Online advertising in Britain is growing at roughly 40% annually. Total online ad spend last year came to just over 2 billion pounds, about 11% of the overall advertising spend.
This was more than double the percentage in the United States and currently the highest level in the world. Media buying agency Group M estimate that online ad spending in Britain will be even higher — close to 14 percent of the total this year. With Internet penetration at 62% and users spending an average of 23 hours online per week, advertisers and website publishers alike are cashing in on the amount of eyeballs online.
Sites like MSN, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook are almost guaranteed a steady flow of revenue from advertisers. Major brands such as Shell, Barclays, Marks & Spencer, and Tesco realize the potential of this new medium and are diverting more of their advertising spend online. This shift is being driven by several factors including; technology and creativity, increased measurability, geo-targeting, higher response rates and return on investments.
Recent innovation in technology has spawned new levels of interactivity between the advertiser and the potential customer, a feature not prevalent in other advertising medium. Ad designers can create adverts that allow site visitors to watch videos or play games. Once the attention of the user is caught, the advertiser can then deliver their message, which could be to sell a product, gather data, or just provide information. Another unique feature of this industry is the ability of advertisers to deliver multiple versions of an advert to different users based on the specifications of the user's computer. For example, the Ad Server is able to decide that users with broadband connection should see the video or game Ad version, while those with a slower internet connection should see just a regular still image. This way every visitor sees the advertiser’s message but through different technologies.
In a bid to increase their return on investment, advertisers can also target certain market groups based on location. They can track each visitor's IP address, which contains information about the country, city, town or even postal code from where the user’s computer is connecting. This way the advert being delivered is more relevant to the user who sees it and is more likely to either get more information or buy.
The Emerging Present
As the online advertising industry continues to gain importance and momentum, marketers are evolving new ways to hold the attention of their audience. One such way is through Transmedia Engagement, a marketing technique made popular in the movie industry by “The Matrix” franchise, where the film's story was fragmented across the 3 matrix films, an animated cartoon, a video game and an MMOG (massive multiplayer online game), each media platform telling a portion of the whole story. Marketers have realised the potential of this marketing technique as a launching pad to expand the message of their existing offline campaign; an opportunity to add more flesh to the otherwise simple, sometimes almost robotic marketing message of "buy, buy, buy." An example of successful transmedia industry is the" caveman campaign” from Geico, an auto insurance company in the US which sells most of its services through the Internet. The slogan for their marketing campaign was: “So easy, even a caveman can do it."
Their TV spots started off by telling the story of a caveman living in the 21st century disgruntled with the way cavemen were being stereotyped by the Geico advert. Once those ads had gained popularity, Gieco launched an online campaign, which continued the caveman story but opened a new chapter where site visitors get to delve into his personal life and take a tour of his virtual crib (www.cavemanscrib.com). Once in his crib, visitors are exposed to subtle messages promoting the Geico brand. The caveman campaign is proving so successful that there are now talks with major US TV networks to launch a caveman sitcom in autumn.
The Foreseeable Future
So what does the future hold for the online advertising industry? Mark Tutssel, worldwide chief creative officer at the Leo Burnett Ad Agency believes that this industry is currently witnessing a paradigm shift that could change advertising forever. With the growth of sites like YouTube, Mark believes “Consumers will in time be encouraged to create their own low budget, ‘homemade-style’ commercials and make comments on other brands, even if they are negative.” His comments followed the launch of a homemade-style video ad showing graffiti artist Mark Ecko apparently defacing Air Force One, the US presidential jet - www.stillfree.com.
by Keji Oshin
