FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY MARKETING SEMINAR - Industry without a marketing consensus. "Even the experts do not know what the best solution for Internet marketing is."

<p>It was a pleasure to see that even the greatest gurus of the Asian </p><p>Internet marketing industry do not know where the market is heading. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Apart from not being able to quantify the reach of online marketing, </p><p>there was a lot of talk about the ROI being more important in new </p><p>models, but a lack of how this can be quantified. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This is what I personally missed in all the presentations and panel </p><p>discussions. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Generally, it makes me feel better to know that even the 'experts' do </p><p>not know what the best solution is. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>However, what can we tell customers is a good way to market on the </p><p>Internet? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The guerilla marketing tactics mentioned by Mr Joseph Sweeney of the </p><p>Gartner Group are also interesting. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Is street marketing really that effective, or was it another tactic? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Since the Technology Marketing seminar, in both Lan Kwai Fong and </p><p>Causeway Bay, there have been increased street marketing activities for </p><p>new websites, which Mr Sweeney deemed effective, or not? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The essence of this article, though, focuses on the statement made by Mr </p><p>Gerald Alleva of AIM Asia, who gave a nice metaphoric view of what </p><p>happened to television versus what is happening on the Internet </p><p>today. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>To re-cap, television used to be a novelty and everyone would watch </p><p>everything, even commercials, when television was new. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This may have even been revived with colour television, whereas today </p><p>people use the commercial break to wash their hands or zap through </p><p>channels - apart from Super Bowl commercials. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This evolution seems to have surpassed us on the Internet already. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Studies as those undertaken by MBInteractive.com last August, show that </p><p>"approximately only 0.5 per cent of users nowadays actually click on </p><p>banner ads (down from two per cent a year ago), 55 per cent of users </p><p>claim they do not interact with a banner ad (and) only four per cent </p><p>claim to have spent more than 30 seconds looking at banner ad </p><p>information. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>If banners are so effective or rather un-effective, it seems within a </p><p>matter of six years we managed to reach a stage on the Internet that TV </p><p>needed several decades to reach. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The consumer on the Internet is managing to accelerate his cognitive </p><p>behaviour at the same pace as technology advances and information flow </p><p>becomes more abundant. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The next stage in the TV and film industry was strategic product </p><p>placement. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This is what I missed in all presentations of the technology marketing </p><p>seminar, whilst Euro RSCG's Ms Ruth Stubbs almost hit this point by </p><p>having her customer use smaller banners without company information in </p><p>them. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>However, they are still in banner shape and found where users expect a </p><p>banner to be. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This makes them a banner again, even though, they try to attract in a </p><p>different fashion. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>What is the use, if we already know that people block out and do not </p><p>interact with banners? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Yes, there are also, as pointed out by Mr Richard Robinson of </p><p>Renren.com, hyperlinks in texts. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In our view they already have a similar effect as banner ads and </p><p>therefore are widely ignored by readers, who block out such blue and </p><p>underlined text. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The new model should therefore be subliminal, without distorting the </p><p>layout of the website. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This is a model that can be easily applied by companies on their own </p><p>websites, having the information built into the site design. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In Hong Kong, we only know of one site to date that features this. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>It is the website of Arts of Asia magazine (www.artsofasianet.com). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>What they have done is integrate images into the site, which cannot be </p><p>identified as advertising or banners. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Once these images of featured products/vendors are clicked, the user is </p><p>lead to the advertisers website or information, whilst still being </p><p>retained in the original site through the menu bar. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This type of product placement marketing cannot be detected as an </p><p>advertisement and gives the 'surfer' information he is really interested </p><p>in. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>I am looking forward to next year's seminar and hopefully gaining </p><p>insights on how ROI and reach can be quantified. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Until then, I hope to see more creativity on the design side 'beyond the </p><p>banner' to use the power of creativity for effective marketing on the </p><p>'Net. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>* i4u2 design is a member of the Virtual Logistics Holding group of </p><p>companies. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>