Expert viewpoints
- Click here to read the cover story relating to this ’Confounded by the complexity of the web?’
- Click here to read how Eurostar has upped its online spend
- Click here for Pitch’s angle on advertising on the web
Display advertising
Marco Ottonello, interactive marketing manager, Motorola
I am not a big fan of online display advertising. You can certainly create an impact on your website traffic, generate some brand awareness and so on, but I think there are other more efficient ways to invest your money on the internet, such as search and affiliate marketing.
People often consider online display advertising as a mere translation of offline display advertising. But offline, for instance in front of the TV, your level of exposure to the message is higher than on the internet because your attitude is passive. [On the] internet, anything that comes in front of you that is not strictly related to what you are doing is an obstacle. This is the limitation.
Digital immigrants
Miles Lewis, senior vice-president of international sales, Last.fm
A lot of clients are what I call ’digital immigrants’ – they are older and are having to learn how to use the internet. The majority of planning and strategic buying in the UK and globally is done by people who are digital immigrants, and that is a problem.
Conversion
Jane Nicholson, regional director (UK, Ireland and Nordic), Tourism Queensland
Our approach is always tactical and about conversion. Here in the UK market, Tourism Queensland would not do straightforward online brand advertising. It would always have a tactical message to it.
We understand who our target consumers are. We understand, for example, that our key targets are what we determine to be experience seekers. Within that we have a honeymoon niche, we have youth, we have long-stay. We have a number of different messages we need to get through in our marketing activity.
Brand engagement
Robert Bridge, B2B marketing director (EMEA), Yahoo!
You have a brand budget that is bought in our world on a cost-per-thousand basis, but now more targeted brand dollars are being spent. Engagement is a key metric now. Three or four years ago everyone was concerned with page views. Scale is still important, but users engaging with the content is key.
