Online ads catching up with print

FOR the first time ever, advertisers in the United States will have spent more on Internet advertisements than on print, statistics from a digital-marketing research firm shows.

The American research firm, eMarketer, said that spending on online ads will hit US$25.8 billion ($36.12 billion), surpassing the US$22.8 billion ($31.92 billion) spent on print ads in newspapers.

"It's something we've seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point," said Geoff Ramsey, the chief executive of eMarketer.

Ramsey went on to say marketers are devoting bigger shares of their budgets to digital media as they see more customers shifting time toward the web.

Ramsey noted that trends show the shift to digital ads comes as tracking of such ads is much simpler and can basically be tied to a real and measurable mathematical financial result.

This trend of shifting towards digital media is also catching on in the Sultanate, with advertisers seeking alternatives of digital forms.

The number of advertising avenues online aren't in abundance, with less than five major available sites, and are priced relatively cheap compared to newspapers.

However, research shows that in 2010, Brunei's mobile penetration had reached a penetration of 105 per cent.

Blogger Rano Iskandar of ranoadidas.com said this year alone his website has seen an increase of 20 to 30 per cent in terms of advertising.

"When the economy went down in 2009, advertisers on my site didn't go downhill. Instead, people were using it as a different means (of advertising) as it's more cost effective to advertise on. I would have thought it would be a reverse effect," said Rano in an e-mail, whose site averages hundreds of thousand hits per month.

When asked if his clients are spending more year on year, Rano said "Yes", adding that the loyal ones are putting up ads even more consistently.

Daniel Loo, a marketing executive from Jati Transport Sdn Bhd, the authorised dealer for Mercedes Benz in the country, said for them, revenue spent for print and online advertising is about the same.

"Last time we didn't have it (online ads) as much as we do now and we started only three years ago," said Loo, in an interview with The Brunei Times.

Blogger Reeda Malik, whose website anakbrunei.org is five years old, said that revenue from advertising only started coming in three years ago.

"Since then, my advertising revenue has increased year on year, particularly in 2009 when one of the major local financial institutions signed a substantial deal. The revenue spent has remained more or less even since my clients first signed up, but the premium partners have continued their annual subscriptions as they see the value in online advertising, particularly on locally focused sites which naturally attract local viewers," said Reeda in an e-mail.

He revealed that clients spend around $2,500 per annum however, the more frequent advertisers are spending considerably more on a quarterly basis.

The manager of a lifestyle electronics store also said that they currently spend an equal amount for both channels.

"Material online really depends on the site, the traffic that goes through it and most importantly, the target demographic of the website. This form of advertising (online) really started two to three years ago," said the manager, who preferred to remain anonymous.

He also said that the Internet caters more towards the younger audience as they tend to browse sites and blogs more often than the elder demographic, who are still sticking to print.

"It is necessary to do both," he said.

Ignatius Stephen, owner of brudirect.com, a website which sources the latest news updates, told The Brunei Times over the telephone that they have an average of 30 advertisers which has picked up over the last four to five years.

"Advertising online is different from the newspaper. You have to engage the readers in a very active way, otherwise it'll be a waste of time. We try to tell our advertisers to engage the customers, to offer them something in a return, have a conversation with them, that way you are providing something more than print," said Stephen, whose site averages almost 330,000 hits a month.

He added with traditional media, one cannot get an instant feedback, as opposed to online where companies would advertise something and invite readers to comment on their products or grab a prize immediately.

SmartBru.com, an online platform where users can buy and sell, said that in Brunei the elder demographic are already catching up in terms of Internet use.

"It's a trend that older people are also quite versed with Internet," said one of its employees who preferred to remain unknown, adding that their site gets a traffic of close to 2,000 people a year.

He added that there are a number of advertisers currently with SmartBru, but their main focus is on building and improving the site.

Del Goh, general manager of KFC (Brunei) Sdn Bhd, said that his company spends "a lot more" on print than on the Internet.

"We probably spend 90 per cent on print as opposed to online. Advertising on the Internet only started towards the end of 2008 but it is the way forward.

"Next year we will get into it more as there are more and more avenues to place our ads online," he said, adding that the company's main focus is towards family, which is why print media is favoured.

TCY Motors' Marketing Executive Lim Kai Wei also said that they spend more on print than online.

"One day advertising in print can be equivalent to three to six months worth of online ads. But since the beginning of the year, we are using online more as we launched our own website this year.

"With that, we can link ads to our website and trace statistics which is good," said said the marketing executive, whose dealership sells Peugeot cars.

Major advertisers like local and international banks also spend much more on print than online as they constantly take up pages of advertisement space in the country's newspapers.

Figures in Brunei may not be close to those in the US, but revenue spent for online advertising is definitely on the rise.

The Brunei Times