'Net advertising gaining ground'

It is a myth that only the young spend on the internet, our site bears testimony to the fact that our users range from 18 to 80 years and, over the last one year, the sale of tickets has grown more in non-metros than in cities such as Mumbai," Amitabh Pandey, group GM, IT services, IRCTC, told the first-ever Indian Online Advertising Conclave 2004 organised by the Internet & Online Association here today.

"There are 25 million internet users in India, in the age group of 20-29, and are decision makers for categories such as television, home theater, microwave ovens among others," Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO of Rediff.com, said.

The gathering included several key speakers who spoke on the different aspects of internet advertising in India.

Ramesh Kannan, international product director, DoubleClick, said, " In the US , of 152 million users in February 2004, 121.3 million users were reachable through online advertising within the first five days of the month."

He gave several ways as to how advertisers could increase the number of people, target a specific audience and connect to them individually using the internet.

Santosh Desai, president, McCann Erickson, spoke on the implications of the internet for branding and how surfing is an active engagement on the part of the browser unlike a couch potato who is passive.

Ravi Kiran, managing director, India, west & south, Starcom Worldwide said during a panel discussion on branding versus direct response, "Consumers have got used to other mediums of marketing while internet advertising is just four years old,".

In the same discussion, Shashi Sinha, president, Lodestar, admitted, "We (ad agencies) probably have not made it a matter of life and death for our clients to advertise on the net."

Looking at the trends in online advertising in India, Andre Nair, chairman, South Asia Group M lamented, "Indian websites use a site-centric approach to measure the return on investment and not the user centric approach that is more effective."

Ashwini Kakkar, CEO and managing director, Thomas Cook India Ltd, said, " Internet advertising should not be looked at in isolation because it depends on new product creation, and reduction in online transaction costs that is critical to increasing online response through advertising, " while talking on How to Measure the ROI of Online Advertising.

The Indian Online Association was founded in January 2004 by Hindustantimes.com, Indiatimes.com, MSN.co.in, Rediff.com. Sify.com. Yahoo.co.in and the online media agency, Mediaturf.