DIGITAL MEDIA ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

It is estimated that in 2009 almost 74% of the U.S. population – or more than 22 million citizens – use the Internet. There are five primary types of advertising in digital media: search, online display, email marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing.

1. Search: search, or keyword advertising, dominates all forms of digital advertising. Marketers can bid through auction systems on words or phrases related to their offering – advertisers only pay the search engine a fee when consumers click on sponsored links. This is a viable option for small advertisers with limited budgets.
2. Online display: the second-largest type of digital advertising – including banners, buttons, microbars, skyscrapers, etc. these ads can be static, animated, or contain video, but most contain the direct-response feature of a link to the advertiser. Click-through rate (CTR) is the traditional measure of success for online display ads. CTR = number of clicks/number of times it is seen. CTR fails to consider a display ad’s influence on branding and other forms of marketing communication. Display ads are monetized in several ways, but cost-per-impression (CPM) still represents the industry norm – CPMs on ad networks range from $.60 to $1.10.
3. Email marketing: “the rock star of direct marketing because it is the most cost-effective and most trackable.” Click-through is higher for consumer products and financial services. Marketers are moving from mass-emailing too much more targeted and personable approaches by using demographic data. New vocabulary for online marketers:
4. Spam: online advertising messages that are usually unsolicited by the recipient
5. Opt-in: a form of permission marketing in which online customers are sent messages only after they have established a relationship with a company. Only consumers who have granted permission are contacted.
6. Opt-Out: procedures that recipients use to notify advertisers that they no longer wish to receive advertising messages. A term usually associated with online promotions.
7. Congress passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003 which establishes requirements for those who send commercial email and gives consumers the right to ask e-mailers to stop spamming them.
8. Social media marketing: includes blogs, social network sites, chat rooms, message boards, podcasts, and video and sharing sites. There are two primary ways to advertise on Facebook: set up a profile page and actively enlist friends and fans to sign up, and then send bulletins about special events and discounts, OR companies can run traditional online display ads on member pages. They can target audiences based on the information Facebook users provide on their profile. Advertisers on Facebook can choose to pay-per-click or pay by the number of impressions generated. Advertisers use video-sharing sites like YouTube as well. The Internet makes it possible for advertisers to run edgier and more consumer-produced content than they would be able to run in the broadcast media. Advertisers are finding ways to leverage the popularity of social media in such a way as to engage customers rather than making them feel as though the advertiser is invading their personal space
9. Mobile Marketing: advertisers see the potential in mobile but must tread carefully because research shows that consumers are annoyed by unwanted mobile solicitations. Smartphone apps are a marketer’s dream because advertisers can use mobile in creative ways to deliver value and advertising to users while developing new customer databases.
10. Digital as a complement to other media: digital advertising can stand-alone but it is most often used as a complementary role in integrated campaigns. The TV seems to work well with online messages because the medium’s high credibility can build brand equity among large groups of prospects very quickly. Many online promotions must deal with three groups of prospects: the first and largest are the surfers and casual users à web advertising must gain attention quickly, the second group is the entertainment/information-oriented regular users of a site à looking for an interactive activity and will return to a website often if it provides the entertainment and information they seek, the third group is those who are actively in the market for a product/service àthe site should provide relevant, up-to-date product information.

Branding accomplishes two goals in the online world:

It gains awareness for the website itself:

“dot-coms” is a generic designation that refers to companies engaged in some type of online commerce.

Branding is important for companies that want high visibility on the web.

A number of companies have found that traditional advertising works better than online messages to encourage website visits. *

The Role of Digital Media and Marketing: there are a number of uses for the internet and commercial websites:

As a source of direct sales

As a source of advertising-supported communication

As a source of marketing and promotion information

As builders of consumer engagement

Digital Media and Marketing Research: clearly one of the primary benefits of internet marketing is the ability to gain information about individual buying habits and product preferences. However, one of the emerging advantages of internet technology is the ability to collect market research quickly and inexpensively from a larger respondent base that might be possible with conventional research methodology – a marketer can now sample globally. Some dangers associated with conducting research online is that online survey participants are typically younger and less tech-phobic than other members of the population.

Privacy concerns: the FTC has launched a number of inquiries about online policies and practices. The FTC advocates 4 elements for online privacy policies:

1.     Disclosure of what information is collected

2.     The choice for customers to opt-out

3.     Access by consumers to their personal information

4.     Security standards for information use and access

Digital branding, audience, and Daypart: although the internet provides problems for multinational companies attempting to execute localized strategies on a global basis, it offers a number of major advantages as well.  For example, companies can provide information about their products as well as receive orders from their customers in other countries without incurring additional expense. 13 – 24-year-olds spend 16.7 hours/week online and 13.6 hours watching television.