Online Business Blog

Whilst advertising in 2009 as a whole has been down on 2008 there have been successes across the board with digital and online advertising continuing to grow and become more competitive. The war of the Internet Search Engines began with Microsoft’s Bing launching globally in June, much to Google’s annoyance. They have teamed up with Yahoo and now have a Market share of 10%, Google is a little worried and has launched its first ever global advertising campaign. The question is will people be coining the new phrase ‘I binged it’ in the new decade?

Internet advertising has been the most innovative marketing medium in 2009 which is supported by the Internet Advertising Bureau (LAB) reporting that it had grown by 4.6% in the first half of 2009, overtaking television spend for the first time ever. Now more than ever people should be looking at utilising the Internet for their marketing and many UK Advertising Agencies are fully equipped to manage campaigns as paid for searches continue to grow and be in demand.

The mobile phone market is also driving innovation in marketing with 2009 being another strong year. In June, consumers camped outside O2 stores across England to get their hands on Apple’s 3G iPhone, a launch which secured a 40% share of the smartphone market. The future for mobiles look set to get bigger and bigger and the medium is now accounts for 11.7% of ad spend.

TV has struggled this year but with shows like X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent, TV advertising revenues will be up by 4% year on year this month. The BBC has been suffering with their networks and need to find £75 million in order to kick start its cost cutting programme for the next five years. Whilst Channel four has signed a ground breaking deal with YouTube this year which will make the broadcasters programmes available on demand, in full and free of charge via the video sharing website.

With these new avenues of marketing looking set to grow and continue to be fiercer in competition who knows what other ground breaking deals, new innovations and jaw dropping tactics will be used in 2010 by search engines, phone companies and direct response advertising . Watch this space.

Through these tough financial times the usual knee jerk reaction towards Marketing Advertising is to reduce budgets. Surprisingly, in comparison with this fairly natural reaction when business and the economy are thriving some advertisers do feel the need to hold back.

Most markets and niches have had to consider the paradox of reducing budgets in a time of financial meltdown. Reports and data from previous recessions have shown that in times like these the worst time to cut down on marketing budgets is now and that also whilst everyone else is being cautious, now is the time to be attracting new customers and clients that you may not of been able to get 12-18 months ago. By building your brand up now and overtaking rivals you can make sure that you are top dog in your market when the money comes around again.

In tough economic periods, slicing marketing resources for personal injury businesses is a non rational response based on the doom and gloom market fed from the media. Why are they working at the same amount of risk as they are in financially healthy times? Because personal injury companies are based around calculated risk, therein working on a contingent fee basis means that whether we are in a recession or not, the amount of work they’ll be getting shouldn’t change. Funnily it is predicted that personal injury claims could rise in the next 12-24 months because of stretched finances and unemployment.

The centre of the debate revolves around we plan for the future. Do we continue, increase or decrease with Advertising Recruitment budgets? This all depends on how we view advertising, is it an expense or is it an investment? The former can be cut to ensure the future but the latter needs to be secured to ensure future stability and growth in times of strife.

Consumer relevancy:

A lot of data and information can be taken from viewing habits of people watching TV online. E.g. an advertising company can add specific adverts for specific viewers. Two neighbouring houses are watching a football match online, during the break the marketing advertising company can send adverts for the person supporting the blues and separate adverts for the person supporting the reds. Thus contacting the appropriate viewers and more likely to get a sale.

Accountability:

This new form of interactive advertisement means that customer interest and clicks can be finely measured. Companies now can tell what their most popular product is and what isn’t. Meaning that the famous quote “I know that half my advertising doesn’t work. The problem is, I don’t know which half.” can eventually be retired.

Advertisement Capping

This clever idea is saving alot of money for alot of companies. If an advert has been shown to a particular user over four times and there has been no click through or a poor return the advert is then sent to a different group, targeting a different demographic. This form of capping is particularly popular with recruitment advertising agencies

Filtering Different Markets:

Alcohol adverts avoid certain times and programmes for the obvious reason of marketing for people under the age of 18 and wasting budgets. User data can be implemented to block adverts for people outside of the adverts market and replaced with more relevant messages.

Pricing:

More and more companies, particularly those on a tight budget are able to advertise on online TV instead of through more traditional TV advertising. Thanks to the superb target market filtering system adverts for Ferrari or Omega are available to millionaires in their yachts on the coast of Monaco. This specialised advertising looks to be the future and long may it continue.