So it is already the end of the fall quarter... hard to believe I know! I probably won't delete this blog (at least for a little while), and if I come across any really really interesting internet marketing articles, I may post links here with a bit of commentary.
Still, before I head out, I'll leave you with a bit of optimistic news. James sent us this article last week (or maybe the week before by now??) that delivered the unsettling news that e-commerce and online sales are falling off and experiencing quite a stomach-turning drop in growth. While this is certainly alarming, there is a faint rainbow further down the horizon..... I believe it is a topic I have covered before, specifically in CMOs of the Roundtable. Online ad spending is growing!
If you do business in France, the UK or the US, you can rest assured that your online advertising dollars are going to good use. According to Mediaweek, online ad spending is poised as the strongest ad channel to withstand the current economic downturn compared to television and print channels. Still, the author, Mike Shields, warns us to keep a wary eye on these figures saying they likely don't yet reflect the developing ad recession.
His thoughts are reflections of Karin von Abrams of emarketer.com who highlights the significant online ad spending increases in France compared to the negative growth of television, radio, print, and cinema methods. However, like Shields, von Abrams points out that while still growing, this channel is beginning to slow down as well and the current state of the world economy could do any number of things to these partly sunny forecasts.
The silver lining? As long as internet use by individual consumers continues to grow, online advertising will continue to grow as well -- especially in France, where active home internet users grew by 3.18% in one month alone.
One thing for companies and ad agencies to consider: just because you advertise online, doesn't necessarily mean you should expect your sales results to arrive through online channels. Consumers do still visit brick and mortar outlets! Really! Circuit City (although imminently closing a wholllle bunch of stores) is currently running a tv campaign that highlights the research capabilities of their website compared to competitors (who shall remain guiltily nameless!). They guarantee that the price consumers see online is the same price consumers will pay in the store. I've personally experienced such a price conflict between an online quote and an in-store quote at another electronics store, and if Circuit City had talked about their price match guarantee sooner, I might have been more interested in shopping there. C'est la vie!
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1 comment:
Great commentary! I hope you continue to voice your opinions on the Web.
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