Can digital ad revenues continue to grow?

2460092 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:03:00 GMT

Albeit we’re in a major media recession it was interesting to see this week’s IAB numbers showing continued growth for digital. Online ad spend in 2008 rose 17.1% to £3.3bn, and online spend now makes up over 19% of the overall market in the UK. The UK is still leading the world in terms of digital advertising, but my question is how do we maintain this position?

Firstly, consumer insight. Consumer behaviour is changing rapidly as the web becomes more and more important to people’s lives. Advertisers can ensure they keep up with these consumers by being found where they are looking for information about their products or services – be it on social networks, blogs, video sites or on search engines.

Secondly, as regular readers will probably guess, data. Search advertising deals in cold, hard numbers. Advertisers can make the most of the wealth of insight afforded by the web, especially in an advanced market like the UK, where people spend 33 hours of their leisure time every month on the web.

Thirdly, integrating their media. Online advertising can make offline media more efficient and can turbocharge offline media campaigns. What is a consumer’s next step after seeing your press or TV ad? They’ll probably make a trip to the online high street to find out more – and it they can’t find you there, then you can be sure they’ll find a competitor.

Finally, conversions. As an industry, online stores are increasingly getting better at setting themselves up for converting clicks into business. But sites can always do more and continuing to test the user journey extensively and in real time is the only way we’re going to crack this nut.

A downturn may well be a time when people expect more for less, but it’s not right to do so if accuracy and effectiveness is compromised. We mustn’t allow advertiser procurement departments to drive out creativity, insight and brand strategy from the digital industry, just as it’s crept in to other media sectors. The UK has led the way in digital by following consumers online and letting the numbers speak for themselves.

We all have to encourage marketing and planning departments to better use the rich vein of information and results driven by digital media and the value of ensuring this is integrated with preexisting media thinking to continue to demonstrate real time value.

This will keep digital media ahead of the curve and help us all through the recession.

Customer service and brand reputation. Ah-haa!

2460092 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:04:00 GMT

Apologies for not blogging over the last couple of weeks, but we’ve got builders tearing my house apart - and finding a temporary home for the family has been taking up a lot of time (outside of work of course)!

I’m writing this from my 'Travel Tavern,' where we’re currently living Alan Partridge-style until the builders complete their business - or we find another house - wondering what all these other sad people are doing in a Surbiton hotel without access to Champions League football on a Wednesday night. My kids are screeching and screaming - rather than sleeping - next door, which leads me to believe that perhaps they too are becoming increasingly irritated by the broken air-conditioner noisily blasting chilly air around the place. I’ve complained several times about this to the manager, but to no avail. Of course, each time he has quoted from the customer services handbook, assuring me that they’re "looking into it," that it'll be fixed "as soon as possible," but it's been four days now... Yes, he can placate me this way in the knowledge that I’m probably not going to go through the hassle of moving the whole family to another hotel mid-week, but it doesn’t really solve my problem.

Which of course got me thinking... brand reputation and customer service are even more important now that the world is digital. Opinions, views, reviews, comments – both positive and negative – can spread like wildfire across blogs, networks and websites (see Mel Carson’s post about Ryan Air for a topical example of this). As most of the web is open, this kind of information is no longer locked inside 'walled gardens'; these points-of-view can be searched for, linked to, and replicated very easily.

Taking that concept a step further, even if experiences happen offline, they are quickly written about online. In other words, even offline brands have nowhere to hide from a modern consumer. If the air-con issue isn’t sorted tonight, perhaps I’ll add my name to the list of disgruntled bloggers seeking redress for bad customer service... and if anyone has a couple of spare rooms they want to rent out, do give me a shout.

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Can digital ad revenues continue to grow?

Customer service and brand reputation. Ah-haa!