To go online or not to go online? That’s no longer the question | Digital Marketing

The Internet is far from being the unreliable, young, black sheep of the regional media scene. It is, perhaps, the most reliable and cost-effective way to reach a target audience and market your product. Martin Diessner, CEO Flip Media, discusses.
United Arab Emirates: Wednesday, February 02 – 2005 at 12:25 GMT+4

The tumultuous history of the Internet and the dot coms has made it necessary for online media today not only to be able to hard sell their space, but to convince the marketing managers of the region that the Internet is, in fact, a profitable and reliable platform via which to reach customers. They have to start at the very beginning – not sell you space on a portal, but the idea of going online.

Take for example a situation where you want to buy a car. The salesman at the store would be sure to provide you with all the specifications, the brake horse power, all the meaningless information about torque, vented discs and the number of spokes on both options of the alloy wheels.

The salesman’s position, if you read between the lines, is always, “I know you need a car. Having a car gives you the ability to go from one place to the other without the hassle of taking cabs and getting a ride with friends. I just have to let you know how good this car is…You’re already sold on the idea of having one.”

For an online media planner in the Middle East, the thinking has to be different. The market isn’t sold on the idea of going online and for good reason: there hasn’t been any information to convince them that setting aside a chunk of the marketing budget for online media is actually a wise decision. So far, the industry has been very young and unexplored in terms of innovative and inventive online marketing. But, like any young evolving entity, it has grown fast and the preconceptions that existed two years ago are no longer valid or true.

The only way to convince the powers that be of the strength and potential of the Internet in the region is to provide numbers and concrete information to indicate just how much the online medium can achieve for a brand or an organization. The UAE alone has seen a huge increase in Internet usage over the last few years.

Today, 1 in 3 people uses the Internet, whether at work or from home. With the extent of technology’s reach, we can determine that 77% of the 1.1 million Internet users in the UAE are between the ages of 20 and 34, that 70% of the users are male (and 30% are female) and that most of them log on at least twice a day. With an audience so large and varied, ignoring online media as an integral part of the media mix could be a serious oversight.

Globally, people rely on the internet more and more for news, information, updates, and communication and the Middle East is no different. One might ask, “how do you target the right people at the right time with your campaign? Is there any surety? With a print ad in the leading newspaper, I am guaranteed exposure to at least 70,000 people.” In reality, working with online media portals is much the same as working with print.

It is perhaps, even more targeted. Online, you can associate your message with websites and portals that are contextually relevant to your brand or your specific product. For instance, as a luxury car dealer, you could advertise on portals that target upper management or place the ads on websites and portals that cater to the automotive enthusiasts.

Having placed your ad on the relevant websites and portals, both local and international, you can ensure that only those logging in from relevant countries see your advertisement and even how many times they see the ad in the space of a minute.

There is no wastage of space. The medium also allows flexibility that is not as easily found with magazines or newspapers. Internet users can choose exactly when they want to interact with a brand or a product and a good website can often attract a site user to interact with the brand (of course, leaving a lasting impression) for more than 30 seconds at a stretch. With the advent of wireless technology, access to the internet has become even easier.

Coffee-shops to aircraft support wireless technology, giving rise to a cyber-culture that only supports the argument that online media should not be ignored.

What most people forget about the Internet is that it is the easiest medium to evaluate and track. Campaigns can be monitored on a regular basis, giving marketing managers a chance to examine their campaign and determine the response it is drawing from the target audience as they interact with it. This also allows flexibility on the part of the advertiser.

Adapting campaigns to suit the behaviour and reaction of the consumers and the target audience, makes the Internet the most brand-friendly medium available to marketing departments today.

As the industry grows in the Middle East grows and more and more people are drawn to the Internet, marketing departments must also evolve to include online marketing in their budgets. We shouldn’t question whether to go online or not. We should, in fact, look at the best possible way to do so and how to be most effective in the endeavour to gain a noticeable online presence.