A multi-speed expansion
Looking for an advertising growth story? It's still the internet, stupid. Internet advertising revenues are continuing to rise.
In the UK they grew by76 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2004. According to PwC and the Internet Advertising Bureau, the medium accounted for ￡267m ($490m) or 3.2 per cent of all UK display advertising and is starting to gain ground against radio.
Yet take a closer look and the picture that emerges is not one of uniform expansion across sectors or even in all types of web advertising. Instead, some companies are investing heavily in specific kinds of web campaigns as a way of realising a competitive advantage while other businesses and sectors are much more cautious.
In one camp are businesses such as Royal Mail's Parcelforce, mobile phone operator O and BMW. While they are shy about breaking out their internet spending, these businesses are allocating “substantial” shares of their marketing budgets to the internet to enhance the impact of existing television, press and poster advertising.
In the case of brands such as O, web campaigns created by Agency Republic are designed to be consistent in look and feel with other O messages. James Cooper, creative director at Agency Republic, says: “Even if a message is about a music player, the audience still sees the O brand out there.”
Case studies from online media owners such as MSN have also pointed to the “multiplier” effect in terms of consumer awareness that can be gained when traditional branding campaigns on TV or in the press are backed by the web.
Yet according to PwC, the fastest-growing area of web advertising both in the UK and the US is not brand-driven formats such as online pop-ups and banners, but search-related campaigns. These are, typically, where an advertiser pays to sponsor individual key words on internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo. When the site throws up its results, the advertiser's brand appears labelled as a sponsored result onscreen among the other information.
PwC estimates that paid-for search online advertising represented 40 per cent of all online advertising in the US in the first half of 2004. In the UK, the figure is almost 41 per cent. Amanda Jones, head of search at digital marketing agency i-level, says: “Paid search is our fastest-growing area.”
Although sceptics complain that advertising messages and search results can be poorly matched, search has increasingly persuaded clients in retail, finance and tourism sectors to spend their web budgets this way. This is particularly noticeable at the cut-price end of these sectors, where businesses want to match their offers to web customers with very specific criteria. For advertisers, the main attractions are price, measurability and the ability to reach niche audiences.
But as the popularity of search has risen, so hasthe price. According toMs Jones, highly competitive sectors such as finance and travel have already flattened in the US, where some advertisers have pulled back because of doubts that they will make a return on their spend.
This may be a short-term phenomenon, and there is no shortage of industry advocates for search. Diageo uses it, even though it does not sell its products online. Nick Broomfield, digital marketing manager at Diageo Great Britain, says: “We buy the most appropriate key words to drive high-quality traffic to our brand sites.”
If users make it to websites for Diageo brands such as Baileys and Guinness, there will be lures such as competitions in an attempt to get consumers to leave their details, which will be used for further marketing.
George Karibian, chief executive of online office product retailer Euroffice, also believes that the price of gaining a new customer through a paid search cannot necessarily be measured by a single purchase.
“The problem for online businesses is that there is very little loyalty out there, which is why internet search-based advertising works well for low-cost suppliers. But you have also got to assess the lifetime value of customers with the aim of winning repeat business,” he says.
Can online branding campaigns catch up with search? Brands make some familiar complaints about the technical and creative limitations of formats such as skyscrapers and pop-ups. A conscious attempt is being made to address these by initiatives such as technical changes. But the real stumbling block may be clients' attitudes.
Ciaran Deering, managing director of online advertising agency Tribal DDB, whose clients include Philips, travel group Tui and Volkswagen, says that branding campaigns in auto, high-tech and finance (sectors where consumers often research products online) are more established on the web.
“The fast-moving consumer goods sector still needs a lot more convincing,” says Mr Deering, who points to Coca-Cola's recent move into music downloads as one exception.
Chris Ward, deputy director of MSN UK, adds: “The internet now makes up about 15 per cent of all media consumed so the gap between the total amount of ad spend online and the amount of timeconsumers actually spend online is very broad. Our goal is to narrow that gap.”
He says the interactivity of the medium and new formats will assist its evolution as web publishers move to cleaner site designs with fewer ads and more, and better, creative hooks.
