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An Advertising Revolution

By Alan Gilman
October 20, 2005

Diane Francis in her National Post Column of October 20, 2005 quotes Harvard School professor Tom Eisenmann:

Advertising revenues are also being diverted to new media such as Yahoo and Google. This year their combined advertising revenue will rival the revenue earned by the three major U.S. TV networks combined during prime time. Google also takes in more ad dollars than The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal combined.

It was not long ago that only large companies possessed the resources to expose their products and services to a broad audience. This has changed. The relative low cost of establishing an effective Internet presence has allowed even the smallest of companies to make themselves known to the public at large.

The fact that the major search engines are getting the kind of attention they are, does not imply the complete demise of traditional marketing media. It would not benefit any company to focus solely on Internet advertising. A diversified strategy will continue to be the wise choice. Companies that can afford large advertising campaigns will still have access to the more expensive marketing avenues. Eisenmann's comments reveal the need to the traditional larger media outlets to discover how they can better serve their clientele given the reality of new media.

What this does mean is that some of the most effective marketing channels are now at the disposal of almost everyone. Internet marketing has become a most effective, yet inexpensive, marketing choice. Therefore it makes no sense for most companies, regardless of size, to not include Internet marketing in their overall marketing plan.

Smaller companies should take the accessibility of newer media very seriously. Search engines, especially Google and Yahoo, have become many people's primary first point of contact for product and services today. Carefully targeting the right Internet audience will result in increased sales.

This is not to say that high ranking search engine placement is sufficient to attract new customers. Search engine strategy must include a strong web presence. A Web site must provide clear, meaningful, easily accessible information, without which there would be no sense in trying to promote it. Conversely the greatest web site in the world would have little to no exposure without an effective marketing strategy.

The good news is that we no longer live in a day that requires a multi-million dollar broadcasting and print media advertising campaign to create the kind of exposure necessary to make ourselves known to the world. The Internet has truly created an advertising revolution.

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