Now for a blast of optimism, but tinged with realism. While 2009 will see marketing budgets slashed and media companies and agencies retrench, it looks set to be a watershed year for digital marketing and communications in Ireland.

It will be the year when more clients will shift advertising spend online, when social media and emerging platforms will become an integral part of the communications mix and when business owners take to DIY online campaigns in greater numbers. While digital has been the "also ran" in many a campaign, fighting for budget and a client’s attention against TV, radio, and press and a galaxy of other media choices, in 2009 it will begin to move centre stage.

These bullish predictions are based on hard evidence. Firstly, internet usage has reached critical mass with over a million broadband subscribers. Irish audiences are absorbing richer online content in greater numbers, streaming TV shows from the US, watching or publishing videos on YouTube, making connections on Facebook and other channels, as well as researching and buying online.

Secondly, there’s value for money, the mantra for these recessionary times. Online is the lowest cost channel, capable of delivering sales, leads, customer engagement or a range of other objectives at a fraction of the cost of traditional campaigns. Free or low-cost tools have cut website development and digital campaign costs. Such tools are not just for geeks. Increasingly, they are powering the websites and the campaigns of leading international brands.

Thirdly, there’s the stellar brand of 2008, Barack Obama, whose strategic use of the internet to deliver votes and campaign dollars has been a wakeup call to those in charge of marketing and communications budgets. They are looking to the Obama campaign for inspiration and ideas.
The Obama online strategy was a clever combination of old-style campaigning and communications meshed with the use of new tools and marketing techniques. All of this was built around a simple, yet powerful, message - change.

The outlook for digital is overwhelmingly positive. In more mature online markets, the US and Britain, marketers are saying that they will be increasing their online budgets, but the rate of increase is tapering off.

In Ireland, we’re still playing catch up. AMAS research among members of the Marketing Institute of Ireland points to a similar pattern. Just over half of the sample said that they are spending 10 per cent or more of their budgets online.

It would be easy to get carried away with digital’s growth and its potential and to ignore the scary economic times we live in. So, a reality check is needed. Inevitably, tighter budgets will impact on digital businesses and projects will get canned or curtailed. Digital businesses will collapse, will be restructured, or will be consolidated.

The sector in Ireland is fragmented, making it difficult for clients to buy services or differentiate suppliers. There is insufficient research to enable clients and agencies to buy with confidence.

From the client side, the challenge is to move digital from the tactical to the strategic. Clients need to exploit digital but must be confident of the role, the benefits and the return on investment. Also, they need to align digital to their business or organisational strategy.

Digital is a disruptive force in the worlds of marketing, advertising and communications. It does not suit the traditional models of agencies, publishers and other established players. For them, also, 2009 will be a watershed year but the prognosis is more negative.

Source:The Sunday Business Post

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