CREATION: Dotcoms and ISPs stick to the same old means to get their message out ..

<p>While campaign optimisation on the fly stands out as one of the </p><p>saving graces of online advertising, dotcoms themselves are looking to </p><p>less cyber-based avenues to get their message out. In the latest survey </p><p>by ACNielsen AdQuest, a snapshot into the adspend habits of Hong Kong </p><p>dotcoms and ISP portals from January through to May showed dotcoms </p><p>raising the bar in spend at least, investing HK$728 million into </p><p>their awareness efforts. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>ISPs on the other hand paled in comparison, brandishing only HK$148 million in adspend figures during this period. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Newspapers also came up trumps in the awareness stakes, with dotcoms </p><p>pouring HK$325 million into print ad campaigns. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to MindShare digital associate director Ralph Szeto, the need </p><p>to capitalise on print is about more than just reach. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"They'll be seen by business partners as well as investors, so that's </p><p>why newspapers and TV rank very high on spending - newspapers are (also) </p><p>easy, I just make the booking today and have the insertion tommorow," he </p><p>said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Chinese television ranked second in the quest to draw in the eyeballs, </p><p>garnering HK$238 million worth of dotcom adspend. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The ISPs, on the other hand, reflected the fact that an advertising </p><p>model no longer stood strongly as a main revenue source, with reduced </p><p>adspend - HK$38 million - invested in campaigns targeted at the </p><p>Chinese TV market. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In the race for more lasting brand exposure, dotcom advertisers spent </p><p>HK$73 million on magazine advertising. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Interestingly, while the battle to shout loudest for brand recognition </p><p>rages on, radio remained a poorly adopted medium - garnering only </p><p>HK$42 million worth of dotcom adspend and a poor HK$6.6 </p><p>million from the ISPs. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And while the world and their dotcom cousin goes mad for outdoor as the </p><p>medium for maximum recognition, Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) </p><p>raked in a paltry HK$19 million from the dotcoms and HK$4 </p><p>million from the ISP advertisers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>No figures were released which mapped out who was doing what in the </p><p>outdoor space besides on the buses, where dotcoms and ISPs spent </p><p>HK$12 million and HK$2 million respectively. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"As the outdoor medium gets used more and more, to get an accurate </p><p>picture of adspend habits I believe there has to be real measurement of </p><p>billboards, outdoor furntiture and the like," Mr Szeto said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Riding out the recent market chill were the online financial service </p><p>providers and the telecoms players who continued to be the out-and-out </p><p>strongest spenders. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Topping the adspend bill was CASH online, tagged by Sunday.com and </p><p>Hongkong.com. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>TOP 20 ADVERTISERS (Jan-May, 2000) </p><p>Range Website HKdollars '000 </p><p>1 CASH 41,532 </p><p>2 Sunday.com 34,270 </p><p>3 Hongkong.com 33,207 </p><p>4 C&WHKT Broadband Netvigator 28,718 </p><p>5 C&WHKT Netvigator 28,577 </p><p>6 House18.com 25,171 </p><p>7 Propertystreet.net 24,177 </p><p>8 Tom.com 13,779 </p><p>9 Eceasy.net 13,716 </p><p>10 Red-dots.com 13,338 </p><p>11 e-finance.com.hk 12,802 </p><p>12 Sunevision.com 12,614 </p><p>13 Pandaplanet.com 12,456 </p><p>14 Stareastnet 12,248 </p><p>15 Comicinema.com 12,242 </p><p>16 Andylau.com 12,183 </p><p>17 SCMP.com 11,895 </p><p>18 KGI Asia 11,635 </p><p>19 Smartone I-Smart 11,418 </p><p>20 Leonstareastnet.com 11,225 </p><p> Top 20 Total 377,203 </p><p> Top 20 Total vs Jan-May Total 43% </p><p>Source: ACNielsen AdQuest. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>