Those online show real growth
May 01, 2010 Edition 1
Staff Reporter
While digital marketing was driving significant structural and operational changes in global marketing groups, according to the recent State of Marketing Report and Outlook Audit from the global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, the big question is whether South Africa is lagging behind or catching up.
To marketing analyst Chris Moerdyk, one of the 600 CMO members worldwide who took part in the survey, the answer is simple: "In spite of recent cost reductions in South Africa, broadband access is still far too expensive and speed painfully slow to allow business to take advantage of the massive growth in digital marketing being experienced in other countries."
But, there is good news, he said.
"While consumers might well be forced by budget and bandwidth to be slow on the digital uptake relative to their counterparts in developed countries, niche industries are certainly making more and more use of online sources to do business and get quick information."
While the South African media industry followed the world into a recession peppered with media closures, dropping circulations and falling revenues, some local online operations were showing healthy all-round increases.
Moerdyk, non-executive chairman of the country's biggest marketing and media online portal, www.bizcommunity.com, said the company set revenue records in mid-recession last year and in March this year broke all of its previous records for revenue, page visits, unique users and subscriptions.
Managing director Robin Parker said: "It is evident from market shifts this year that entrepreneurial South Africa intends trading itself out of the doldrums. This sector was the most impacted during the trying times last year. With the promise of an active year, smaller South African businesses are responding to the online marketing promise and choosing market leaders to get their message across. There appears to be a new determination not to just ride it out, but to prosper."
Bizcommunity co-founder Andre Rademan said: "Our own surge in website activity at the start of 2010 was a good sign that digital marketing is growing significantly. Our March page impressions were up 23 percent (3.7 million) on the average for 2009. Our recruitment section is also showing strong growth with a 33 percent increase in job ads relative to 2009, indicating that companies are recruiting in expectation of a recovery during 2010."
The CMO's 2010 State of Marketing Report and Outlook Audit found that "a big focus is now on building internal customer analytics and digital resource capabilities".
Among the findings were:
May 01, 2010 Edition 1
Staff Reporter
While digital marketing was driving significant structural and operational changes in global marketing groups, according to the recent State of Marketing Report and Outlook Audit from the global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, the big question is whether South Africa is lagging behind or catching up.
To marketing analyst Chris Moerdyk, one of the 600 CMO members worldwide who took part in the survey, the answer is simple: "In spite of recent cost reductions in South Africa, broadband access is still far too expensive and speed painfully slow to allow business to take advantage of the massive growth in digital marketing being experienced in other countries."
But, there is good news, he said.
"While consumers might well be forced by budget and bandwidth to be slow on the digital uptake relative to their counterparts in developed countries, niche industries are certainly making more and more use of online sources to do business and get quick information."
While the South African media industry followed the world into a recession peppered with media closures, dropping circulations and falling revenues, some local online operations were showing healthy all-round increases.
Moerdyk, non-executive chairman of the country's biggest marketing and media online portal, www.bizcommunity.com, said the company set revenue records in mid-recession last year and in March this year broke all of its previous records for revenue, page visits, unique users and subscriptions.
Managing director Robin Parker said: "It is evident from market shifts this year that entrepreneurial South Africa intends trading itself out of the doldrums. This sector was the most impacted during the trying times last year. With the promise of an active year, smaller South African businesses are responding to the online marketing promise and choosing market leaders to get their message across. There appears to be a new determination not to just ride it out, but to prosper."
Bizcommunity co-founder Andre Rademan said: "Our own surge in website activity at the start of 2010 was a good sign that digital marketing is growing significantly. Our March page impressions were up 23 percent (3.7 million) on the average for 2009. Our recruitment section is also showing strong growth with a 33 percent increase in job ads relative to 2009, indicating that companies are recruiting in expectation of a recovery during 2010."
The CMO's 2010 State of Marketing Report and Outlook Audit found that "a big focus is now on building internal customer analytics and digital resource capabilities".
Among the findings were:
- Investing in digital demand generation and online relationship building ranks among top initiatives to maximise the impact and value of marketing in 2010.
- 38 percent of respondents are exploring new routes to market and alternative media; 62 percent will crunch customer data to improve segmentation and targeting.
- 35 percent of marketers expect to initiate or undertake transformational marketing projects to improve go-to-market effectiveness.
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