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Journalism of Courage
Not that I am given to making dramatic opening statements, but the media planners in the Indian advertising industry need to wake up to the power of the Internet as a revolutionary new medium and junk their ostrich-like attitude.
Presently, less than 1 per cent of the Indian ad spend goes to advertising on the Net. State Bank of India8217;s Resurgent India Bonds, which mopped up in excess of over 4 billion, have been an unequivocal success. But utilised just 2 per cent of the total ad spend on the Net. Considering they were essentially targeting the Indian Diaspora, it would have been of far more value to leverage the efficiencies offered by the Net in a bolder manner.
The argument advanced against advertising on the Net is simple and naive: there aren8217;t enough users. Sure, 4,50,000 isn8217;t a big sum, but isn8217;t successful marketing about being pro-active and not reactive?
Great marketers are not pushy salesmen, but men and women of vision who can see the dawn before the others. Though a NASSCOM study that suggests that India will see an Internet user base of up to 8 million users by the year 2002 seems exaggerated, the numbers will leapfrog substantially in the coming months, what with the ISP policy round the corner. Even in the present scenario, it is remarkable that rediff.com gets about 35 million hits per month. Now, what does that say about the advertising potential of this site?
Not that things are all lost. Indian companies are becoming Net savvy and are keen to arrive on the www, though in some cases it is simply fashionable to do so. It is banking and finance companies, with an eye to the NRI market, that are putting this new medium to productive use.
Product advertising, however, is still in an embryonic stage on the Net in India. And that8217;s where an on-the-ball media planner can play a positive role. From banner and button ads, sponsorships, e-mails, online shopping malls to interstitials and push technologies, Internet advertising comes in myriad forms and offers a plethora of benefits: interactivity, speed, focus, accountability, savings in terms of cost per thousand and reach.
In the US, 78 per cent of the ad agencies have created Internet sites for their clients. A comparison with the Indian context is neither warranted nor justified, but the mindset of the Indian ad shops need to be broadened. More so when the traditional media is cluttered and battles for the share-of-voice are becoming nothing but raucous exercises in self gratification. No prizes for guessing who ends up footing the bill! Database marketing is here and one-to-one marketing is staring in our face. A great leveller, the Internet is a celebration of direct and niche marketing and merits a closer look.
Ultimately, all advertising is about trust. It is a sacred covenant between the buyer and the seller that makes for lasting relationships. In the West, the seeds of a new science of online marketing are germinating. Call it permission marketing or collaborative marketing, at the heart of it lies an attempt to take customers along. Approach them the right way and they are willing to share more personal information than the traditional advertisers would expect.
The Internet is here to stay and will change the way we live. Though it is an article of belief with me, I8217;m gung-ho about the Net not without any reason. Consider one of the many: while radio took 50 years and TV took 20 years to reach 50 million people, the Internet accomplished the same in just 5 years.
The author is an advertising consultant.
