CReATION: Blowing off steam, or just plain hot air?

<p>Over the past few weeks there has been lively debate on these pages </p><p>between some of Asia's leading Internet professionals. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>There have been studies declaring that on-line advertising is </p><p>ineffective, letters arguing that print ads have no better recall than </p><p>on-line, and finally agencies asserting that their campaigns don't </p><p>suffer from declining click-through-rates (CTR). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>All of the debate though should give us pause, and encourage us to ask: </p><p>is the industry really so fragmented in its opinions? Or is everyone </p><p>simply missing the point? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A recent US study may shed some light on the issue. Over the six-month </p><p>period of its Online Advertising Report, AdKnowledge tagged millions of </p><p>Internet users who were exposed to banners ads and then watched their </p><p>behaviour. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>They found that the people who saw an ad, but never clicked, made more </p><p>conversions to on-line sales/actions than the people who had clicked on </p><p>the banners. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This result reinforces that the return on investment (ROI) for on-line </p><p>advertising is likely much higher than it seems simply from </p><p>click-through-rates. Mr Steve Findley, VP of AdKnoweldge, summed it up </p><p>by claiming that "advertisers that focus only on clicks or even </p><p>post-click conversions may miss vitally important effects of an </p><p>advertising campaign". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The element of accountability - being able to develop concrete metrics </p><p>such as cost-per-customer acquired - is the real benefit to come from </p><p>on-line marketing. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>By working together as a unified industry, traditional and new media, we </p><p>are finally able to offer clients effective campaigns with exact </p><p>measurement. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Banner ads are just a small part of on-line marketing, as are opt-in </p><p>emails, rich media and WAP. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Like cinema ads, buses and post cards, these are tools, which have their </p><p>use, but to be most effective they must be integrated into the rest of a </p><p>campaign. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Integrating on-line marketing allows us to move beyond measuring just </p><p>recall and recognition, as the recent HKBU study did, and start </p><p>measuring the real drivers of our clients' businesses: preference, sales </p><p>and loyalty. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Only by taking this important step towards inter-agency cooperation and </p><p>integration will we be able to tap these incredible new </p><p>capabilities. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>As Jack says: "Why can't we all just get along?" </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>jay@bluesphere.net. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>