Re: Why online advertising sucks

From: Rick Varisco <rick_at_bam.net>
Date: Fri 02 Mar 2001 12:00:06 -0600

TERRY LEFTON <tlefton_at_thestandard.com> WROTE:

>What we don't know is why more big brands
>aren't investing. Advertising, in our opinion,
>has NOT followed eyeballs."

I definitely understand your point. Yes, there is an
overall media recession, and yes, clients are avoiding
on-line advertising (at least more so today) since it
did not deliver results on its initial attempt. However,
the reason behind this "initial failure" is the issue that
I want to address.

When it comes to advertising and marketing, most major
brands rely on recognized advertising agencies to take
care of all of their media buys and placements. The
problem is that many of these huge agencies have only
recently made the transition from traditional advertising
to on-line advertising. Frankly, on-line advertising is not
as simple as putting up a billboard on the side of a highway.
It isn't as simple as running a 30-second commercial
several times a day across a television network either
(not too mention the cost ). The media planning process,
when it come to on-line advertising, is not devoted the
time it deserves. A huge advertising agency will use its
name to attract the "big" players, but then do a poor
job of researching the Internet to actually find intelligent
media placements. It's true!

I work for a Canadian based on-line advertising agency.
Several big National companies have had us compete for
their business with other major agencies in Canada. We
were allotted a small test budget and given 30 days to run
a campaign, and the competing agency was given the same
scenario. The campaign that would yield the better result
would be given the entire advertising budget. It was no
contest. You won't get results for a client trying to sell
used cars on-line by making a run-of-network, CPM buy,
on a major advertising network like DoubleClick or 24/7.
Nothing against these two industry leaders, but the buy
is not targeted enough. There is no way that the client's
advertising dollar is being spent efficiently. No way! The
time needs to be taken to thoroughly plan out the
campaign, negotiate the prices as much as possible, and
track all media buys through. The effort must be made
to analyze the buys, so that they can be optimized as
the campaign goes on. If, after thrity days, it is clear
that one particular placement is performing poorly,
boot it out! Many large agencies seem to be ignoring this
unwritten rule.

We have yielded excellent results for clients from within
several different industry sectors. Our motto is simple.
MAKE INTELLIGENT BUYS AND GET THE BEST POSSIBLE
PRICE. When these huge advertising agencies decide to
actually invest some time into their work, on-line
advertising will take a turn for the better. Until then,
we will continue to see click-throughs drop, we will
continue to see conversion rates drop, and we will
continue to see fewer people advertising on the
Internet. And this my friend, is true!

On-line advertising does not suck-but lazy media planners do.
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Rick Varisco - Media Planner
Bam Solutions - http://www.bam.net
152 Notre Dame E. Suite 200, Montreal, Qc H2Y 3P6
Tel: 514-875-1500 Ext. 117 Fax: 514-875-2108 Pager: 514-440-6909
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Received on Fri Mar 02 2001 - 12:00:06 CST