Internet Advertising II: Will It Work?

Is the Web Going to Fail as an Advertising Supported Medium?

Some wonder if the billions in Web ad sales that Jupiter Communications and other forecasters are projecting will ever really arrive. One of the most vocal contrarians is new media guru and Information Week columnist, Mark Stahlman. In his April 8, 1996 column, "Why The Web Will Die", he comments on the April '96 Wired Magazine spoof "The Great Web Wipeout" written by Chip Bayers, a Hotwired Executive Producer, that teased readers with an Orson-Welles-like Web doomsday scenario in which major Web publications closed down due to a lack of advertising revenue. The article contained a fake quote from Stahlman predicting the death of advertising-supported publishing on the Web. But, quite un-spoof-like Stahlman actually thinks that will happen, just as in the parody--and soon.

[This week Stahlman and Bayers are facing off in a debate in Hotwired's Brain Tennis. You can participate via Hotwired's forum.]

Stahlman thinks that problems inherent in the Net will lead to "the death of functional business models" for most commercial sites within the year, and argues that advertisers will dump the Web because "the Web is a terrible place to manipulate people's unconscious fears, which is the aim of consumer advertising." He feels that since it can't support television or the visual quality or format of glossy magazines, it can't be an effective place to advertise:

The Web is just the latest in a series of mistakes. We all know that what works on the Net is two-way communications, not publishing, and we all know that ad-backed business models depend on subconscious impact. The Web doesn't deliver on either one. Let's get the ideas right and stop throwing billions out the window.

Bayers basically tells us to have faith. Although we may not have the business model right yet, we will eventually:

The Net will support successful "publishing" that's appropriate to the medium because it has been done in every other medium. The Web isn't exempt from that basic rule of media. In fact, the Web has such inherent advantages over broadcast and print--particularly in the low cost of distribution--that it can support a wider range of successful commercial ventures, as everyone from the one-woman entrepreneur to the giant media corporation figures out the appropriate publishing formulas.

Bayer doesn't really rebut Stahlman's claims, but he could.

First, Stahlman seems to think that the two-way communications components of the Internet--e-mail, newsgroups, and chat--somehow have no connection to the Web. But many Web sites, both sales-related and publications, make an essential use of these capabilities. The Web is not separate from the other components of the Internet, they are all blended together, and each contributes a special dimension: one-way, two-way, and multi-way communication. More critical for advertisers, they are all arrows in the marketer's quiver.

On the question of subconscious impact, apparently Mark hasn't put his subconscious in any of the places on the Web where it could be impacted--maybe his mother won't let him. Sex is the single most popular type of content on the Net. If the visual quality of Web graphics is adequate to get millions of people sexually aroused, it should be capable of manipulating their subconscious fears. Nor should we ignore the erotic and manipulative capabilities of language. What more is there to cyberlovemaking than language? And, hey, if you can't sell something with sex, what can you sell it with? If you can communicate eros, you can certainly communicate the fear of bad breath and the sensual appeal of satin and leather.

Take a look at Word and Papermag.com to get a sense of how design and content can be melded to yield a powerful psychological impact.

The Question Is: "How?"

No, the problem isn't whether the Web can be effectively used to advertise, it's how. The Web-Email-Newsgroup-Chat nexus is a tremendously fertile medium for advertising, marketing, and direct selling. It's also more complex than television or print because it has so many components, each of which must be used in concert and to their unique best advantage.

Put yourself in the position of an agency media planner or a corporate Brand/Product Manager. You're being pitched day after day by Directors of Sales for Web sites. You're tired of hearing Web hype, and you have a lot of questions. Of course, the answer to every question in the ad business begins with "It depends"--but here's a stab at a few answers.

Why should my client or company need to advertise on the Web?

The first question you have to ask is: "Who are you trying to reach?"

