UKNM: Advertising is dead...long live advertising!

[Ross Sleight]

Steve Bowbrick wrote:


> The authors propose that advertisiing may have been a short-term funding

> source for web sites but that commerce will now quickly replace it. What do

> you think, team? Is the European web ad market dead before its first decent

> black tie dinner or are the Americans just getting jumpy?



I hope not.  I do enjoy dressing up as a penguin.


Interestingly, Debra Aho Williamson used to write for Ad Age I believe. 

So I respect her opinion on this specific subject.  However, I think

she's wrong here and could be accused of scaremongering.


Why?


(i)	Multiple revenue streams are strong. Advertising, sponsorship,

transactions, subscriptions etc can all be used to maximise revenue, but

they *do not* replace each other.  The cover price of a magazine does

not negate a subscription (at less cost than buying the magazine each

day/month for a year).  It doesn't negate advertising or advertorials in

that magazine.  It doesn't negate promotional offers where the magazine

takes a cut of the transaction.  So I doubt that online will differ very

much here. Without multiple revenue streams you can never maximise

revenue potential.  Without maximising revenue potential you cannot

provide the best product possible for consumers.  Without providing the

best product for consumers....I think we all know the circle from here!


(ii)	"Advertising" works online (<pause>  when I say advertising online

I don't just mean traditional advertising.  I mean DM, SP etc. Don't

want to get into that train of thought again! </pause>)  Hate to say it,

but we've found it does.  And we've run campaigns for 20 plus different

clients from almost every sector.  Yes it works well in some cases

better than others.  But we can always prove ROI.  And we can prove ROI

which is more effective than traditional channels.  Even now in this

"nascent" medium (or so we all say).  So I don't see advertising going

away.


(iii)	Localisation is the key for European advertising.  We are a

(excuse the rosey tinted specs) broad union of niche communities in

every country.  We operate on smaller audience reach than the US.  Apart

from trotting out all the same old arguments that we all know, I think

local advertisers are more receptive to smaller niche audeinces to

maximise their investment, which makes the net a highly viable medium

for certain sectors at the moment.  And this I think holds true for not

just local (country by country) but local v national as well.


(iv)	I like the thought of commerce online.  I even buy things online

myself.  But boy are we a long way off from making commerce work in a

transactional sense.  And I do believe that there are times where we

want to influence individuals in a manner where we don't want to sell to

them - you know, right at the start of the sales process where we

attempt brand awareness, brand perception shifts, information etc. 

Sometimes a sale is not the required outcome, and sometimes we as an

industry are too quick to say that just because the Net can sell things

(as it can facilitate every point of the sales process), we should use

the net to sell!  I could leap under a tube train tonight (no - please -

the shouts of encouragement are too loud!) but just because I can

doesn't mean I should! 


(v)	I'd be out of a job if I thought advertising was dead in Europe

before it started.


So on with the DJ's and ballgowns and lets dance the light fantastic for

the next 100 years...


Ross