LINKdotNET's Connects Ads announces 140% growth in online advertising business

    Dumped value of 'ID':
'143403';

Dumped value of 'images_loop':
[
    {
        'caption' => '',
        'col' => 'picture',
        'name' => 'connectads.jpg',
        'url' => '/1/50821-connectads.jpg'
    }
];

Egyptian visitors to a popular Middle Eastern portal were surprised to see the website unusually decked out in bright red with entertaining musical graphics welcoming them, and Nokia promoting its latest 5700 XpressMusic mobile.

The company conceptualized and executed the creative and successful campaign for its client Nokia, in an effort to develop innovative advertising that would capture the interest of the site's visitors.

A 'take-over' in online advertising terms is a full sponsorship of a website's homepage, with the entire advertising space exclusively given to one advertiser. The entire webpage takes on the advertising brand's identity for the campaign's duration, and the result is a creative and visually attractive advertisement that goes beyond the impact of the usual online ad banner or pop-up.

The Nokia campaign is the latest effort by Connect Ads to raise awareness among marketers of the immense possibilities of online advertising, a sector which is now seriously challenging more traditional advertising media. This has been reflected in LINKdotNET's triple digit growth figures in online advertising over the last couple of years, with its Connect Ads unit reporting 140% revenue increase in the last year.

'Marketers have realized the added advantages that online advertising has over traditional media,' said Karim Beshara, CEO LINKdotNET. 'Not only is it more cost-effective, it also enables a more targeted and more interactive approach, allowing greater room for creativity and audience engagement. And with more user-generated content online, there is renewed interest by the public and deeper understanding by marketers of the power of online advertising. It is therefore vital to innovate and introduce fresh new ways of reaching consumers to maintain their interest.'

Connect Ads is also working to widen its network of media beyond its existing self-owned portals and Microsoft's regional MSN Arabia, Messenger and Hotmail sites. The latest addition to the network is Onkosh.com, an Arabic/English search engine recently launched by Orascom Telecom and developed to fit in with web usage trends of the Arab World and the specific intricacies of the Arabic language.

With increasing Internet penetration in the region and the attraction of higher cost-efficiency in online advertising compared to traditional media, the overall online advertising industry in the region is expected to continue its current growth trend. Estimated at $18.7m (end of 2006), online ad spend in the region is expected to grow continually at an annual rate of 50% to reach the substantial figure of $142m by year 2011. The estimated number of Internet users in the GCC and Levant area is 26 million (end of 2006).