• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 7, 2005

The differences between campaigns aimed at building brand awareness and those with the goal of direct consumer response will increasingly evaporate online, predicts The Kelsey Group in its latest report, scheduled to be released today.

"By 2009, it may be more difficult to distinguish awareness advertising from directional advertising, as digital advertising platforms expand and lines between these forms of advertising blur," states the report, titled "Global Directional Media Forecast."

Search marketing, which has both branding and direct components, is among the most significant reasons for the growing blur, says Neal Polachek, the report's author.

While paid search links often function in the same way as traditional Yellow Pages--by providing information to buyers currently making a decision--search also builds brand awareness by putting a marketer's name in front of consumers, even when they're not looking to purchase something. For instance, a consumer who uses search to find names of CDs by, say, "The White Stripes" might also get sponsored links for MP3 players.

"You're searching for something and up pop these contextual ads," says Polachek. "And at that point, is it a directional ad?" he asks. For the consumer who goes on to buy the MP3 player--or even to consider it--the ad has worked similarly to a traditional awareness campaign, Polachek says.

Search marketing professionals also say that companies are beginning to view search engines as branding instruments. For that reason, many companies want to be in the No. 1 spot every time they appear--even when appearing in categories where consumers aren't likely to make a purchase.

Rob Middleton, chief strategic officer at Fathom Online, adds that "more and more," his marketing clients "want to be No. 1"--meaning in the top spot of the paid rankings--even when they're buying keywords not normally associated with the product. For example, when a company known for manufacturing computers started producing televisions, that company was willing to pay extra to get the No. 1 spot on paid results for keywords related to television sets. Appearing in the TV search results, in effect, was a component of the company's branding strategy, said Middleton.

Peter Hershberg, managing partner of search marketing firm Reprise Media, agrees that his clients increasingly see a branding impact to appearing in search engines. He adds that his clients have come to believe that consumers equate rank with brand equity.

In its forecast, Kelsey also predicts that the global market for digital directional advertising--online business directories, local search, and wireless directories--will reach about $10 billion in 2009, up from an estimated 2.8 billion last year.

Local search, in particular, is expected to skyrocket. In the United States, local search spending is expected to leap to 3.38 billion in 2009, from an estimated 162 million last year and a predicted 418 million this year. Internet Yellow Pages will grow from an estimated 478 million last year to 576 million this year and 1.331 billion in 2009, predicts The Kelsey Group.