Some minor issues

Phillip’s second question “Is online advertising making sense without a decent website?”. See his own answers, I agree.

So yes, online advertising is making sense without a decent website. If it wasn’t, traditional advertising wouldn’t make sense at all, does it. People tent to forget the traditional goals of advertising, which Phillip listed nicely. It’s not because it’s non-traditional advertising these goals no longer apply, it would ignore the human mind.

But I do believe in interactivity. It sticks the brand. An active prospect is paying attention, and more easy to convert. And I mean conversion in the broad sense: turning people into a customers, but as well getting to know the brand, understand brand values, .. the advertising goals again.

Just make sure to pin down your goals before you start planning and creating online campaigns. You need to figure this out first, because whatever you choose will affect the best practices.

Rich media formats are diminishing the need for a landings page anyway. You can build the interaction in your ad. Look at the eyeblaster examples. It’s less aggressive, since you don’t want to pull people out of their trusted environment. You don’t say: YOU NEED TO FOLLOW ME! You just say: look what I got to offer; you might want to check it out. More about interaction rate in Q6.

But there are other ways to advertise online. Branded entertainment for example. Look for a partner that may benefit from a collaboration (financial, but functional as well) and integrate your brand. Or why not evaluate online PR.
The sky is the limit.

However, if you can create a website, I think you should. Your site (and brand) will benefit from the campaign aftermath. People might remember your brand, and link it to their online experience. So if they want to check you out again, they’re going to look for your website. At that point it would be great to offer them what they are looking for, and if you don’t, your competitor might.

To the Joost crew: please contact me

Check it out!

As I mentioned before (you might want to read this post first) I’m answering 8 new marketing questions.

Question 1
“How far should I go in the dialogue with the users? Can I accept controversy on my website? What moderation level is acceptable?”
(more…)

Philippe Deltenre, Media Strategist at Microsoft Belgium, distillated 8 new marketing questions out of his client sessions. He’s answering them himself on his blog, and involves some other marketeers (like Jaffe) as well.

I thought it would be nice to give my opinion on these questions. I’m fully aware it won’t always be that much different from Philippe’s or somebody else’s opinion, but I try to answer with my particular experience. I hope you guys contribute, and Philippe got some beef out of it

It would be a good idea to do a question per day, but I know myself and my blogging frequency, so we’ll see how it works out.

Learnt about it from Kris’ blog.