1) Is online advertising failing to deliver?
The online advertising market is well poised for continued growth as we move through 2010 and beyond. Advertising spending is increasing and budgets are shifting towards digital, while at the same time consumers are spending more and more time online consuming media. Innovative technologies and services, and new offerings continue to arise to harness the power of digital for better advertising. More than any other traditional advertising medium, online advertising is providing innovative and addressable ways for online marketers to engage with consumers. An advantage with digital marketing is the myriad of data that is available to advertisers and publishers regarding consumers’ interaction with content and advertising, which enables marketers to hone the delivery of their online messages. Advertisers have access to insightful analysis and attribution modeling of this data, enabling them to more effectively manage their advertising initiatives on driving ROI.
Publishers too have visibility into valuable data about their visitors’ interactions with their site, enabling them to effectively craft their content business and advertising initiatives. In order for advertisers to attain premium brand publisher inventory, with quality content that provides access to valuable audience user bases, advertisers are exerting more pricing pressure on publishers. Online advertising is evolving and delivering in many ways today, but there is still further adjustments and innovation to come to enable both advertisers and publishers to leverage the medium even further.
2) If so, what can brands do to address the problem?
The digital ecosystem is very complex, with many providers, technologies and shifting business models. Companies must determine the right strategy to navigate this space and ultimately connect with consumers online. If brand advertisers want to reach their customers, run an efficient business and stay relevant, digital is the answer. Consumers' media consumption is continuing to shift online, whether for entertainment, research or to engage in a conversation with friends - and now - brands and marketers should make themselves visible and available to consumers online. Digital is the best way to hyper-target and reach the specific class of consumers most important to a brand, and advertisers should utilise the data and technology available to do so. Online advertising fulfills transactional as well as branded requirements, in addition to detailed accountability and rapid campaign optimisations. Forward thinking brand advertisers are leading the pack, but they do need to be strategic and execute efficiently to reap the benefits.
Utilising advanced technologies and targeting methods and leveraging data correctly can be accomplished more easily by aligning with the market leading innovative and strategic digital companies in the space. The world is moving so fast and marketers need the right long term partners to help them navigate the complex industry and stay ahead of the curve.
In addition to leveraging data, technologies and partnerships are available. Brands should not forget to keep evolving their message as digital provides many avenues to showcase great creative by engaging with consumers via video, rich media, social media and other avenues.
3) Can you have a better understanding of the consumer by examining their behaviour online? How sophisticated is this?
Understanding consumer behavior online helps publishers and advertisers provide relevant and engaging content and advertising messages to consumers browsing the Internet. Advanced analytics, data aggregation and modeling methods are evolving to enable marketers to better understand consumers and reach them with more relevant messages. The idea of leveraging consumer data online is sometimes misunderstood and confused with the issue of ‘privacy.’ On the contrary, online user behavior data is collected in a non-personally identifiable way, therefore protecting the user’s identity at all times.
4) What does the growing number of social media tools mean for marketers looking to target individuals?
Among the many opportunities digital offers marketers, social media provides a tremendous opening for advertisers to disseminate messages quickly and connect with a large number of consumers, in a broad or targeted manner. However, with advantages also come challenges, as marketers cannot always control the conversation or shape the message. Strong marketers can leverage their brand equity and trust that the overall social media conversation will be an avenue to help positively spread their messages. While not every example of social media marketing is an overt success story, there are some great examples of companies able to marry small marketing budgets with social media and achieve significant results.
5) What role does data play and how do brands balance the consumer's desire for privacy with their own commercial concerns?
Data plays a very important role in the evolving digital marketing ecosystem and can be leveraged to help brands connect with consumers online. While many consumers value their own data and are aware of its tradable value to some extent, they may not always comprehend the advantage of the use of online data. The use of consumer data helps facilitate the current Internet paradigm, allowing consumers to access rich and robust content virtually and primarily free of charge through an advertising model. Marketers can leverage non-PII consumer data and analytics from their own site to provide the most relevant advertising messages to consumers while still protecting the consumers’ privacy. As a caveat, to the extent a brand obtains user registration data, they must be cautious to how the user’s personal data is being leveraged for targeting. Overall, data’s important role can be used to create a more relevant user experience online, which is inherently valuable to advertisers, publishers and also the consumers themselves.
Nicolle Pangis
SVP, Product Management, Global Media and Technology, 24/7 Real Media
Twitter: @247realmedia