[OPA breakfast] A measurable future
By Louise Marsland in Marketing, OPA | 1 comment
Despite the fact that South Africa lags behind the rest of the world in online spend, mainly due to the lack of broadband Internet access, once we do have broadband, there will be an explosion in Internet access and applications. Apart from the fact that advertisers will have to be a lot more creative – as they will be able to do almost anything interactive and flash online – measurement will also change.
One of the points Matt Buckland made at the Online Publishers Association breakfast Wednesday morning in favour of online advertising, was that it was completely measurable – right down to whether the ad view turned into a transaction.
The development of Internet technologies and applications is, however, also going to change the way websites are measured in the future and how advertisers measure the success of online advertising. The UK team of Nielsen//Netratings were on hand to tell the disappointingly small audience of marketers, advertisers – and mostly publishers – how it will play out in the future.
Streamlined content and the increasing use of flash applications will mean that the time users spend online will become as important as how many unique users/browsers (individual readers) that a website has.
That is where social media is so impactful for websites that use it correctly – as it induces more interaction by readers, who stay longer, reading more, browsing longer and using more applications, like blogs and directories, in the case of mainstream and business media.
Read more on the rules of engagement with online media and measurement in Bizcommunity Thursday, 27 September.
email this | tag this | muti | trackback | comment RSS feed
Click here to find related blog posts tagged the same as this post!
Tags: 
Tags: 
Tags: 
Ingrid von Stein | Sep 28, 2007 | Reply
Whilst we do have broadband issues in SA, this does not change the fact that we have a very active online market, evidence of this is the current change we are seeing in our marketing students, who are now using online as the first medium to create brand awareness in the market place and then leading it off-line into print medium. It is only a matter of time before we sort out our broadband issues and then we are going to see an explosion in our market place.
Whilst the audiences may still be small at these OPA gatherings, it is heartning to see that the ad agencies are finally coming on board and realising that online has to be a factor in their marketing/advertising plans.
From a public relations perspective we have always factored online into our strategies - this is a way of getting your message directly to the people you are trying to target. I can’t imagine that anyone is this day and age still thinks that the online medium should not be part of the marketing mix.
In closing I would seriously urge those brand/marketing mangers/ad agencies to get with the programme and go online as part of their mix. The world of technology changes so fast and brands need to realise that they should take the lead from their consumers who are saying “talk to me in my world!”. This world is a digital one and I want to hear from you in my place of play - and that is digital.
There are however agencies in SA that are leading the way and if you want to see true brand intergration in play then I would highly recommend 34.co.za - these guys are genius in their simplicity - you just have to look at there client base to realise that both they and their clients have cottoned on to the fact that our world has become more than just print, tv and radio - they are truly bringing the consumer what they want, when they want it. Another sterling example of pioneers in SA are http://www.cherrypicka.com. These guys have listened to consumers and have delivered a product that surpasses anything else in the market right now. Hats off to these truly SA pioneers in the industry.