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Internet Advertising: a new era in political advertising - Opinion

It's no surprise that a former Web site publisher would call into question the impact of television advertising. But when the man who created Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" television advertising does so, ears prick up.

Hal Riney was quoted in Ad Age saying that TV advertising simply can't deliver like it once did and that interactive advertising is more effective. The evidence of this is growing by the day. Industry research shows that people are spending more time online and less time with television. The people who are making buying choices for major companies are telling marketers that they are more persuaded by online messages than by what they see on television. And the most important consumers--those who are well educated, wealthy and influential--are visiting Web sites in huge numbers.

In response, Madison Avenue has begun to accept that interactive advertising must be part of any smart marketing campaign. In fact, internet advertising expenditures climbed 20 percent in the third quarter of 2003, far outpacing traditional media. Major corporations such as McDonald's have shifted significant dollars onto the Web. The advertising revenue growth of top brand name sites provides powerful evidence of this shift. Sites that are part of the Online Publishers' Association (OPA), which include CBS Marketmatch.com, washingtonpost.com and Forbes.com, saw ad revenue jump 47 percent through the first nine months of 2003.

In politics, the story is very different. Political campaigns have largely ignored the changing landscape and continue spend the vast majority of dollars on television. As someone who served as a staff member for 12 national and local political campaigns, I am personally and acutely aware that change is slow in politics. It is understandable that campaigns see risk in diverting dollars from the advertising media with which they are comfortable. But when you consider the amount of money campaigns spend on the same types of advertising they've been buying for the past 40 years--and the pennies being spent on the Web--it is clear that political advertisers are missing an enormous opportunity.

The internet advertising opportunity isn't based on hype; it's about simple, human behavior. The Internet has changed the way we communicate and now is in the process of changing advertising. Consider how people use various media. A Stanford University study found that 60 percent of Internet users are watching less television. The study also found that people spend more hours on the Internet the more years they have been using it. Without question, television can reach a mass audience with an emotional message. But how many viewers actually care about the message? From watching television advertising during the last election cycle, I could tell you nearly every detail about the candidates running for Congress in Virginia. The problem is, I live in Maryland.

What innovative businesses have begun to learn, and political communications experts are starting to grasp, are five basic fundamentals of the Internet media that should take the right message to the right people in ways never before possible.

First, the Web represents not only a very large audience, but also an audience of outstanding quality. For instance, 41 percent of washingtonpost.com users make or influence business decisions according to @Plan Media Metrics, an industry research group. Meanwhile, according to Nielsen/Netratings, the fastest growing income group on the Web are those making more than $100,000. And like other top news sites, washingtonpost.com has a very politically engaged audience. Eighty-three percent of visitors to our main news sections voted in the last two years, and more than half contributed to a political campaign. A recent study conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) and the OPA showed that 68 percent of voters who use the Internet are likely to research a candidate's position online.

The second fundamental is that the Web reaches a large, quality audience when no other medium reaches them: at work during the day. Study after study has shown that daytime is primetime for the Internet. Even more importantly, people who access the Web at work spend more time online than they do watching television, listening to the radio or reading publications.

Another critical fundamental of the Internet is that, while television viewers click around and get up often during their viewing, online readers are on task. People viewing sites like washingtonpost.com simply cannot avoid the advertising that is presented to them. The CSRA study found that fully 60 percent of people said they would be likely to notice an online ad for a candidate, proving that internet advertising have an impact.

And the internet advertising is truly unique. The Internet marries the ability to send a general message and a direct call to action simultaneously. An online political ad can serve as a virtual billboard that builds name recognition and associates a message with candidates, as well as being an entry point for potential supporters to sign up for campaign newsletters, volunteer to help, donate money and more.

Finally, the Web offers all this at a fraction of the cost of other media and with virtually unlimited availability. In many campaigns, a point is reached where television simply can't be bought, because it's not available or it's too expensive. The Internet offers far greater flexibility and allows limited dollars to be spent more efficiently. In a recent IAB cross-media study, Colgate found that it costs 23 percent more to get the marketing results the company wanted when they used only television as opposed to television in combination with internet advertising.

It is important to understand that interactive advertising is not the same as television advertising. One of the most exciting differences is the ability to target specific messages to specific groups. Nearly any site can target advertising geographically. Sites that get users to register, can target with even greater precision. A campaign can deliver visually alluring advertising that have been specifically designed for the target audience.

