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By Yukari Iwatani
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - As traditional companies
wade cautiously into the waters of Internet advertising,
Internet companies are moving in the opposite direction, from
pure online campaigns to major offline advertising.
In particular, electronic commerce companies such as eBay
(http://www.ebay.com), Go2Net (http://www.go2net.com),
Egghead.com (http://www.egghead.com) and Cyberian Outpost
(http://www.outpost.com) recently introduced their first print,
television and radio campaigns, making it clear that Internet
companies are beginning to understand the importance of offline
branding.
"Branding value is clearly very important in determining
who's going to win on the Internet, and it's hard to build a
real brand without getting it through TV and print," said
Darryl Peck, chief executive of Cyberian Outpost, an online
computer store.
The Connecticut-based company launched the first of a
two-part television and print campaign last week. The current
90-day campaign includes a humorous but daring TV spot that
aims to gain brand awareness simply by catching the viewer's
attention.
The ad, created by Cliff, Freeman and Partners in New York,
attempts to make an impression by using a cannon to fire a
gerbil through a cutout "O" of a sign that reads "Outpost.com."
Peck said he is planning a follow-up campaign that would be
more informative with specifics about the Web site's offerings.
"There's no question that TV is a good way to get people
talking. It's part of the risk we're taking here, but we think
it's worth it," he said.
Evan Neufeld, an analyst at New York-based Internet
research firm Jupiter Communications said, "It's a definite
trend, and it's new, but it's also Marketing 101. The media is
fragmented, so you can't advertise in just one place. We've
always said not to put all your eggs in one basket."
According to Neufeld, the Internet business has evolved
into a more sophisticated industry in which companies can no
longer rely on banner ads and word-of-mouth to establish
themselves, especially if they want to become a major player.
"It used to be guerrilla marketing -- and it still is for
people who don't have money -- but the general thing we've seen
is that the price of admission has gone up if you want to
become an e-commerce brand," said Neufeld.
Rex Briggs, an analyst with market research firm Miller
Brown Interactive, agreed, adding: "There is a realization that
whoever can build a relationship with the consumer early on in
their entry into the Web is better off. Consumers have a very
open-minded attitude when they first go online but they lock in
their opinion once they're there."
Briggs pointed to Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) as a classic
example of a company that jumped ahead of its search engine
competitors through its strong branding campaign via
television.
Although its competitors, such as Infoseek
(http://www.infoseek.com) and Excite (http://www.excite.com)
subsequently followed with their own offline campaigns, they
never caught up with Yahoo, which was able to capture a
significant market share just by being the first on TV.
Since then, there has been a steady stream of Internet
companies vying for brand awareness among consumers through
offline ads, triggering mini-campaign wars in some industries.
In the latest one, online bookstore barnesandnoble.com
(http://www.barnesandnoble.com) launched a new advertising
campaign on Friday to compete with Amazon.com's offline
campaign. The ads, created by TBWA Chiat/Day in New York,
feature popular authors such as Tom Clancy, Stephen King and
Frank McCourt.
"Without question, we view offline advertising as critical.
Online advertising wouldn't introduce you to consumers who are
in the queue to buy the first product online, or for that
matter to buy their first home computer," said Ben Boyd, a
spokesman for barnesandnoble.com. "Offline advertising is for
my parents in South Carolina, to make them aware that we're
there."
Neufeld noted that many Internet companies are deciding to
spend money on offline advertising, which tends to be costlier
than banner ads and other forms of advertising on the Internet,
because of a surge in the number of households online. "As it
goes from 18 million households online to 20, 30, 40 million,
it gets more important. This has been the year that e-commerce
has been validated. It's woken a lot of people up," he said.
The evidence is in the emerging competition between online
computer hardware and software stores such as Egghead.com,
Cyberian Outpost and Beyond.com (http://www.beyond.com). The
first two launched TV and print campaigns last week and the
latter is preparing a television campaign.
"I think it's going to accelerate," Neufeld predicted.
SEEK.O AMZN.O BKS.N YHOO.O XCIT.O EGGS.O
COOL.O EBAY.O
REUTERS
Rtr 21:20 11-23-98
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service
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