Superbrands on the Web: first find the Holy Grail

Change the rules of any discipline and noses inevitably get put out of joint. And in advertising space, the Web is no exception. While the naysayers grow quieter in the face of accountability for adspend dollars, the realm of branding remains a dark horse. "Many times it's used for anything where the results are not exactly known, in which case we stick with "branding" and seem a little bit more comfortable about it," said Beyond Interactive chief Internet evangelist, Darien Heyman. But while getting a brand into the minds of consumers is half the battle for anyone venturing into the cluttered 'Net space, Mr Heyman believes the real goal of the branding process is to create brand advocates. "These are people that are not going to be loyal to you on a solo basis, they're going to tell their friends about you - word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising." Taking into account the prevailing truth where "the customer is king" on the Web, the trick for marketers in the know is to not only sell to customers but to get them to sell on your behalf. "When you look at traditional advertising vehicles, generally speaking there's a tendency to put things in buckets - you're either branding or you're advertising and the main reason for this is because with traditional media it's almost impossible to close the (sales) loop," he said. Coining the term "superbranding" to maximise value on the 'Net, according to Mr Heyman it's a fine line between using the 'Net for branding or conversely, as a response medium. "If you're using the 'Net to advertise and you're only looking at it as a branding requirement, then you're missing out on the one per cent of the audience that's actively ready to engage in a relationship and transact with you," he said. "But if you're only looking at the 'Net as a response medium, you're forgetting about the 99 per cent of people that aren't ready at that specific time to interact." And breaking through the contradictions has a lot to do with scrapping the notion that clickthrough rates truly measure the success of an online ad campaign. "The idea here is that we want to look at the ultimate measures for success - so if you buy banners that say 'look here for a free sell', that would probably get a better hit rate, but is this really the ultimate metric that you're looking for as a marketer?" Probably not. Touting the 'Net's accountability also calls into question the validity of traditional advertising focus groups. "Now, we're not just asking consumers how an ad made them feel, we're actually watching whether they clicked through to the website and bought the product, or did they click through to the website and not buy immediately but buy a week after?" According to Mr Heyman, thanks to the 'Net marketers and advertisers alike are "one step closer to the Holy Grail - a complete return on investment." And driving consumers to respond to the barrage of ads on the Internet has turned context and novelty into the fundamentals for any dialogue. But singlehandedly changing the rules of advertiser/consumer communication, with the consumer in the 'Net driving seat, one-to-one personalisation is currently every marketer's golden goose. "In the US in the good old days, you'd walk into the general store and the shopkeeper would know your name, and then we had this whole idea of mass marketing and mass production," said Mr Heyman. "Now the pendulum's swinging back, because with the issue of email acknowledgement, you can communicate with that consumer with the same extremely targeted methods." And hype or no, marketers seen to be embracing the medium with an innovative twist are experiencing a "beneficial effect on their branding" as a result. Citing the launch of the new Beetle by automobile giant Volkswagen, Mr Heyman noted how a significant presence on the Internet has been called for in order to convey cutting-edge brand values to the right target audience: "It's establishing a bar which needs to be tapped - if you want to be seen as hip and trendy." Ultimately for Mr Heyman, advertisers in any medium are going to have a hard time beating the Web's ability to well and truly snare consumer attention. "People remember 20 per cent of what they see, 40 per cent of what they hear and 75 per cent of what they see, hear and do," he said, adding that for every three seconds of attention captured by a billboard, users spent six concentrated minutes per Web stint.

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