Number of X’mas Online Display Ad Campaigns Dropped Slightly in 2010

Christmas is always huge for marketers. From late November to Dec 5, 72 X’mas online display ad campaigns found, with ad spend amounted HK$8 millions, and 55 advertisers involved. When comparing with those figures in 2009, the number of campaign in the same period dropped by 15% and the number of advertisers involved decreased by 25%. However, the ad spend rose by 25% and the ad spend per campaign increased sharply by 55%.

Chart 1: Comparison of X’mas Promotions by Different Industry

In terms of number of campaign, Shopping/ Retail and Travel/ Accommodation were the top industry in both 2009 and 2010. Others, e.g. NPO, Utility advertisers, replaced Health/ Beauty and became the third top industry in X’mas online display ad promotions. Computer/ Electronic Products was the top industry spender in 2010, that it was in the third place in the previous year, followed by Shopping/ Retail and Travel/ Accommodation industry.

Table 1: Top 5 Advertisers by Ad Spend

Dell, Hong Kong Disneyland, Air New Zealand, Nissen and Starbucks Coffee were the top 5 advertisers by ad spend. They spent more than half million each on their X’mas promotions; meanwhile Dell spent around HK$ 3 million and was on top of the list. Dell and Hong Kong Disneyland were also the top advertisers in terms of number of campaigns.

This article is a quick overview of 2010 X’mas online display ad campaigns in the period from late November to early December. Though the number of campaigns decreased, advertisers invested more in every single online display ad campaign. It is forecasted that the total ad spend of X’mas online display ad campaigns will reach HK$10 millions in 2010.

Postscript: By 29 Dec, there were around 170 X’mas online display ad campaigns found, and accumulated to HK$11 millions in ad spend.

(Source from Admomo.com)

流動電話網上橫額廣告活動概況

流動電話市場競爭激烈，各廣告商於本年度繼續在互聯網上推出大量廣告，推廣各款新型號流動電話。於2010年1月至11月中旬，流動電話的網上橫額廣告活動共有約130個，廣告費用（ad spend）總額達3,500萬，當中涉及共15名廣告商戶，推廣共48款流動電話型號。

按廣告費用計算，首5名流動電話廣告商戶依序為Nokia、HTC、Sony Ericsson、LG和Samsung Anycall，它們的廣告費總額佔流動電話網上廣告費總額的90%。

圖一：按廣告費計算的首5名流動電話廣告商網上廣告活動情況

與上年度的調查結果相比，2010年首11個月的廣告費用已大幅上升2.5倍。2009年廣告費用最高的廣告商為Sony Ericsson，廣告費用約400萬；而今年廣告費用最高的廣告商則為Nokia，廣告費用約1,400萬，比Sony Ericsson 2009年的廣告費用高出超過三倍。廣告費用於2010年大幅上升，顯示了流動電話市場競爭加劇之趨勢。

按廣告費用計算首5名網上媒體分別為Yahoo! HK、Atnext.com、Sina.com.hk、MSN Buddy List及TVB，當中Yahoo! HK佔了總廣告費用近40%。值得留意的是，流動電話的網上橫額廣告多出現於社交網站或討論區，例如有微博功能的Sina.com.hk，及設有討論區的Uwants和HKgolden，均在最高廣告費用的十大網上媒體之內。這些網上媒體受大眾歡迎，資訊流傳廣泛，而且用戶以年輕人為主，可見流動電話廣告主要針對大眾及年輕市場。

圖二：按廣告費計算首10名流動電話網上廣告刋登網站

流動電話橫額廣告活動的性質以純粹宣傳該產品型號為多，亦有些以獎品作招徠，吸引用戶購買產品或參加遊戲，贏取各式各樣的獎品，或音樂會門票。此外，有不少橫額廣告的內容為呼籲用戶下載應用程式或遊戲，反映智能流動電話的普及。

互聯網作為推廣平台的能力廣受認同，流動電話廣告商戶投放大量資源於網上橫額廣告，有助更有效接觸廣大群眾及年輕一代，宣傳產品。另一方面，流動電話市場競爭之激烈，於本年度廣告費用的躍升中可見一斑。智能流動電話近年日益普及，相信將來會出現更多有關流動電話應用程式及遊戲的流動電話橫額廣告。

(Source from Admomo.com)

Assessing Halloween Campaigns of Theme Parks by Online Ad Word-of-Mouth

The annual Halloween events in Hong Kong’s two theme parks, namely Ocean Park Halloween Bash and Hong Kong Disneyland Dark World, are some of the most popular events in the city. Indeed, the two parks are keen rivalries, and Halloween is a major platform of their competition. In 2010, Ocean Park launched 6 online display ad campaigns with 50+ creative used, and the ad spend was approximately $850 thousand, while Disneyland run 4 online display ad campaigns, including a Halloween Special buffet promotion, with 30+ creative and the ad spend was around $600 thousand.

