CREATION: Young urges industry not to write-off the Internet just yet

In retrospect, 2000 was a complete roller coaster ride. At the outset there was the inflated hype, corporate valuations and carelessness in a race to compete. This gave way to deflation of expectations and investor patience. Clearly, this year, we will continue to experience bad news due to dotcom failures, layoffs and market consolidation. But it isn't all bleak times ahead, and for marketers, no reason to write-off the Internet. Far from it, many of us are optimistic. The predominant trend over 2000 was how consumer behaviour changed as a result of the Internet. I-Sights, a series of focus group studies undertaken by AdXplorer in five major Asian cities late last year, revealed that regular surfers now prefer to email or "chat" instead of converse in person or on the phone with friends or family. They also prefer to surf for product information online than deal with shop assistants. What's more, consumers online see the 'Net as invaluable in helping them gain a competitive career edge. We have over 105 million Asian online consumers who are, according to Nielsen Net Ratings, twice as active as our US counterparts. In China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan specifically, the group of influential 25-34 is bigger than the 18-24 group, and growing still. A quick survey conducted in Hong Kong found that 90 per cent of university students considered themselves active Web users, further evidence of the 'Net as a viable tool to reach affluent consumers. For an industry which is supposedly on the rocks, we estimate 2000 online advertising spend in Greater China tripled versus the previous year. And ecommerce has yet to get started. In fact, the lion's share of online cash budgets came from traditional advertisers, and I have a strong hunch that marketers are only beginning to scratch the surface of considering online as complementary to existing marketing activities. In Asia, we're cruising towards leapfrogging the US in emarketing. For the last six years, the Americans focused on the Internet solely as a response-driven mechanism, i.e., chasing the "click through". Closer to home, however, clients are adopting a more mature approach to the Internet as a basis for building their brand equity and relationship with customers and prospects. They are also rapidly deploying numerous alternatives to the traditional banner like email marketing, ePR, interactive sponsorships and loyalty programmes. This year, for sure the Nasdaq is going to experience yet another four quarters of roller coaster rides, but contrary to common belief, the Internet is not no-man's land for profit. Indeed, the smart money made in 2001 will be by those investing more actively to reach and interactively market to consumers online.

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