Online advertising leading to big changes in marketing ideas

• THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CAMPAIGNS AIMED at building brand awareness and those with the goal of direct consumer response will increasingly evaporate online, predicts The Kelsey Group in its latest report, scheduled to be released today.
• "By 2009, it may be more difficult to distinguish awareness advertising from directional advertising, as digital advertising platforms expand and lines between these forms of advertising blur," states the report, titled "Global Directional Media Forecast."
• Search marketing, which has both branding and direct components, is among the most significant reasons for the growing blur, says Neal Polachek, the report's author.
• While paid search links often function in the same way as traditional Yellow Pages--by providing information to buyers currently making a decision--search also builds brand awareness by putting a marketer's name in front of consumers, even when they're not looking to purchase something.
• For instance, a consumer who uses search to find names of CDs by, say, "The White Stripes" might also get sponsored links for MP3 players.
• "You're searching for something and up pop these contextual ads," says Polachek.
• For that reason, many companies want to be in the No. 1 spot every time they appear--even when appearing in categories where consumers aren't likely to make a purchase.
• Rob Middleton, chief strategic officer at Fathom Online, adds that "more and more," his marketing clients "want to be No. 1"--meaning in the top spot of the paid rankings--even when they're buying keywords not normally associated with the product.
• For example, when a company known for manufacturing computers started producing televisions, that company was willing to pay extra to get the No. 1 spot on paid results for keywords related to television sets.
• In its forecast, Kelsey also predicts that the global market for digital directional advertising--online business directories, local search, and wireless directories--will reach about $10 billion in 2009, up from an estimated 2.8 billion last year.