InDepth
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A digital dilemmaby Michael Hoare 26-Mar-09, 15:59
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Despite investing more in digital, brands are failing to secure consumer trust.
Raking over the ashes of 2008 brings to mind a phrase from the footballer’s dictionary; it was a game of two halves. The optimism and big budgets of the first six months of the year were overshadowed by the second half’s two memorable events: the Beijing Olympics and the meltdown of the financial sector. But in the annual Digital Media top digital brands survey, things were a little more stable. The trends established in digital’s broadband era have continued to be a force, and that is not necessarily good news for marketers. A lack of trust in digital communications and variable levels of persuasion continue to be an Achilles’ heel for online, with none of the creativity of the past 12 months helping to reduce consumers’ negative perceptions. In the six markets in the TNS survey - Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand - the results show that these key measures across all brands have either stalled or fallen into the red. Even the stand-out results of the mega-brands, the real winners in this edition of the survey, may possibly be due to their real-world marketing, not their online efforts. Tech dominance Nokia was the most recognised brand online across all markets in this edition of the survey, taking a top five position in all markets except Taiwan, where it was ranked sixth by a narrow margin. Although knocked from its top perch in Singapore and Malaysia last year, Nokia’s standing reflects similar findings from Digital Media’s last survey: companies with a strong tech flavour are the most frequently recalled brands. This comes as no surprise to Anne Woodhams, regional manager, brand expressions, at TNS in Hong Kong. Tech brands, she argues, make better use of the medium to raise awareness because they are more comfortable with digital marketing and their consumers are more tech savvy. “It’s a bit more difficult to get people interested about having a dialogue [online] with a hair-care product,” she says. Another trend was the strength of multinational brands operating in the region. Nokia, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola dominated the survey at the expense of home-grown brands. AirAsia, DiGi and Maxis were the only Asian brands to finish high in the overall regional ranking. “I guess one of the reasons that multi-national companies tend to do better in the survey is that they have a formal focus on digital for their marketing strategy. I think it helps that there is a focus,” says Woodhams. The multinationals also tend to have larger budgets and are able to leverage on their cashed-up parents. “Those types of brands are more often incorporated with above the line campaigns and there is, of course, a halo effect,” says Woodhams. Sliding persuasive power Among the more worrying findings from this year’s survey was a decline across most markets in the persuasiveness of digital media. In some markets, the decline was a few percentage points and unlikely to be statistically significant, but in Thailand, for example, the percentage of the survey who said they were not moved by the online marketing they had seen during the year rose to 16 per cent from nine per cent in the 2007 survey. Similarly, the number of people significantly moved after viewing any form of digital communication either plateaued or fell last year, with significant drops in Thailand, down to 33 per cent from 42 per cent, and Malaysia, down five percentage points to 30 per cent. In tandem with the slide in persuasiveness across the six markets, the findings again highlight the gap in consumers’ perception between good word-of-mouth, the traditional media and online communications. Most interestingly, the standard arsenal of weapons employed by marketers was also the least trusted. Pop-ups, banner ads, electronic direct marketing and SMS campaigns - used most heavily in Singapore and Malaysia - were seen as the least trustworthy marketing channels. To boost trust, a majority of the top brands in the survey have relied on their own online properties or branded content for their communications, both of which are rated as relatively trustworthy channels by consumers. “How do we get away from these kinds of ‘heritage’ techniques in digital and give consumers something that they find really useful? That is a real area of opportunity for brands to focus on.” points out Woodhams. One solution lies in better ways of measuring effectiveness. The areas to watch are the techniques that make above-the-line advertising such a brand favourite. So keep an eye out for renewed emphasis on planning and focus groups in 2009. 
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