Only relevant content will influence online users: digital industry

Roy Tan, chief executive officer at Carat Malaysia, told Campaign that the social environment ihas changed as users are now mostly connected to the internet to look for their friends. Online advertising, hence, must be relevant or it will be just "wallpaper", Tan said.

Dinesh Sandhu, business development director, ASEAN, at Media Contacts, added that precise targeting, target audience definition, and making the right offer at the right time are crucial.

Citing McDonald's as an example, he said the fast food chain has done an excellent job of serving ads on MSN Messenger in parts of the day that are close to meal times.

“E-commerce is set to grow beyond airline and hotel bookings and a smattering of online shopping. As long as the security issues are addressed, we will see an extinction of phishing alerts on our internet banking log-in pages over time. The trust factor hinges on this key security concern,” he added.

Both Tan and Sandhu were responding to a recent survey by Nielsen, which showed that close to three-quarters of consumers in Southeast Asia are highly influenced by online ads on social media sites.

For Malaysia in particular, some 12 per cent of respondents agree that they are "highly influenced" by standard web ads on social media sites, while 52 per cent of them indicate that they are "somewhat influenced". The remaining one-third said they are not influenced at all.

While print advertisements continue to decline globally, Sandhu noted that the TVC in Malaysia is still an important medium. He added that an increasing number of clients were now asking questions about digital, and making a commitment to weigh it on its own merits as a legitimate communication channel.

“I believe that digital media will see a bigger share in media plans than the standard 10 per cent of the ad budget. Digital creative like campaign microsites, Facebook Custom Tabs, Twitter Handles, Branded Blogs, You Tube Branded Channels will be commonplace in creative presentations,” he said.