Internet advertising also allows for true rapid response. In the heat of a campaign battle, it can be challenging to quickly get a new television ad on the air. On the Web, a new ad can be up and running in hours, and the message or creative can be changed as events warrant.

Finally, the Web allows for an unmatched level of interactivity and flexibility. Through internet advertising, a candidate can get potential voters to visit a Web site, dig deeper into specific issues, dig deeper into their pockets, deliver campaign news and much more.

Just as corporate advertisers have begun to make the Web a critical part of their media mix, we are about to enter a new era of political advertising in which the greatest risk will lie in not using the Web. Those who think differently will understand this, while those who can't--or don't--will be left behind.

Chris Schroeder is vice president, strategy for the Washington Post Co. He previously served as CEO and publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.

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Internet Advertising - Is it right for you?

The global reach of internet advertising makes it an ideal medium for promoting a business. Millions of Internet users are actually earning their bread by running a successful online money-generating venture. As simple as it sounds, online undertakings and marketing require the same amount of hard work and dedication as any other business managed the traditional way. Regardless of their management style, all types of organizations stand to gain from internet advertising.

Among the several advantages of online marketing are its low development costs, 24x7 availability, and continuous ability to handle customer queries. Aside from all these, Internet advertising does what no other strategy can do. It gives enterprises an opportunity to promote their products not only to domestic clients but people all over the world. Geographical boundaries cease to exist when it comes to Internet advertising.

According to DoubleClick, users frequently buy something online after seeing its ad rather than from a click-through. More studies indicate that revenues from online dealings will touch the $2.6 trillion mark in the year 2004, significantly higher than a total of $280 billion generated in the year 2000. Along similar lines, Gartner, Inc. predicts a global e-commerce revenue of $8.5 trillion by the end of year 2005. These overwhelming figures show that everyone involved in any sort of business activity should seriously think about marketing their services through the web, if they already are not doing so.

Having given you an idea of what it is like in the field of online marketing, let us not intimidate you. It is a fact that the Internet is full of web sites offering products covering everything under the sun. However, everything does not work. Quite often entrepreneurs have to close shop soon after starting their business because of the impression that Internet marketing is self-sustaining. Only those ventures become profitable that are promoted carefully with the dedication they require. Our experts can help you avoid the pitfalls of internet advertising and give it the time necessary to succeed.

We are with you every step of the way beginning by focusing on your business goals. Establishing clear specific goals and tangible objectives is at the heart of any business. Taking constant inputs from you, we perform extensive researches to identify the right kind of people interested in your products, their requirement, and solutions to their requirement with respect to your product offerings. We combine these ingredients to facilitate you in achieving rich dividends by designing advertisements that highlight your business, showcase its usefulness to target customer segments, and have an international appeal.

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Internet Advertising: Can a Competitor Use Your Name to Grow its Business?

Internet advertising is big business -- on the order of $8 billion annually. Competition among businesses is at an all-time high, so it should be no surprise that your competitor may be using your name to gain a competitive business advantage. If it is happening to you, what can you do about it? Or, if you are using your competitor's name, is it legal?

There are currently two closely watched internet advertising cases. Both cases happen to involve the Internet search engine www.google.com and its AdWord advertising program. Both are pseudo trademark infringement cases and have similar fact patterns.

Google Inc. is the Internet's leading search engine. Users input keywords into Google's search engine to seek information about virtually any topic. Using a computer program, the Google site displays the results by listing web sites that correspond to the user's query. The user then chooses the website that best meets the criteria.

In the first litigation, Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) v. Google Inc., GEICO filed suit in Virginia against Google, challenging Google's AdWords internet advertising program. Google sells advertisements that are triggered by searches using trademarks and company names. The problem with that, according to GEICO, is that whenever GEICO's trademark is typed into Google's search engine, GEICO's competition appears in the ponsored Links?area on the resulting search engine's web page. GEICO argues that Google's AdWords advertising program violates federal laws.

The Virginia district court agreed and disagreed. In a bench ruling, a federal judge ruled that Google's advertising policy does not violate any federal trademark laws. However, the judge did find that where the Sponsored Link search results page displays the GEICO name, that could be a violation of federal law. The case is currently proceeding on that cause of action. For the time being at least, this Virginia court felt that buying competitor's names from Google is not a violation of federal law provided that the resultant search link does not have the competitor's mark listed therein.

