Global economy slowdown/recession—call it whatever—it is here and we don’t know for how long. From a small business to a large corporate—it has spared none. A recent R3 research* shows a 20% drop in marketing ad spends by the top 100 Asian brands from their initial FY09 budget. With media highlighting all the bad news, the price conscious consumer is tightening his purse strings even further.

The medium has significant reach even amongst the smaller towns. In fact, a recent Juxtconsult research revealed that one out of every seven netizens is from rural India. The research further revealed the following penetration split by population strata:

• Source : CIA ( Central Intelligence Agency) World Fact Book and Juxtconsult IndiaOnline report

And with the growth of local language websites, local search engines and local language messengers, this is only bound to go northwards.

“Consumers of various mediums use these mediums from “need and ease of access” perspective. The internet has been accessible from SEC A, B, C, D from Tier 2 and 3 cities for some time now. More advertisers should recognise the reach and frequency of digital.” – Preeti Desai, VP, Marketing and strategic alliances, Rediff.com India

Armed with advanced ad serving technologies, one can control the number of exposures of the campaign or a select creative within a campaign to the target audience basis his demographics, past behaviour or interaction with the current communication. And all of this at the click of a button!  Are you the one who’s always wondered which part of your advertising budget is working? Not if you are on the internet. Here you will know exactly which creative message, which ad unit, what day of the week, what time of the day works—all in real time.

“Digital advertising enables behavioural targeting and reduces significant waste, by cutting down on the ad spend on people who have no interest in your product.” – Shubodip Pai, Head Marketing, PSG, HP

3. Internet helps the marketer maintain a dialogue with the consumer across the value chain

Right from the time that the consumer recognises the need for a product/service, becomes aware of your product/service, shows interest, makes a decision to the time of his opening up his wallet and buying your product/service; internet helps you to talk to him. And all in a customised fashion. In fact, you can take it further and use internet for redressal and free up your valued sales force for what they should be doing in the first place—selling!

 “Effective customer relationship management (CRM) will be the mantra for survival and success. Digital media aids in effective CRM and relying solely on lead generation would be under-exploitation of the potential and self defeating in purpose.” – Gaurav Gupta, Marketing Director, General Motors (India)

4. Internet is the only medium that enables you to have a direct dialogue with your consumers, gain insights and turn them into brand ambassadors

The consumer today trusts no advertiser. They’d rather believe what their friends have to say about a particular brand/product. Internet, through its various communities, helps you listen to these dialogues, participate in their conversations, alleviate their fears/misconceptions and engage with them for a longer and more profitable relationship. This in turn reduces the cost that you, as an advertiser, would need to spend on campaigns to make them stick with you in a fiercely competitive world. Sunsilk is reputed to have reflected a 9% growth in sales post the launch of its community portal GOG.

5. Internet is the medium of the young, affluent consumer

Internet is a smarter way to reach the audience than other media, because few people buy anything here without going online. Research shows that the target group of young, urban affluent spenders spend the maximum time online and on mobile. A recent youth (13-24 years) survey by Juxtconsult further emphasised the point.

It is this and more that makes internet an amazing tool—both to reach the masses as well as target specific niches. It is a low-cost, extremely efficient medium that helps you overcome all geographical boundaries and talk to the consumer at various stages of the consumer lifecycle. And it is a medium that has delivered excellent results and ROI for those who believed in it. At Ignitee, we are particularly proud of all the excellent ROI campaigns that we have delivered for our partners with our cutting edge tools and insightful strategies.

Pradeep Shrivastava, CMO, Idea Cellular was speaking for all those marketers who have tested this medium, when he was recently quoted saying “These are tough and nervous times. We are not sure for how long it [the recession] will last and whether it will improve or get worse. We need to be prudent and extra careful. The digital advertising medium is measurable and allows you to reach out to a highly focussed audience, especially when the times are tough and the competition is forcing you to be aggressive. For the last one year, Idea has been spending on digital and it has seen encouraging results.”

We invite you to embrace this medium and invest in it for its measurability, targeted and customised communication, and flexibility of micro-campaigns. We promise—the only reaction you will have will be “What an idea Sirji!”

*Global research that covered 100 of Asia’s top 500 brands and the included multinational and local companies in India, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

High-end brands go the digital way for better reach and connect

The recession has actually brought along a ray of hope for the Digital Advertising Industry. Lately, it has drawn quiet some attention—it is being understood, accepted and appreciated as a more credible and measurable tool. After all, one cannot ignore the 60 million internet surfer population. As Ford India’s Shukla puts it, “The onus is definitely on the media agencies to take up the initiative and educate the clients about its benefits. The digital space needs to be treated not just as a cheaper medium, but the innovative possibilities that it offers.”

Hit by economic slowdown, Tag Heuer optimally uses ‘subtle’ online advertising

Another major impact of the recession can be seen with the watch giant, Tag Heuer, going online in India. Seen as the best way to connect to their TG and the low spend compared to mainstream advertising, they have optimally used Internet as a medium in India. Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra and a Tag Heuer brand ambassador launched its Carrera collection in November 2008. In their digital campaign one gets to see a prominent logo of the super luxury watch brand displayed on select web portals. This is the first time Tag Heuer has used the digital media so extensively—Internet is on its way to becoming an advertising hot spot.

Digital media remains buffered from market meltdown

Due to the shift amongst the consumers’ (especially youth) media patterns towards the internet, there is high growth potential in the medium. With innovations like IPTV and newer technology on mobile and internet, the medium is sure to be a hit with the masses. Therefore, it can be said that the recession has in fact, brought MORE business to the digital space. However, new entrants can find the going tough unless they come up with differentiated services. But come to think of it, newer entrants will increase the competition leading to better content and quality of the space. The future is bright—it’s the Internet.