Digital marketing now ‘mass and mainstream’--ad exec, author
By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 17:51:00 06/24/2008
MAKATI City, Philippines -- Digital marketing has moved from being "niche and new" to being "mass and mainstream," according to an advertising executive and author who has written books on a digital marketing.
Consumer brands like Nike and Adidas are now using digital marketing to reach a mass market now using various types of digital media, said Kent Wertime, president of OgilvyOne Asia Pacific, in an interview with reporters here.
Having been in advertising for the past 17 years, Wertime said marketers are gravitating toward digital media because the numbers are just too hard to ignore: 3.1 billion mobile phone users, 900 million PC users and 1.4 billion Internet users as of 2007.
"Digital media will become a predominant form," he said, as he explained that digital marketing is about reaching people through digital channels.
In the Philippines, about 90 percent of OgilvyOne's clients are now moving to digital media since last year, said Elly Puyat, managing director of OgilvyOne Worldwide in Manila.
Puyat however admitted that digital marketing remains a young industry in the country.
"A lot of clients in Asia have some form of online presence, but it's not yet a truly digital strategy. If you're not in search marketing, for instance, you're far behind," Wertime said.
Still, the "tectonic shift" toward digital marketing is increasingly felt in Asia where usage of mobile phones and the Internet is growing, the executive said.
Citing a global study on media spending worldwide in 2008, Wertime said Asia as a whole has led in terms of per capita media spending this year. The global average on per capita spending on media is about $98. Philippine spending is currently pegged at $38.
A study by IBM on "Navigating the Media Divide" showed that while spending on traditional media remained larger than digital media, growth is at double-digit for the latter, he added.
Wertime said that marketers worldwide are still learning about the benefits of digital marketing. He pointed out, for instance, that while marketers are seeing people spending more time online, they are not yet spending much on online advertising.
In the Philippines, Puyat said that Nike and HSBC are among the most "adventurous" companies exploring digital marketing.
"Digital marketing is about interaction, while traditional media is about viewers," Wertime said. "It's not a fad."
Wertime is author of several books, including his latest, “Digimarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing.”
|
