Photo by: estoril (http://www.flickr.com/photos/estoril)
The debate still rages about how to woo brand advertisers into spending more of their budgets in online media. The reality of what has driven Internet advertising is the promise of high quality direct marketing data and accountability. The result is that we see the top industries advertising online as industries that rely heavily on direct marketing tactics to drive purchase and conversion: financial services, telecom, retail, travel. Of course this makes plenty of sense. You’d expect to see companies that rely on models and conversion metrics to love the accountability built into the Internet. But what does that mean? Does the average marketer see the Internet as nothing more than an end-cap equivalent? What about big brand advertisers, the owners of the real marketing dollars: automotive, consumer packages goods, pharmaceutical, and entertainment. Of course we’ve seen these companies dip their toes online, but many have forsaken the Internet as a direct marketing vehicle. Is that what the medium is destined to be? And why is it that in the 13 years since the first online ad showed up online and we’re still not much further along with brand advertisers as a share of total online advertising dollars?
I have my opinions on why brand advertisers aren’t shifting online and in my mind they come down to several key issues: ad unit effectiveness & site design, media buying options, and media reporting options. Over the next couple days I’ll elaborate on each of these issues and I might even throw in my opinion on what can be done to turn things around.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
