• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 29, 2005

One of the main advantages of online marketing is that companies can meld branding and direct response in their ads, Yahoo!'s Chief Marketing Officer Cammie Dunaway said Wednesday at OMMA East.

For instance, features such as a "try it free" box combine the "best branding principles and the best direct marketing principles, and put them together in a way that will really inspire passion and loyalty," Dunaway told the audience during the morning keynote address.

Although she considers herself a "cheerleader" for the Internet, Dunaway also told the audience that marketers still need to develop best practices online--a process of trial and error in the still emerging medium.

"I've developed pretty good gut instincts about what makes for a good television spot," said Dunaway, who previously worked at Frito-Lay Company. "My instincts for what makes good online creative are just not as developed."

Still, she had strong opinions about what doesn't work online, such as "tacky" pop-ups and bright blinking text. "We have got to keep championing great work, great creativity--and we've got to get rid of this kind of schlock," she said.

Dunaway also advised marketers to "match creative to your target." For example, she said, a campaign for Yahoo! Personals involved serving women one type of ad--a picture of a couple--and serving men another--a picture of a woman alone. Dunaway said that this type of gender targeting led to a 60 percent increase in click-throughs and conversion rates for the online dating service.

Jeff Bell, vice president at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler and Jeep Chrysler Group, seconded the idea that the Internet allowed for more experimentation than television. "If you're online, and you try something that doesn't work, change it," he advised, during a panel discussion following Dunaway's presentation.

Bell also agreed with Dunaway that the Web could be used as a branding medium--although, he added, he was frustrated by the difficulty of proving that. "We haven't done enough research on the role of the Internet in branding," he said.