Ads spending

It’s a tiny part of the market. A mini-playing field taking baby steps.

It’s small, small, small but the fact that Aurora Magazine’s year-ender for 2012 titled “The Great Digital Debate” had the following excerpt on its cover should perhaps get those involved in the online space to sit up and take notice:

“The evidence is conclusive: get digital or pack up and go home.”

If ad agencies and their clients are finally going digital, those companies (and individuals) who have invested in their online presence can breathe a sigh of relief and hope to earn back some of that hard earned cash that was spent in setting up their ventures on the web.

The added hope here is that with a growing monetary incentive, Pakistan’s online space will mature in terms of content, function, design and overall value for the estimated 20-29 million locals online.

Let’s take a look at some stats (all figures in Rs billions).

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Total ad spend	24.63	27	31.98	38.38
Internet ad spend	0.38 (1.5%)	0.418 (1.3%)	0.566 (2%)	1.01 (3%)

According to the chart above (all stats from Aurora’s own data in Aurora Magazine) total ad spend in Pakistan has been growing steadily, increasing by 20% in 2011-2012, and by 18% in 2010-2011. In comparison, internet ad spend grew by a whopping 79% in 2011-2012, a big jump from growth of only 15% in 2010-2011.

Let’s look at the breakdown of earnings by the top websites in Pakistan. I’ve only included local websites to indicate what local content is attracting advertising. The only exception I’ve left in is Google because it is still the largest earner in our online space  (all figures in Rs billions).

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Google	0.2 (53%)	0.2 (48%)	0.2 (35%)	0.25 (25%)
Jang	0.033 (9%)	0.030 (7%)	0.035 (6%)	0.080 (8%)
Geo	0.017 (4%)	0.020 (5%)	0.042 (7%)	0.050 (5%)
Dawn	0.015 (4%)	0.015 (4%)	0.031 (6%)	0.040 (4%)
Business Recorder			0.008 (1%)	0.020 (2%)
Express Tribune			0.008 (1%)	0.018 (2%)
Daily Express				0.022 (2%)
Hamariweb				0.015 (1%)
Rozee.pk				0.010 (1%)

Yes, news is number one. It is hard to speculate whether this is because Pakistanis are news-obsessed, or because large media groups were the only players willing to strategize and invest (without monetary gain) in the fledgling online space. The answer is probably a bit of both.

Jang, Geo and Dawn dominated for a number of years, but as new online entities emerge, the share of the overall internet ad spend for the big three is at best staying at status quo (though bear in mind, overall earnings have gone up). The good news (for local portals) is that Google’s share of local ad spend has tapered off significantly from more than half of overall earnings in 2008-2009 to just 25% of total internet spend in 2011-2012.

Some other points of interest brought up in Aurora Magazine’s 2012 year-ender:

The share of classified advertising has improved slightly from 16% in 2010-2011 to 17% in 2011-2012. This is after seeing a year of stagnation, before which it declined 4% every year for three years. The increase in classified advertising is interesting considering several free online classified sites have entered the market in 2011-2012. This will be an important category to watch over the next few years.

If you look at the top sites in Pakistan (Alexa) the number one local website is no longer Jang, but free online classifieds site OLX Pakistan. Yes, buying and selling online is going to be huge in Pakistan over the coming years thanks to some breakthroughs in terms of payment options (pay cash on delivery) and sites that allow peer-to-peer transactions and exchanges.

The share of mobile/telecommunications declined from 7% in 2010-2011 to 4% in 2011-2012. One of the reasons for this decline could be that many telcos are shifting budgets from print advertising to digital and especially social media.

Take a look at Pakistan’s top Facebook pages (SocialBakers). Nokia, Ufone, Zong, OLX and the odd one out – the US Embassy in Pakistan – all dominate, with Telenor and Mobilink coming up strong as well. That is not organic growth. That is paid growth in terms of buying engagement, running Facebook ad campaigns and investing in social media teams.

And it’s not just the telcos.

Local media and a swathe of other brands are not far behind on the Facebook/Twitter front either.

Given the success of these pages, and the hard stats that prove that success, expect the media mix to tilt further and further towards social media and away from print, and yes, TV too.

This growing change should be exciting, as old ideas give way for new ways of thinking, working and conducting business – and best of all, when it comes to the internet, it will all be measurable and genuinely consumer driven!

http://jhaque.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/pakistan-internet-ad-spend-2009-2012-analysis/

Marketing management - Deffination

Marketing Management packages and clearly communicates the best strategic thinking to meet the decision-making needs of knowledgeable executives managing real-world businesses.

Designed to serve busy executives, Marketing Management focuses on strategic marketing issues that marketing managers face every day. Our pages are packed with expert insights from today’s thought leaders as well as case studies and interviews with marketing executives. Published four times a year, Marketing Management sheds light on hot topics—like brand management, CRM, marketing technology, global marketing, B-to-B, services marketing and digital marketing—to help managers keep pace with this rapidly changing field.

Brand entertainment content marketing

Branded entertainment content is also referred to as branded content. It  is a relatively new form of advertising medium (in 2012) that blurs conventional distinctions between what constitutes advertising and what constitutes entertainment. Branded content is essentially a fusion of the two into one product intended to be distributed as entertainment content, with brand promotion embedded into it.  Branded content is content created to entertain as well as promote brand. Hence it generally funded entirely by a brand or corporation rather than by a movie studio or a group of producers who produce content to earn revenue directly on the content.

Branded entertainment content marketing is actually the same type of marketing that was pioneered by soap manufacturers in the early days of radio and television that became famous as  the soap opera.