走运的网络广告
想找一个广告业的成长故事吗？那还得提及因特网，真愚蠢。因特网的广告收入正继续上升。
2004年上半年，英国的因特网广告收入比去年同期增加了76%。据普华永道（PwC）和互联网广告署（Internet Advertising Bureau）统计，因特网的广告收入占英国所有图片广告的3.2%，达2亿6700万英镑（计4亿9000万美元），发展势头开始超过电台广告。
然而，仔细观察后会发现，并非所有行业的因特网广告，甚至也不是所有类型的网络广告都获得了同等程度的发展。相反，有些公司认识到网络广告的竞争优势，在特定类型的广告活动中投下巨资，而其它一些企业和部门则更谨慎。
参与这项活动的广告客户包括英国皇家邮局（Royal Mail）麾下的包裹邮递公司（Parcelforce）、移动电话运营商O2和宝马汽车(BMW)。虽然这些公司羞于将投在因特网上的花费公之于众，但它们正将“重头”的市场推广预算投入因特网，以加强电视、报刊和海报等现有广告手段带来的影响力。
在O2的品牌推广中，“代理共和国”（Agency Republic）将其网络广告设计与其它O2广告所传递的视觉感受保持一致。代理共和国的创意总监詹姆士?库柏（James Cooper）表示：“即使广告中出现的是位演奏家，观众们仍可以看到O2的品牌标志。”
MSN等在线媒体的案例研究都提出了“乘数”效应，也就是当电视或报刊上的传统推广内容在网络上得以重现时，消费者对品牌的认知度就会上升。
但是普华永道指出，在英国和美国，增长最快的网络广告形式并非以品牌为主的弹出式和横幅式广告，而是与搜索相关的推广活动。典型的例子包括在Google和雅虎(Yahoo)等因特网搜索引擎上，广告客户出钱赞助各种关键词。当引擎显示搜索结果时，广告客户的品牌会带上标记和其它信息一起出现在屏幕上。
据普华永道估计，2004年上半年，付费搜索的广告收入在美国占所有在线广告收入的40%。在英国，这个比例将近41%。数字推广代理机构i-level的搜索广告总监阿曼达?琼斯（Amanda Jones）表示：“付费搜索是我们增长最快的领域。”
虽然怀疑论者认为广告信息很难和搜索结果相匹配，网络搜索却已说服越来越多的零售、金融和旅游业客户将预算投放在这上面。当这些行业纷纷降低预算，并希望他们的产品能够满足网络消费者的具体要求时，这种效果尤为明显。对广告客户来说，付费搜索的主要吸引力是价格、可衡量性以及能够接触到特定的消费者。
但是，随着搜索引擎越来越普及，其广告价格也在加速上扬。琼斯女士表示，在美国，金融、旅游等具高度竞争力的行业广告市场已开始放缓，一些广告客户因怀疑自己能否取得回报，已取消了这方面的开支。
这也许只是一种短期现象，而目前赞成付费搜索的行业大有人在。帝亚吉欧（Diageo，英国酒业巨头）就是这种广告的客户之一，尽管它不在网上销售产品。帝亚吉欧大不列颠公司的数字推广经理尼克?布隆菲尔德（Nick Broomfield）表示：“我们买下那些最恰当的关键搜索词，把高质量的访客吸引到我们品牌的网站上。”
一旦搜索引擎的用户成功打开了百利(Baileys)、健力士（Guinness）等帝亚吉欧的品牌网站，就会显示有奖竞赛，吸引消费者留下个人资料，以备进一步的市场推广活动之用。
在线办公用品零售商――欧洲办公室（Euroffice）的首席执行官乔治?喀利比安（George Karibian）表示，他相信通过付费引擎获得一个新客户的成本，不一定能够以这个客户的一次性消费来衡量。
他表示：“在线商务的问题在于客户的忠诚度非常低，这也是为什么因特网搜索广告为低成本的供货商带来很大好处。但是，你也必须衡量客户的终生价值，希望他们成为回头客。”
品牌推广能够与在线搜索并驾齐驱吗？品牌客户常见的抱怨包括对竖式和弹出式等广告形式在技术和创意方面的限制。搜索引擎已开始有意识地通过技术革新等手段处理这些问题。但是，真正的障碍可能在于客户的看法。
在线广告代理机构――DDB部落（Tribal DDB）的执行总监赤莱恩?蒂凌（Ciaran Deering）表示，汽车、高科技和金融行业的品牌推广活动更需要通过网络来建立。这些行业的消费者经常在网上研究产品。DDB部落的客户包括飞利浦（Philips），途易旅游集团（TUI）和大众汽车（Volkswagen）。
蒂凌先生表示：“易耗类商品业仍需要更多有说服力的证据。”不过，他指出，可口可乐公司最近开始提供音乐下载的举动是个例外。
MSN英国公司的副总监克里斯?沃德（Chris Ward）补充道：“因特网占了人们在所有媒体上花费时间的15%。因此，在线广告的业务量和人们实际浏览因特网的时间之间的差距是相当大的。我们的目标是缩小这个差距。”
他表示，付费搜索以及其它新形式与消费者的互动能够帮助网络广告的演变革新，而网络出版商也努力使网页设计更加简洁，以更少的广告容纳更多、更好、更有创意的卖点。
