Online ad spend grows but not substantial

Hong Kong - Total online ad spend in Hong Kong for 2008 was HK$702 million with the fourth quarter rose 33% compared to third quarter at HK$208million, according to a report from Nielsen Online Hong Kong. 

The AdRelevance report revealed over 1000 advertisers advertised online between October to December last year with the number of ad campaigns increased by 4% from 2948 in Q3 to 3062 in Q4.

The finance sector topped all categories as the most advertised online with total spending of HK$36.6million in Q4 2008, accounting for 17% of total online ad pie.

Computers & Electrical came in second position as most advertised category, followed by Entertainment  and Health/Pharmaceuticals.

Citicorp was the largest online advertiser by ad impression in the fourth quarter of 2008 as well as the top spender in the Finance category with 441 million ad impressions across its campaigns.

The bank's aggressive online advertising effort beat PCCW with 263 million ad impressions, which topped the list in the previous quarter.

The other top five advertisers based on number of ad impressions include Global Beauty International Limited, Sony and Dell.

Joseph Kam (pictured), commercial director for Nielsen Online, Hong Kong & Taiwan said, "The importance of online advertising is expected to grow in tandem with the popularity of the Internet and in the current economic environment where advertisers are revisiting their media plans, the Internet is becoming a more competitive platform for advertisers to effectively reach their target audience."

Despite the rise in online ad spend, total media spend for online in 2008 represents only 1.2% compared with traditional media such as TV, print and outdoor.

An industry source from a media agency was 'surprised' by the results. He said the economic downturn has affected online media with banks and investment products cut their budgets since late last year as they are "holding up the campaigns".  

While the expectation is to see a shift away from high spending in TV to online, he did not see a big change in the first two months of the new year.

He added that the rise in online ad spend will not be drastic compared to previous years.

Maggie Yung, director of country marketing at Citibank Global Consumer Group, said since 2004, the company has been implementing online marketing to make its communications more effective and efficient.

"Leveraging on Citi's global best practices and our local experience, we have launched innovative online advertising campaigns to promote our brands, business and products," Yung said.

"Online marketing is playing an important role in marketing category and will become a popular marketing tool as it is cost effective, yet can deliver satisfactory results."