Eastline Marketing S.A.L.

By Wissam Badine

August latest projections by eMarketers predicted growth for the online marketing sector from $24.5 billion in 2008 to $28.5 billion in 2009. eMarketer bases the measurement of its online ad expenses projections on the quarterly reports by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), which utilizes PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to carry out its surveys. The growth report, by IAB, for the first half of 2008 was 15.2% for online ad spending, which was parallel to eMarketer’s projections.

Another main factor in assuring the predictions of the growth rate, for the first half, is summing up the ad revenues of the top four US portals: Google, Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft, which was 19%.

In spite of all the bad financial news flooding the net and the global community, most of the projections drawn by major analyst firms are likely to be relatively high, most of whom who say the growth rate will be double-digit gains in 2008 and 2009.

There will always be analysts with a pessimistic look for the future of online advertising. They see the general outlook of online spending and growth as overblown and exaggerated over the wrong basis. Analyst Sandeep Agrarwal from banking firm Collins Stewart, spoke with Advertising Age magazine on Oct, 13, 2008 : “Failed banks… job losses and lower consumer confidence now characterize the macro economy. We believe this will hurt the Internet sector more than currently believed.”

A more negative outlook by banker Bill Morrison of ThinkPanmure who views online advertising spending as sinking like a rock, to a small 3% growth in 2009, “We believe it is prudent for investors to expect significantly lower growth in Internet advertising next year.”

That’s what is promoted by the pundits, what do the real marketers say?

According to a survey of 340 senior marketing executives from all over the world, made by McKinsey & Co., 91% are using online advertising and over half of them hinted that their firms plan on expanding the use of online advertising. 55% of the marketers said they’re cutting expenditures on traditional media as opposed to increasing the funds for online ventures.

Forrester Research surveyed 333 marketers with 200 or more employees asking a specific question: “How would you change your online spending patterns if there is an economic recession in the next six months?”Almost one quarter replied that they’d increase spending on internet advertising contrary to only 13% who said they’d decrease its utilization. The remaining 15% were undecided.

An Epsilon CMO survey yielded a brighter future as its poll of 175 marketing executives resulted in: 63% expected increases in spending on interactive/online marketing for 2008, only 14% saw a reduction.

A survey made last month, by MarketingProfs, covering 600 US marketers yielded that 60% planned to increase their spending on online advertising in treating the downturn.

The right question to be posed by the marketers should be: “What is behind the bullish projections for online ad spending, especially when most traditional media are taking the financial equivalent of body blows?”

The seven causes are:

1. The internet is a more measurable source than the traditional outlets.
2. The internet allows a far more microscopic approach on the target markets than any other forms of media. This reduces expenses by saving marketing dollars.
3. The interactive aspect of the internet allows a higher degree of engagement between client/consumer.
4. The internet is one of the most popular outlets among the younger generations and is growing to include a larger share of the total media consumption, studies keep showing that teens and younger individuals are spending more and more time online per week than watching TV.
5. The internet provides new opportunities for marketers by allowing customers to be in control of what they demand and deeper categorization of the markets.
6. With blogs, social networks, and Twitter, the new Web 2.0 phenomena makes a great means for the marketers to have deeper insights into consumer behavior and attitudes.
7. Unlike any other medium or outlet, the web allows marketers to reach destinations through the whole consumer buying cycle, from initial awareness to data gathering and sales, and to post-sale feedback.

Through meticulous and well-studied online marketing planning, Eastline Marketing has long excelled in this field as it gives extra care to every client’s needs in terms of their website’s performance, the client’s present competition, online presence, and all that could be done to push its client’s name even higher in rankings and hits.

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