Internet advertising: is it here to stay?

A WORD like we have never seen before. All cyber and all new. All new rules, all new players, and all new games. The mantra of the Web: give it first, give it free and who knows you may even make some money along the way.

Who would have thought a few years ago that the Web would be giving one all that one wanted, and a lot of what one never knew one wanted, at a price one just could not ignore. Oh yes, this virtual world of ease and enchantment is here for real.

So real, that some central aspects of our non-virtual world have made a rather glitzy entry into the cyber arena. We are talking about the omni-present Internet ads. Ads that bring that ever so tiny element of tangibility to the Web. Showing up virtually on every Web site you visit, bringing that rather necessary flavour of colour and zest. These little splashes have become integral to the way the Web works. They are the life-blood for most Web based companies, primarily because they are the only source of revenue for services that the Web has learned to provide at little or no cost.

From the basic portal such as Yahoo to free e-mail services such as Hotmail, everything has one buzzword - free. These dotcoms hope to provide free services and keep themselves afloat by allowing advertisers to market brands and products on their Web sites. But the question that everybody now seems to be asking is whether this budding medium is all that it is made out to be? With more and more millions pumped into the Web by companies across the world, this question has never been more pertinent.

Most dotcoms claim to be harbingers of change with anticipation of all revenues accruing only from Internet advertising. We see them everywhere, ugly, appealing, in-your-face, interesting. But one thing is for sure: wherever you go, they are not far away.

As a medium, ads on the Web do not truly serve the purpose of being direct marketing vehicles. They could have been termed that if they were successful in luring the Web-user into clicking on them to be transported to the advertiser's Web site, thereby building traffic to the Web site and allowing any online purchases to be made, to, in turn, increase commercial activity. But as most statistics have indicated, this is not the case. In fact, clickthrough rates (the number of people that click on an ad) are abysmally low across the board, with an average of about 2 per cent of the people who actually see an ad, clicking on it.

Why then are companies clamouring for space on popular Web sites?

The theory goes that these ads by merely being present on a Web site are able to generate enough brand awareness and purchase intent in the average viewer and if he/she then clicks through to the advertiser's Web site, it is just an added bonus; the actual objective of making the viewer aware has already been served.

Taking this as their cue, marketers have pulled out all stops. What with inexpensive ad rates and the potential to target ads to just a specific group of people with similar interests, advertisers are most definitely having a field day.

For any regular Web user though, Internet ads have turned into an irksome reality. With each dotcom concept getting sillier and their subsequent ads getting more ubiquitous, one wonders if the ultimate cyber experience has been reduced to a commercial exercise one just cannot avoid.

From ads for interactive dating games to virtual trips to Bali, you name it, and they have got it. Promos for free e-mail services and free Web page providers are classic cases of overkill.

Not all is awry with the bad world of Web advertising though. It has seen some groundbreaking changes in terms of a medium's ability to penetrate and create effect. More and more non-Web- based companies are using the Web to do what they could not with other conventional media such as television and print. A while ago, Nissan had the daunting task of creating consumer interest for a new car prior to its launch. Typically with assistance from television and print, they would have been able to garner attention with fetching photographs of the automobile itself. But this time, they had no car to show. Using the Web as a platform, Nissan advertised for its next car without needing the tangibility of a picture and did so at a fraction of the cost. The ultimate result did make them sing paeans of praise of this brand new media wizard all the way to the cash counter.

Although the effectiveness of this medium is still being questioned, most companies are joining the bandwagon and going Web. The ad world is high on perception and, like it or not, building perception is what an Internet ad does best.

We can question the potential of this medium, we can crib about what it is doing to the Web, we can even hope that someday the truth will be out and we will not see another ad on the Web. But those are for utopian times. Right now these wizards of colour and brand have arrived and are showing no signs of slackening. And with the market in the U.S. alone exploited, the rest of the world still awaits the real onslaught. With more and more Indians getting online and Indian companies recognising this medium, we will soon see cyber ads conquer our very desi Web troupe.

A Correspondent

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