In the second closely-watched Internet advertising case, Google filed suit against American Blind in Google, Inc. v. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc. American Blind is the owner of several trademarks which it uses in connection with its business. American Blind complains about the same Sponsored Link advertising. American Blind's argument is that when American Blind's competitors show up in the search results page via American Blind's trademarks, that users who were seeking American Blind were then diverted to the Sponsored Link section and, ultimately, to American Blind's competitor's website. Thus, argues American Blind, Google is allowing competitors to trade off of the goodwill established by American Blind.

Google moved to dismiss the trademark infringement and unfair competition claims early in the proceedings. The Court denied Google's motion since the case was in its infancy and the case is going forward with the trademark infringement and unfair competition counts.

The outcome of these two cases will be carefully scrutinized by those who use Internet advertising and those whose names are being used against them in competition. If your company has not purchased its AdWords from Google, one defensive strategy is to purchase them before your competitor does. If your company is aggressive in its advertising, you may want to consider purchasing your competitor's names and compete -- until and unless these two cases tell us otherwise.

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Frequently Asked Internet Advertising Questions

If you're marketing a product on the Internet, developing a successful internet advertising campaign is an important part of your success. However, this is an area in which many Internet marketers struggle.

For this reason, I have devised a list of the most frequently asked advertising questions I have received.

Question: I'm new to the Internet and have been seeing a lot of terms I'm not familiar with. Can you tell me what ROI means?

Answer: You can find just about any Internet term you can imagine at Net Lingo http://www.netlingo.com.

Here are a few common advertising terms used online:

• ROI - Return on Investment
• USP - Unique Selling Proposition
• Conversion Rate - The number of visitors compared to the number of sales
• CPM - Cost Per Thousand (Associated with ezine advertising)

Question: What, in your opinion, is the most effective form of Internet advertising ?

Answer: In my opinion, ezine advertising is the most effective form of advertising used on the Internet. Not only is it cost-effective, but it also provides a great way to reach your target audience.

The key to using ezine advertising effectively is to target your audience and track your response. You must test the effectiveness of both your ad and the publication in which you're advertising. This will enable you to determine which ads are pulling the most response and which publications are providing you with the highest response rates.

The Directory of Ezines provides a complete online searchable database of ezines that accept advertising. This directory contains all the information you'll need to effectively place your ads. There is a $39.95 per year membership fee. (http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=doe)

If you're looking for a low cost alternative for purchasing ezine advertising, Ezine Ad Auction will enable you to bid on ad space in targeted ezines.(http://www.ezineadauction.com/)

Question: Is internet banner advertising still effective?

Answer: Although banners are no longer as effective as they once were, they're certainly not obsolete.

A few months ago, I tested the effectiveness of several different banner designs and click through rates. The overall results of my test concluded that the effectiveness of banners has definitely declined over the past few years. However, with over 12,000 click throughs delivered, banners can still be very effective.

The banners used in my test were as follows:

• Static banner with a text ad
• Animated banner with a text ad
• Static banner with text and the words "Click Here"
• Static banner with blue underlined text
• Static banner with text and a drop down box image with submit button

Can you guess which banners were the most and least effective? The results may surprise you.

Here's how the banners preformed:

• 3.0% - Static banner with blue underlined text
• 2.2% - Static banner with text and a drop down box image with submit button
• 1.0% - Static banner with text and the words "Click Here"
• 0.9% - Animated banner with a text ad
• 0.2% - Static banner with a text ad

Question: I'd like to track my advertising response rates, but I'm not sure how to do it. Can you help?

Answer: The easiest way to track your advertising strategies is to use a script that will track the number of clicks a specific link receives.

Below are some ad tracking resources to assist you in your testing and tracking endeavors.

Ad Tracking CGI Scripts

LnkinLite http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml

If you're looking for a simple way to track click throughs, then LnkinLite may be your answer. This free script will enable you to easily keep track of the number of clicks a specific link receives. Instead of using your standard link within your advertising, you can use a link created by this script. It will track the number of click throughs and instantly redirect your visitors to your URL.

Willmaster's ProLinkz http://www.prolinkz.com/

This powerful script is a link creator, tracker, disguiser and manager all in one. It will enable you to create uniquely coded links that redirect to any URL you specify and count all hits and referers. Cost - $45.00

When testing your advertising strategies, keep in mind, a strategy that produces results for one person may not produce results for you. There is no 'set in stone' strategy that works for everyone. You must develop your own style and technique and test your results to determine what works for you.

Take your time and develop a strategic advertising plan that produces results. Testing and tracking will be the key to your advertising success.

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