The writing’s on the wall but can you read it?

On the one hand, it shows that online advertising has a long way to go before it reaches levels comparable to those seen in the West. This is unlikely to be surprising to most as several well known factors have hampered its growth to date. It shows that the online adspend per capita in the GCC and Levant is at $0.71 compared with the global average of $22.44 or the US figure of $76.75.

Among the inhibiting factors cited by the respondents to Madar Research’s questionnaire, preference for traditional media comes first, with a score of 0.86 on a scale to 1.00. The comfort of the ‘tried and tested’ formulas developed over the year appears to deter many from experimenting with new media.

Understanding the need to break the mould, some in the industry have called for marketers to create a media research and development fund in their budget. With this media R&D allocation, marketers would be able to experiment, discover and explore new ways to communicate with their audience, often with very positive results. This needn’t conflict with traditional media and the safety net they seem to provide to most, while potentially amplifying their performance.

The low broadband penetration comes in as a close second, with a score of 0.77, while the lack of agency enthusiasm scored equally high in the list of barriers to online advertising. The two are somewhat connected. A few years ago, the general excuse for not going online was the low level of Internet penetration, dial-up then. With these levels rising in most countries, the focus is now on broadband. Arguably, it is indeed an issue, particularly for some advanced online advertising applications, but instead of developing an understanding and skill-set, this is a tidy excuse for agencies that resist stepping into the 21st century. By advising their clients against going digital, they also probably believe they keep a hold on them.

This could be a miscalculation. The recent survey of US marketers by another technology research organization, Forrester Research, clearly shows that they want their agencies to help them navigate this new technological media and consumer landscape. By actively resisting this trend, agencies that keep digital at arms’ length seal their own fate and will eventually be left behind. More worryingly, they may take their clients down with them.