Living in a digital world

Pushing digital boundaries

Here’s a comment piece I’ve written for Precision Marketing. You can read it there or here:

Last year European online advertising spend hit £5.4bn, with the UK claiming 39 per cent of that. After initial scepticism, Johnny-come lately brands have piled in with scant regard for whether they’re spending wisely.

Banner advertising click-through-rates are declining. Search advertising and affiliate marketing are more targeted options, but the relative, and also declining, success of those channels is symptomatic of a wider issue.

Online advertising isn’t necessarily the most effective use of digital. But are marketers brave or savvy enough to test the range of opportunities available in a digital world? Nobody is talking about piling all spend into social networking, in-game advertising, MMS and Second Life. However, brand managers do need to shake off the timidity that led many to miss the hey-day of hugely responsive online advertising, and test these digital communications, discover what works best and learn how their consumers prefer to interact with their brands.

The technologies are increasingly robust, reporting is solid, measurement is now trustworthy, and, if your brand isn’t exploring the suitability of new channels, then the world’s going to leave you behind.

Of course the pace of change is frantic. The digital landscape is intimidating and the language technical if not downright confusing. Nervousness is understandable, but inactivity isn’t. It’s not just youth brands that are innovating. Christian Aid’s latest campaign makes superb use of rich-media, and even offers visitors a way to contribute to the charity without spending a penny – by encouraging the use of a white-labelled search engine, generating a 4p donation from the back-end provider each time the user enters a search term.

Intelligent thinking like this is the hallmark of good digital marketing. Not simply buying chunks of digital media, but carefully devising campaigns that make best use of the vast array of interactive techniques available. And, even though banner advertising still works, it’s increasingly apparent that effectiveness is dramatically increased when an ad is designed to mirror its surrounding. But this requires an integrated media-creative approach. And how many digital agencies offer that?

June 14, 2007 - Posted by riksta | Uncategorized