14 Nov 09 Online Advertising Vs Offline Advertising

I was once a blue-eyed MBA guy who believed in the power of big companies, and those silky legs and sultry pouts of glamour models in glossy print ads. I also believed that skin-revealing outfits will make me sell insurances, adhesives, and god knows what not. But, this love affair with mass advertising ended sooner than later. I was disillusioned, disoriented, after all my education appeared to be based on false ground. And I later realize that the principles were right, and we messed it up in execution. Hence, I moved on to online advertising. It is more closely tied with the principles of advertising than is offline or the banner ads displayed on the Internet.

Some key difference in online and offline advertisings

• Online advertising is measurable, but its older cousin (mass media advertising) is not.
• Online advertising has many result-producing tools at its disposal, whereas, mass media offers just a handful of useless tools.
• You cannot calculate your return on investment for the advertising dollars you spent in mass media, but you can easily calculate what you got for every single dollar you spent online.
• With mass media advertising, you cannot say for sure who watched your advertisements, but with online advertisements, you know whom your ads are being served.
• By large, online advertising is contextual, while mass media advertising cannot claim the same.
• Online medium inspires communications, whereas, mass media just dictates.
• Online medium offers an option to instigate two-way communication (interesting dialogue), whereas, mass media communication is always one-way (boring monologue).
• Your audience can interact with this medium, and the only interactivity offered by mass media advertising is flipping the page of magazine or changing TV or radio channel.
• When using online advertising, you pay only when you get result, and in mass media ads, you pay and pay and pay, regardless of what the result is.

What do you think about this issue? Do you agree or disagree?

Tags: Adhesives, Advertisements, Banner Ads, Cousin, Dialogue, Glamour Models, Glossy Print, Handful, Interactivity, Love Affair, Mass Media Communication, Mba, Media Ads, Media Advertising, Monologue, Pouts, Print Ads, Radio Channel, Return On Investment, Silky Legs