FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY MARKETING SEMINAR - Uncertainty clouds not just how to market, but how to measure. Panel urges guerrilla tactics to lure eyeballs to websites

<p>In the state of flux that dominates advertising on the Web, the </p><p>issue of how to measure the success of online advertising is plaguing </p><p>online advertisers, interactive agencies and media specialists </p><p>alike. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>At MEDIA's Technology Marketing Seminar held in Hong Kong, delegates </p><p>were caught in the cross-fire on which method, if any, is evolving as </p><p>the definitive, reliable means of advertising measurement on the Web. </p><p>Olivia Head reports. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to Space Asia operations director Peter Burton, a marketer's </p><p>main objective is to pull together optimisation, brand maximisation and </p><p>the bottom line. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Essentially, you can start off with a whole bunch of banners and a </p><p>whole bunch of sites, but what you're really aiming for is the return </p><p>from those sites," he said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And with the power of pageviews and hits increasingly called into </p><p>question, consumers are demanding value propositions in exchange for </p><p>site loyalty. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The value proposition is from real intent, prospective customers </p><p>entering your site - and the bottom line failing to be seen is that </p><p>sites are not just out there for content, but are there to create </p><p>revenue and sales opportunities," said AIM Asia managing director, Mr </p><p>Gerald Alleva. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>AdMomentum CEO David Teng called for a shift in the factors that </p><p>constituted a return on adspend investment, which hinged on both </p><p>marketing approach and the solicited outcome of a campaign. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Our intention should be to use an effective reporting system to </p><p>communicate the data - some clients look for the data itself, some look </p><p>for giveaways, some look for CPM and others look for the return on </p><p>investment." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Nevertheless, differing client dictates were irrespective of one </p><p>fundamental fact, that the effectiveness of Internet advertising did not </p><p>eclipse outdoor or print. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The beauty of advertising on the 'Net lies in the power of a </p><p>transaction and being able to tailor your ads to the users," Mr Teng </p><p>said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And one test of online advertising - measuring effective sponsorship - </p><p>was proving another stumbling block: click-through rates. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Measuring the effectiveness of a sponsorship campaign is more a matter </p><p>of the parties involved sitting down and working out what their real </p><p>objective is," said Mr Joseph Sweeney of The Gartner Group. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Any sponsorship campaign raises the issue of the real-world sponsor, </p><p>with the other part of the equation questioning what that co-branding </p><p>brings to the website that is running and driving it". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The real skill of savvy emarketers, he added, lay in fleshing-out the </p><p>attractive add-ons - traffic-driving online competitions and </p><p>sweepstakes, affiliate partners to maximise sponsorship programmes and </p><p>referral fees to re-direct accidental users who come to your site. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Brandishing real-time banner tracking as an equally effective </p><p>sponsorship tool, Space Asia's Mr Burton advocated using the banner to </p><p>track new users entering a site. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>While calling into question out-and-out banner integrity, an interesting </p><p>analogy surfaced. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>If print media and banners hypothetically swapped places, the banner </p><p>scenario - where one in 300 people currently clicked on a banner with </p><p>the likelihood of this figure jumping to one in 50 in the space of eight </p><p>weeks - would be shot down in print. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Banners may have the innovative edge, but the concrete media statistics </p><p>remain alarmingly unconvincing, touted one industry observer. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to Mr Alleva, the solution lies in a mindset reversal - and </p><p>measuring website entries, unique visitors and the reason users came to </p><p>the site yields the desired specifics. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"As users go to a specific search engine, we're able to track that </p><p>information all through the website, report back to the client on a </p><p>daily basis and verify the stickiness of the site with pageviews from </p><p>different users," he said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Arming a campaign with an integrated array of real-world and </p><p>tech-back-up tactics emerged as the way to go. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"An integrated approach to this is critical, not just saying that </p><p>'search engines are better than banners', or 'banners are better than </p><p>bus ads'," Mr Alleva said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Targeting a banner to the right site in fact upped awareness, while </p><p>putting a site on a search engine boosted its brand cachet. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And distinguishing Asia's Internet space from its Stateside uber-cousin, </p><p>Mr Alleva earmarked "the little guys" - Internet start-ups and </p><p>advertisers who lacked the luxury of lavish US$20 million adspend </p><p>budgets. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"With a search engine, you actually have the chance of ongoing exposure </p><p>24 hours a day, seven days a week - and 98 per cent of us (advertising </p><p>on the 'Net) are just mere mortals out there," he said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Citing a recent Gartner Group survey on Web merchants, Mr Sweeney noted </p><p>how the trend for current traffic generation was being shifted </p><p>offline. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The question then for Web merchants, is how can we minimise the cost of </p><p>that offline marketing?" </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The real-world niche guerilla campaigns were, he noted, fast emerging as </p><p>the most effective dotcom campaigns around. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Further coverage of presentations made at MEDIA's Technology Marketing </p><p>Seminar will be featured in the April 14 edition. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- See also page 22 and 24 in this issue for more on the event. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>