Chart 1: Halloween Online Display Ad Campaigns by Theme Parks

Graph 1: Disney and Ocean Park Halloween Online Display Ad Campaign List

Both theme parks were more focus on the mass market that revealed in their selections on publishers for their Halloween display ad campaigns. Disneyland was comparatively target to families, and it spent the most on TVB.com for their campaigns. Whilst Ocean Park were keen in young mass market; therefore, on the top 5 publisher list by ad spend, apart from Yahoo!HK, Discuss.com.hk, Uwants and MSN Buddy List were found.

Chart 2: Top 10 Publishers for Halloween Display Ad Campaigns by Theme Parks

To discover the prompt and proactive opinions of the consumers on these major events on Consumer Generated Media (CGM, including forums, blogs, newsgroup and online instant news), a comparison between the two parks was made with digital word-of-mouth (WOM) monitoring, covering the period from 1 September to 5 November in Hong Kong and Macau.

Chart 3: Online Ad Word-of-Mouth on Halloween Campaign by Theme Parks

In this case of the Halloween campaigns, Ocean Park had a larger campaign exposure among netizens. Around 700 topics with 1,500 posts related to Disneyland Dark World were found on 30 websites, viewed by more than 800 thousand people, while 3,000 topics with 13,000 posts about Ocean Park Halloween Bash were found on 50 websites, viewed by over 2.3 million people.

An overall view of the period shows that the peak of online discussions about the Halloween events appeared during the weekends. The average sentiment indexes, generated from the comments in the discussions, were positive of both theme parks’. It fluctuated from -10.5% to 81.6% for Disneyland; while that was from neutral (0.00%) to 43.5% for Ocean Park.

About half of the CGM was found in Uwants and HKGolden, in which two out of the top 3 websites by post count, were considered as a hub of discussions/ opinions from juveniles and young adults, i.e. Uwants and 3boys2girls. The top 10 websites also showed the potential market in Macau for the Halloween promotions.

Chart 4: Top 10 Websites of CGM from Theme Parks Halloween Promotions by Post Count

The discussions mainly focused on experience sharing, including topics such as compliments of the night show in Disneyland and comparisons between the two parks. For Disneyland, the most discussed topics were positive opinions of the Halloween night show and the costumes of the Disney characters, and ways to deal with Mainland visitors in the park. On the other hand, the top topics concerning Ocean Park were comparisons of scariness of the amusements with that of Disneyland, comments on the new haunted houses, and ways to visit all the haunted houses in a limited time.

The popularity of the Halloween events held by the two theme parks in Hong Kong was affirmed. Netizens discussed a lot about the events and their comments were generally positive. Moreover, by comparing the data concerning Ocean Park Halloween Bash and Disneyland Dark World, it was found that the event of Ocean Park was more preferable to the netizens than that of Disneyland. As a matter of fact, the topics and posts on CGM serve as revealing evidence of consumers’ preference and feedback, for people are able to express their views and opinion freely and instantly on these sites.

Notes:

1. Figures rounded to the nearest digit

2. Source from Admomo and K-Matrix

(adWOM is a competitive monitoring tool for experienced marketers powered by Admomo and K-Matrix. It monitors online display ad campaigns, as well as online noise with consumers’ instant feedbacks towards the promotions and advertised products. For more details, please email to sales@admomo.com )

從廣告看流動上網的普及

隨著iPhone、Android等智能手機日趨普及，香港的流動上網系統用戶人數近年大幅上升，而流動網站（Mobile Sites）和流動系統（Mobile Apps）亦成為了人們生活的一部份。不少商戶看準商機紛紛推出流動網站或流動系統，數據顯示於2008年至2010年10月期間，共有約40個廣告商戶（Advertiser)，進行80個網上橫額廣告（Banner Ad，後稱「網上廣告」）以宣傳他們的流動網站或流動系統，廣告費用（Ad Spend）達約6百萬港元；而當中約一半廣告於2010年推出，涉及30多個廣告商，廣告費用約3百萬，廣告數目及廣告費用較去年大幅上升110%，可見流動網絡的普及趨勢正影響著廣告商戶的策略，兩者息息相關。

 圖一：2008-2010相關廣告數目及廣告費用行業比較 

相關推廣最早於2008年出現，主要來自電訊業、會計/財務/保險業及博彩業，其中以會計/財務/保險業最為活躍，如恆生銀行及美國花旗銀行。美國花旗銀行更率先在2008年11月至12月期間，舉行了一連串的流動銀行服務推廣，鼓勵客戶使用流動銀行服務，多用流動銀行進行交易。

至2009年，相關推廣的廣告商仍以會計/財務/保險業為主，然而媒體行業亦逐漸加入。除了會計/財務/保險業的流動財務交易服務，各大媒體都推出了流動電子版報刊或資訊網站，讓手機用戶能隨時隨地得到新聞、主題資訊，當中包括頭條日報及大日子等，可見流動網絡的服務正逐漸延伸。

