• by Masha Geller , May 20, 2003

Two years ago, at our first Forecast conference, we decided to have one of our panels debate whether the web is a branding or a direct response medium. It was the most heated debate of the day. My, how things have changed! Nowadays, people roll their eyes at the topic. We all know it's both.

Still, an article on eMarketer today caught my eye because at first it seems like advertisers are putting more into online branding efforts. David Hallerman, one of the company's analysts, cites a DoubleClick research study from last fall, which found that 82% of US marketers cite building brand awareness as an online advertising objective, up from 75% in the spring. And 69% of the same group mention acquiring new leads and customers as an objective, along with the 52% who want to drive immediate sales.

At the same time, branding comes in second to direct response based on a share of impressions. In Q4 2002, Nielsen//NetRatings found that 34% of online ads contain branding messages, compared to 66% for direct response, Hallerman writes.

He goes on to say, "Even with the Internet's two-way facility for marketing goals, it makes sense that more advertisers focus on direct response."

Does it? I may have read too many Dynamic Logic studies, but I firmly believe that those advertisers who ignore the Web's branding potential are simply living under a rock. The truth is, they're currently using the web for direct response because that was the first thing they figured out how to do well. Yes, branding is still a tough, expensive proposition and online creative is, for the most part, still sub-par. But that's changing fast. I'm betting next year's numbers will be quite different.