Against all odds,
traditional advertising is perceived by consumers as more informative,
entertaining and necessary than online advertising. Of more than 1,200 people surveyed
for digital marketing show ad:tech London by Zussi Research, 69 percent
believed traditional advertising was relevant to them, compared with 45 percent
for online. For the TV target audience—those aged between 25-34-years old—the
gap widens further: 81 percent (traditional) vs. 53 percent (online).
Worse still for digital marketers, annoyance around advertising on the Web is
twice as high online as offline. Comments made were that digital advertising is
"ill-structured," "mainly irrelevant" and represents a
bigger, unwanted distraction for the consumer, rather than a subtle influence.
Typical comments included: "Traditional advertising is less in your face -
online seems to use all kinds of annoying tricks to make you view them, eg
popups and blank screen links you click by accident. It's an immediate
turn-off."
Why is this happening?
ad:tech conference and marketing director, Christophe Asselin, says that
customers aren't responding positively the way that the industry believes.
"While we are witnessing some amazing online campaigns out there, this
research simply shows that the overall advertising and marketing community
isn't hitting the mark with online users.
"Customers are becoming more and more savvy to online marketing tactics
and are less forgiving toward sloppy and clumsy practices mainly adapted from
the old mass media communication model. Just because online is cheaper and
quicker to implement, doesn't mean you can afford to throw away its huge
potential," added Asselin.
"There are many opportunities for digital advertising to be far more
engaging, relevant and pertinent than traditional media. Education and greater
skills are desperately needed to unleash the full power of digital if we want
leave up to our users' expectations," Asselin says.
ad:tech speaker and BBC head of technology for marketing, communications and
audiences, Mark Kelleher, says: "Given the changing behavior of the
public with the advent of multimedia, online promotions could hold huge
potential value but many organizations aren't unleashing this potential
effectively."
So how companies can get it right?
In parallel to the consumer study, ad:tech London also surveyed brand
advertisers and marketers who attended the show in 2009. 633 surveys were
completed.
One interesting aspect was how unconfident respondents were. When asked to
describe a topic to a colleague many said they were "aware but not
confident" of the subject. Surprisingly, these included social marketing,
mobile marketing and search engine marketing. Only 23 percent would regard
themselves as digital marketing experts.
Regardless of this low-confidence level, 71 percent of respondents said that their company handles its digital campaigns in-house. "While online marketing budgets are increasing, companies need to make sure the same investment is done to train and educate their staff," says Asselin. "The industry is still very young, newcomers are numerous and best practice isn't being shared. ad:tech London is a crucial platform to unite advertisers, media owners and agencies to harness the power of digital and deliver real marketing ROI."
