Digital medium: the new channel for advertising

Digital medium which includes social media and mobile phones has emerged as a more effective marketing platform for products than the traditional promotional activities.

Consumers' behaviour is changing gradually with the influence of social media like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and the uses of smartphones, marketing of products and services delivered through them reach the targeted audience more effectively.

The observation came at a daylong summit on digital marketing, organised by Bangladesh Brand Forum in association with The Daily Star yesterday at Radisson Hotel in Dhaka.

Attended by around 800, the summit aimed to inspire and share the know-how of online marketing with corporate houses.

Manan Mehta, head of business of Razorfish India, made a presentation on the brands already present in social media, adding that progressively a couple of social networks is monopolising people's time and attention.

He advised Bangladeshi marketers to concentrate on Facebook, seeing the platform's popularity in the country.

Consumers are adapting to digital media in Southeast Asia very rapidly, particularly Facebook, which has seen greater penetration in countries like Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh than in the Western markets. “So, creative or ad agencies have to get ready for the adoption.”

Razorfish, a leading interactive agency, provides services including web development, media planning and buying, technology and innovation, emerging media, analytics, mobile, advertising, creative, social influence marketing and search.

Mehta said consumers' behaviours have changed. People are going to outlets but are not buying products. They come back home and check the features of the products on various e-commerce sites for the best deals.

Iraj Islam, co-founder of NewsCred, a world leader in content marketing, also shared his experience in the field of digital marketing at a special interactive session.

He said consumers now have more options in terms of information gathering, places to buy and socialisation.

People get information from different social media such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter about products and services that can be a part of their lives, he said.

Secondly, the customer journey has fundamentally changed: people now use Google, YouTube or blogs to verify and get information and features about products or services instead of relying on traditional banners.

“You could intelligently inject a piece of valuable content that can guide the user through their customer journey to help make the purchasing decision for a product.”

He said advertisement still remains a 'bullet' for brand marketing of a product, but content marketing is more about guiding people for better products to create a better world.

Subsequently, Islam recommended Bangladeshi entrepreneurs focus on content marketing instead of brand advertising.

The participants at a panel discussion on mobile advertising said the medium is coming to the forefront by the day, replacing the conventional advertising method.

With a growing number of smartphone users in Bangladesh, mobile phones are emerging as a platform for brand communication in the country, they said.

Kaymun Amin, managing director of VU Mobile, said the mobile advertising market worldwide is worth around $19 billion, with 100 percent growth a year.

In Bangladesh, some 40 million mobile phone users out of 120 million have internet access, indicating the huge opportunity of mobile advertising.

“Our market size is around Tk 25 crore now and we are expecting 200 percent growth in the next 4-5 years.”

Hasan Mehdi, head of mobile at Samsung, however, said low internet penetration and use of smartphones are the major challenges for mobile advertising.

“However, smartphone and internet penetrations are increasing,” he said, while stressing adequate training in mobile advertisement.

Nawbut Ali, head of marketing at Airtel, said: “We are at the early stage of mobile marketing. Infrastructure for mobile advertisement is not yet fully developed.”

Investment on mobile advertisement and availability of low-priced smartphones are the ways to popularise the medium, he said.

Michael Leander, founder and chairman of Markedu, presented a keynote paper on seven elements to create successful digital presence.

They are: three-step approach for winning omni-channel centric marketing strategy, structuring a corporate website for maximum response, approaching social media for immediate return on marketing investment, art of being objective driven and importance of building a permission database.

In another session, some online appearances in the form of advertisement and campaigns by some Bangladeshi brands such as Robi, Jaago Foundation, Banglalink and Samsung were presented as case analysis.