Business Customers: A big component of Internet marketing began as business-to-business marketing. Because many technology and communications companies had Internet access and used e-mail already, it was very natural for them to extend their marketing and sales efforts to the Internet. Many companies simply "knew" they had to have a Web presence. They began by putting their catalogs online and the e-mail addresses of sales and marketing staffs. Then they began taking orders, providing customer support, executing transactions, and in some cases even delivering products.

Now savvy marketers are beginning to use it to develop online communities and facilitate communication between users of their products as well as between the company and its customers. This is where the Internet really shines.

Consumers: The demographics of Web users are still predominantly male, aged 18-45, affluent, and college educated. More women and more seniors are beginning to use the Internet, but it's still smart to regard the college-educated males as your primary audience. The good news is that this group has a lot of disposable income and are technologically early adopters. If you're selling personal computers and software, you have to be on the Web. Everybody else is, and your customers expect you to be. In some respects, the Web is a more critical place for you to advertise than television and maybe even print.

For consumer products, the cost of the item is a major factor. With automobiles, real estate, travel, and other "high-involvement" purchases, there is a great benefit to being able to provide the user with information about the product and to continue that relationship through several purchases.

Both "high-involvement" and "low-involvement" purchase sites, like those promoting soft drinks, food, alchohol, and so on, can use the Web for the more traditional purpose of branding.

Branding is the process of associating a product or company with certain favorable attributes like reliability, quality, and social responsibility. Companies obtain brand identities by sponsoring or associating themselves in the public consciousness with people, events, radio programs, television programs, and print materials that personify these qualities.

Public Television succeeds at imparting brand identities to companies like General Motors through their sponsorship of programs like "The Civil War" or "The NewsHour." Earlier, General Electric obtained a brand identity by sponsoring the GE College Bowl, and imbued itself with an aura of intelligence and learning. Marlboro cigarettes achieved a rugged masculine brand identity by creating the cowboy character that has long appeared in its ads.

As with business customers, the Net is used to its fullest when sellers create communities of interest around their products. This is often done by creating clubs, as ZIMA did, or letting users participate in some activity, as MCI did with its Gramercy Press campaign.

Additionally, the Net can be used to provide a valuable service, as Fedex does with its package tracking feature, or Claritin does with its national pollen count site.

Do We Need Publications?

Why do we need publications and not just corporate Web sites? Well, that would be like having commercials without TV shows or ads without magazines. Why would anyone surf the Web if there wasn't content untainted by advertiser ownership? Advertisers need the editorial integrity that publications provide. There is no other way to attract the eyeballs and customers they want.

Six Ways to Use the Internet in an Ad Campaign

Here is a list of six ways the Internet can be integrated into an ad campaign:

1. Scouting: cheaply testing out the concepts, slogans, and strategies before the big investment is made.
   
2. Teasing: perking people's interest in a new campaign with subtle and mysterious banners, pages, and interactive objects.
   
3. Hitting the Beach as the First Wave of the Campaign: buying banner placements and announcing the full-blown site in advance of print, radio, and TV.
   
4. Guarding the Rear: The Web site is the cheapest manifestation of the campaign, and it can remain steadily impressive while all other promotion can be increased or scaled back according to the campaign's effectiveness.
   
5. Gathering Leads and Closing Sales: This is where the interactive capacity of the Net really comes into play and a primary area beyond production and placement, where the client must be prepared to spend money. Once you've got the fish on the hook, you've got to reel it in, which takes one-to-one contact, even though it might be by e-mail.
   
6. Mopping Up: Assessing the effectiveness of the campaign by getting feedback from use of the interactive components and user comments.

As we learn how to use the Net to support publications, we can have faith that the medium will live up to its promise.

Sharon Crowe, Director of Sales for Netcast, says:

The most difficult part of selling Web ads is the fact that the critical mass is still with the other mediums. The Internet is, however, growing at a rate that is faster than any other medium in history. It is simply a matter of time before we too are considered a mass medium.

More about the demands of the ad marketplace next week.

Past installments of Multimedia Web