Of Eggs, Chickens and waiting to hatch or lay them

Digital Media Outlook 2009, a report on digital media industry based on a survey of top advertisers in India has the following findings:

• Traditional media spend has dropped by 10% while digital media spend increased by 44% (base is smaller, but still !)
• Big advertisers including consumer goods companies are still skeptical about usefulness of digital media, largely due to it’s limited reach … 4.2% penetration level compared to 50% in TV and 20% in print
• Just 5% of total ad pie is allocated to Internet advertising
• Of the digital marketing spend, a quarter goes to developing/maintaining a brand specific web site
• FMCG, Consumer Utilities and Consumer Durables is just 30% of online ad expenditure … though they are 70% of total ad spending
• Online medium is believed to be most effective for “driving traffic to a website” and adept as other mediums in terms of delivering “awareness” and “consideration”.  It is considered least effective for delivering promotions and driving traffic to stores
• Rationale for picking Internet as a medium continues to be a “platform for direct marketing” rather than a medium for “mass communication or brand building”

To read the full report visit livemint.com/digitaloutlook.htm

Fascinating to read this. Not that the results are surprising. But, it always puts things in perspective to get a fix on numbers. It is obvious that there are a lots of chicks waiting for the eggs to hatch and a lots of eggs waiting for the chicken to lay them.

I am congenitally wired to ignore current reality and look at what it should be. That’s how good things have always worked out for me in the past.

When people say that it “only works well to generate visitors to a site” … I see an egg waiting for a chicken (read more web sites that sell !!). When businesses say we only spend 5% because penetration is low … that’s another chicken waiting to lay more eggs (read ad budgets). When some one complains that online medium is least effective in “driving store sales” or “delivering promotions” … I see an egg waiting to burst into a chicken (read Discount Coupons, Mobile Coupons).

All this means is … it will take more time to gain scale and traction … but the pace of growth is accelerating. The cliched question is not “What or Whether” but “When”. Nothing wrong that.

So ask yourself for your business (if you bet or are betting on the growth of digital medium in India) … are you prepared to wait it out? 3 Years? 5 Years? Are your assumptions (for growth, revenue etc. etc.) inline with the current pace of growth.