(30 September 2008 7:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Performance based advertsing and focus on brand building canco-exists in advertising on the internet.

Speakers during a session at the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) fourth National Conference on Digital Marketing agreed that advertising on the net depends on the products life cycle as well as on the maturity of that particular industry the route that one chooses.

EBay India director – marketing and operations Kashyap Vadapalli says that the decision on whether to go in for brand building or performance and transaction based advertising depends on the product. He stresses ,"Often one needs a combination of both".

For instance with the ipod one would focus on the features to build the brand. At the same time one expects transactions to happen. On the other hand for iphone, which has just launched one, would focus on brand building at this stage.

Publicitas Digital CEO and online media director Neville Taraporewalla notes that clients at the moment are too focussed on clicks and conversions. “Consumers first have to be made aware of the brand. Clients should allocate appropriate spends towards the internet. Agencies should respect the value of creative."

He cited Lacoste's example which had created a microsite that captured the imagination of the users. Online Louis Vuitton has done its strategy in such a way that consumers could build a relationship with it. The internet can bridge the gap with a consumer who may not be familiar with the brand offline. Cartier has done innovations like roadblocks, half page ads. It used many branding units all with a long term goal in mind.

Times Internet director Upen Roop Rai is in favour of moving away from clicks and performance based advertising.

MSN India executive producer Krishna Prasad also feels that clients do not spend enough time or money on the internet.

Prasad questions, “In the online world there are no creative people like there are in offline like Balki, Prasoon Joshi. Also how does one define performance? Does it stop when people click or when they spend using their credit cards? I have often seen performance-based advertising where the communication is boring. The company would be better served if it used interactive tools available online to do brand building as well.”

Group M COO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja took a different track. He argues that for the internet ad pie to grow it must start competing directly with the other traditional mediums. “ I am tired of people complaining about the fact that there are only 40 million net users in the country. For categories like telecom, consumer durables they are a key audience. It is a critical reach for these categories.”

He says that Internet companies should take relevant reach and explain to brand marketers in the simplest possible manner how they can target the audience better. “The Internet offers the opportunity for one to one marketing on a mass level. One can also fine tune the same.”

In terms of innovations that GroupM has done he gave the example of the Nokia Navigator banner. For a Star Plus show a unique banner was created wherein if one clicked on a character one could learn more about him/her.

“On television whenever there is an ad break viewership goes down quite a bit during that period. It would make sense for a client to shift maybe five per cent of television ad spend onto the Internet where you pay only when someone clicks on the message. I find that appealing," Sakhuja added.