Commentary

Branding or Direct Response?

The introduction of something as powerful and disruptive as a new medium brings with it tremendous instability. Now that the initial euphoria has burned off, the media marketplace is faced with the question of how to best use it to promote and sell goods and services. Which is not an easy question to answer.

Is the Web best used as a direct response medium, or as a branding medium? The two are very different. Marketers using the Web as a branding medium get very concerned about how their message will be imprinted on the consumer's mind. They care about the creative product they're using. And they're also concerned about how many people actually see their message. So audience measurement is important. The direct response guys, on the other hand, only care about one thing: how many people bought their product? (Or more immediately, how many clicked on the ad to gather additional information about their product.)

So -- for those of you who still remember the old Certs campaign -- which is it? A candy? Or a breath mint?

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For one thing, the Web has unlimited inventory. Sites can add pages without limit, and ads can be run on a page (simultaneously or in rotation) to further stretch supply. All this argues for very inexpensive CPMs. Great for a branding medium.

On the other hand, Web advertising is almost completely trackable. A campaign can account for itself perfectly. The hallmark of direct response.

But the Web lends itself to great flexibility in creative product. Ads can be varied easily. Great for branding.

Of course, ads can be changed on a moment's notice depending on their response rate. A must for direct response.

The Web's audience grows monthly, and its share of voice among all media is also increasing. That makes it unavoidable to marketers looking to imprint their brand on the consumer's mind.

All this activity is attracting new, inexperienced advertisers to the Web. Advertisers who are afraid they might not succeed. Perfect for direct response, or CPA (cost per action) advertisers.

The sellers' market that existed a year ago has become a tremendous buyers' market. Rate cards mean nothing. But is the Web going to stay this way? Hardly.

As audience size continues to grow, advertisers will not be able to ignore it.

More advertisers means more success stories.

As the Web success stories become known, they will attract even more advertisers to the Web.

Faster connectivity will create even more usage, and even more success stories.

New and different ad technologies will attract even more advertisers.

As marketers and their agencies become better educated on how to use the medium, more advertisers will be comfortable using it.

As agencies learn to combine online with offline advertising and promotions, more advertiser money will flow into the Web. So the arrow is pointed in one direction: up.

As you ponder the future, consider these numbers:

In the space of about 5 years, total annual advertising on the Web has reached about $8 billion. Cable television, which has been around for about 25 years, is a $12-billion business. And magazines, which have been around forever, are only a $10-billion business. So what do YOU think the future will bring?

- Michael Kubin is co-CEO of Evaliant, formerly Leading Web Advertisers - http://www.evaliant.net - one of the web's most powerful sources for online ad data. He may be reached at mkubin@evaliant.net

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