Sources for further information

http://branded-content.wikidot.com/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmartin/2011/12/02/forget-about-branded-content-tell-a-great-story/

Paper in business management

Selected Knols in Business Management in the order of popularity

Popularity - Page Views Above 10,000

Marketing Management, 13th edition, Philip Kotler, Book Information and Review
Marketing Strategy - Differentiating and Positioning the Market Offering
Principles of Management – Koontz and O’Donnell
Car Dealer Search Engine Reputation Management
Implementing total quality management: the role of human resource management.

Popularity - Page Views Above 7000

TITAN’S BRAND BUILDING AND BRAND REORGANISATION STRATEGY
Introduction to Basis Instruments Contracts (BICs) for Mathematics, Finance, and Economics
Organizational Buying Processes and Buying Behavior
Human Resource Management - Introduction - A Revision Article
Marketing Communication: Channels and Promotion Tools

Popularity - Page Views Above 5000
Project Management - Ten Golden Rules of Successful Projects
Recruitment and selection process
Theory Z - Type Z Organizations
Process Safety Management (PSM)
The Financial Value of Talent Management

Popularity - Page Views Above 4000

Human resource management
PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS: APPLICATION AND EVALUATION IN INDIAN STOCK MARKET
Enterprise Risk Management, COSO and Banks
Top 3 Management FMLA Slip-Ups
Business Service Management

Marketing and New Product Development
Healthy Organizations from Conflict Management
Frederick Herzberg
Managing Product Lines and Brands
Project Management in the Automotive Industry

Popularity - Page Views Above 3000

Planning - A Management Process
Consumer Behavior
The Future of Knowledge Management

Market Segmentation and Selection of Target Segments
EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT- CONTAMINATION CONTROL

International Management: Culture, Strategy, and Behavior
RFID Jewelry Management
Custody Services and Risk Management
United Nations Results-Based Management System - An analysis
MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION (MOI): Leading Innovation Strategy and Process in Firms

Popularity - Page Views Above 2000

Management Accounting: Brand Valuation
Managerial Skills
Budget, Budgeting and Budgetary Control
The Importance of Project Closeout and Review in Project Management
Change Management - an introduction

Project Management
The Process of Strategic Change – Product-Market Combination Change
Aligning Employee Values to Organizational Objectives: How Some Management Theories Cannot be Applied in the 21st Cen...
Identity Preservation In The Supply Chain
Marketing Management Article Directory – KVSS Narayana Rao

Impact of Knowledge Management on Individuals and Teams Within an Organization
The Five Relationship Management Attributes Necessary For Successful Leadership
Supply Chain Management
Marketing Channel Management – Important Issues
Forex Hedging

Optimal Span
Project Management Systemic Thinking
Stress Relief Breathing Exercise
Quality Management
Kaizen Costing and Kaizen Cost Management

Popularity - Page Views Above 1000

Sales Force Management
Islamic Finance - Risk Management
Distinguishing evaluation from other processes (e.g. monitoring, performance management, assessment, quality assurance)
Distinguishing Features of Project Management in the 21st Century
Scanning of Environment for Marketing Ideas and Decisions

Teamwork Management
Supply Chain Management, Operations, ICT & E-Commerce of IKEA
Security Risk Management
Conflict Management
Supply Chain Management

Management of Change (MOC) in the Process Industries
Challenges in SAP Project Management
Supply Chain Management: Chopra and Meindl - Book Information and Review
SHAREHOLDER VALUE MANAGEMENT: INTRODUCTION
Project Management - 3 Key to Project Success

Earned Value Management (EVM)
Unified Threat Management and Identity-Based Security
Management Information And Control Systems
Four Categories of Expenses
Records Information Management

How to get started in the Project Management Feild
The Brand is the Business is defined by Brand Assets including My Brands.
Risk Management Made Simple
Portals for Workflow and Business Process Management
Handbook of Management Knowledge Revision

Advertising research

Advertising Research - Definition

Definition: Research conducted to improve the efficacy of advertising. It may focus on a specific ad or campaign, or may be directed at a more general understanding of how advertising works or how consumers use the information in advertising. It can entail a variety of research approaches, including psychological, sociological, economic, and other perspectives.
(Source: http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingglossary/g/advresearchdef.htm )

Advertising has many options and advertisers and advertising agencies have to choose best the portfolio among these options to maximize the benefit of advertising spend for the organization.

Kotler in his 9th edition quoted Forrester statement that no more than 1/5 of 1% of total advertising expenditure was being used to achieve understanding of spending the remaining money.  It is important to do an advertising campaign in one or two cities first and evaluate its impact to take a decision to roll it as a national campaign.

Kotler pointed out that communication effect research and sales effect research can be two categories of advertising research.

Communication-effect research

It is used to test whether the ad is communicating effectively. It is also known as copy testing. It can be done before placing the ad in the media or after its appearance in the press. Three major methods are used in it. One direct testing where the opinion of the participant is asked for a particular advertisement. In portfolio test, number of advertisement are shown to the participant and he is asked to recall the advertisements. In the third category of laboratory tests, the participants are shown the ads and their physiological responses like heart beat, blood pressure, pupil dilation etc. are measured.

Sales-effect research

In this type of research, experimental designs with various advertisements and levels of expenditures can be done in selected places and the variation in sales among the territories or places can be analyzed to find out which advertisements effective in increasing the sales.

Source

Philip Kotler, Marketing Management,

Research Papers on Advertising Research

The Psychological Impact of Advertising on the Consumer, 2008 research paper, Sandra Jakstiene et al.