunity for the online market to really take off in the region. However, if the vast majority of the marketers leading these digital campaigns are not comfortable with online advertising, then we are heading towards a great let down that may unfairly and incorrectly be blamed on the medium. I do hope that the marketing teams are taking time for training, briefings and consulting about online advertising before embarking on this adventure, openly recognizing that failure to do so will ensure dismal results. This is a great opportunity for advertising agencies and smaller niche companies (such as my own) to reach out to clients to help them better plan, execute, and measure online campaigns. If we are willing to take on their additional spend, then we have the responsibility of imparting our knowledge of the medium, and ensuring we both are prepared for this shift in focus to online advertising.

Click Through Rates are Sooo Passé

It is time to rethink the measurements we use to assess online advertising campaigns.  CTR have long been the de facto measure and our overzealous marketing side, has allowed us to hail this as the greatest ROI tool ever.  However, simply because we can measure an actual consumer ‘action’ does not mean that we should stop there.  By simply measuring CTR, we are missing at least half (or more) of the picture.  Numerous studies have proven that the impact of online advertising campaigns goes beyond clicks, and clicks are not capturing other enduring memory affects such as brand recall, recognition and attitude towards the brand.  In a recent study using eye-tracking tools, researchers found that consumers avoid looking at banners, yet even when they ‘avoid looking at them’ they are still influenced by them.  The brand awareness was four times greater than the industry average CTR of .7% (from DoubleClick) and unaided brand recall was 19 times greater than the industry average CTR.

Red Bull enters the movie biz

Viral marketing is a beast of its own, and clever agencies and companies are using more elaborate methods to grab the rogue audience’s attention.  This one is a cute one, Unflinching Triumph…a Red Bull viral mocumentary full-length film on ‘staredown’ competitions.  Available for free download.  It mixes up fairly believable moment and is supported by a National Association of Staredown Professionals website, filled with semi-believable content.  This certainly would fit with the typical cheeky approach that Red Bull is famed for.  Note the Red Bull periodic placement in the clip.  There is even a Wiki entry for this.  Bravo Akqa for creating this film.  Amazing….

Would love to see more of this going on here, where online downloads run rampant and youth market live, eat, sleep online.

Queen Rania reaches out to YouTubers

Queen Rania has engaged YouTube to help reach out to opinion leaders.  In her exclusively made for YouTube video, she is hoping to dispel some of the negative and biased views of Arabs and the region.  She is encouraging discussion and connection to help bridge the communities.  She has asked YouTubers to send in their stereotypes, in the hopes of her being able to dispel and reveal the real and unedited Arab world and lifestyle.  Recognizing the power of YouTube and how this can reach the youth and opinion leaders, this is a perfect forum for such an appeal. 

Read some of her responses.

 

First ever Midde East Social Media and Blogging conference

Finally, the first ever Middle East conference on blogging has been announced.  It is planned to be held in Jordan in June (exact dates have yet to be released) and it will discuss topics such as how blogs and wikis can work and become effective tools in the Middle East.  It will also begin to publicly tackle some of the thornier issues such as how governments legislate for the new media, the new rules of the game and defining what is “acceptable, unacceptable an tolerable in the new global context”.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a bigger social media movement in the Middle East.

Advertising online in 2008, getting it right

emarket.com has predicted online spending to grow 10% in the US market for 2009.  Even though this growth is less than in the past few years, possibly due to the US recession, it still will exceed the growth in all the other major media.  (www.emarketer.com), and the lion share of that online marketing spend goes to online ads.  MarketingSherpa 2008 Online Advertising Handbook & Benchmarks study gives some great insights into increasing ROI for online ad campaigns.  As online continues to be a growing force in ad spend, it is incredibly important that companies are fully assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of their campaigns, by questioning and monitoring, simple yet often overlooked considerations such as:

Is the online ad creative effective for the targeted online audience?

Consider studies done on different creative routes to test effectiveness or using an online focus group.

Where is the ad placed on the page?

This is an incredibly important factor in any online campaign.  Based on a recent eyetracking study from EyeTools, that of the ads are placed above the page fold (those that can be seen without scrolling) only 60% of them are seen.  Only 25% of the ads placed below the fold are seen by viewers.  This downward visibility trend continues as the ads are placed under the fold and further left of the center. 

Is behavioral and textual targeting being used to better target audience?

Technology has and is rapidly improving in this area, making more real-time ad serving possible, thus eliminating an incredible amount of wasted impressions.  Targeting is the key to achieving an efficient campaign and focusing the online spend on the most receptive audience.

Is the campaign frequency too high or too low?

Too much frequency = advertising burnout

Too little frequency = underexposure

Frequency capping is the key to ensuring that your advertising campaigns gets the formula just right.  If the frequency is not capped, then the heaver users will consume the majority of the impressions (getting overexposed) and the remaining audience will be underexposed.   

Is Video Advertising being used effectively?

This is not the ‘next big thing’, this is the ‘current big thing’.  InsightExpress ad effectiveness studies indicate that instream ads that force exposure have an incredible impact.  Video messages are more likely to be understood.