圖二：2008-2010相關廣告數目及廣告費用季度比較

流動網站及流動系統的橫額宣傳於2010年百花齊放。無論以廣告費用或廣告數目計算，會計/財務/保險業仍是市場中的最活躍廣告商；然而，各行業正陸續參與相關推廣，例如電腦/電子產品、消費/零售業，甚至公用事業等，都紛紛推出流動網站或以流動系統作宣傳。

圖三：2010年以廣告費用計算的首10位廣告商戶 



在2010年，以廣告費用計算的首10位廣告商中，共6名來自會計/財務/保險業，它們的相關廣告費用已達150萬。而首5位廣告商分別為：創興證券、Apple、滙豐銀行、Beijing Club、及恆生銀行。

總括而言，在2008至2010年，流動網站及流動系統的橫額宣傳數目及廣告費用明顯增加，所涉及的廣告商戶愈來愈廣泛，各行各業皆有，提供的服務亦十分多樣化，反映流動網絡市場不斷擴大，帶來莫大商機，流動網站或流動系統因而成為商戶相當重要的發展項目。相信在可見將來，相關推廣的數目會持續上升，見証著行動上網時代的來臨。

(Source from Admomo.com)

Engaging the Customers: Advertising with Games

The Internet is considered to be a good platform for customer engagement advertising campaigns because it enables advertisers to have direct contact with each individual customers, and thus easier to get their target customers actively involved. In online customer engagement campaigns, different kinds of games, as a tactic to attract Internet users' attention, are commonly found. In 2010, by September, 150 online display advertising campaigns that contain games are launched, involving 130 advertisers and a total ad spend of 15 million.

Chart 1: No. of Campaign and Ad Spend by Industry

 As shown in our statistics, the peak season of these campaigns was from May to July. The top 3 industries by ad spend were Shopping/Retail, Food/Beverage and Computer/Electronic Products. On the other hand, in terms of number of campaigns, the top 3 industries were Health/Beauty, Entertainment and Shopping/Retail.

Chart 2: No. of Campaign and Ad Spend by Month

 The top advertiser by number of campaigns was Hong Kong Jockey Club, which launched more than 10 online display advertising campaigns with games in the period. It was also one of the advertisers with the largest amount of ad spend, alongside Ricola, Kaspersky, Gatsby and Barclays Global Investors.

Chart 3: Top 10 Advertisers by Ad Spend

Although Facebook is currently one of the most popular online social media, surprisingly, only approximately 10% of these campaigns were on Facebook, either as an app or a fan page. The top industry by number of campaigns in this aspect was Shopping/Retail.

The vast majority of these online display advertising campaigns consists of mini games. The genre of these mini games varies, from football simulation to coloring, but mostly they were able to demonstrate the characteristics of the advertised product or service. Some campaigns adopted the form of a quiz, requiring the viewer to answer questions related to the subject. This form is frequently used, as campaigns with a quiz can be found throughout the year. It was also mainly employed by the Entertainment industry and the Account/Finance/Insurance industry.

Furthermore, almost all of these game-containing campaigns offered prizes. Customers could win a designated gift by participating in a game or answering questions in a short quiz. Very often winners could get the advertised product. Such a tact was efficient in attracting viewers' attention as well as promoting sales.

Advertising with games is a common practice among different industries and advertisers, especially in the Internet realm. Internet users prone to take part in these games for they can do so by a simple click, without consuming much of their time, which in turn allows advertisers to leave an impression on them easily. The large number of campaigns of this kind suggests that advertisers had recognized this advantage of online display advertising. Moreover, the boom of online social media, like Facebook, opens new possibilities for this sort of advertising. The emergence of these campaigns on Facebook in recent months indicates the development of this platform for customer engagement advertisement, and the number of campaigns is anticipated to rise in the future.

(Source from Admomo.com)



Shanghai Expo 2010 in Online Display Advertising

The Expo held in Shanghai is one of the greatest events in China as well as the world in 2010. Reference to it can be found not only in the news, but also in online display advertising campaigns. From our statistics, there were altogether 30 Shanghai Expo related display advertising campaigns, with a total ad spend of 1.5 million, involving 20 advertisers. The top industry by ad spend was travel/accomodation, followed by accounting/finance/insurance and household.The majority of the campaigns was launched in May, the month which marks the grand opening of the Expo, while the earliest campaign was the promotion of Expo ticket reservation launched by China Travel Service in April 2009.

Chart 1: No. of Campaign and Ad Spend by Industry



Chart 2: No. of New-Start Campaign by Date



The top 3 advertisers in terms of ad spend were Cathay Pacific Holidays & Dragon Holidays, Master Card X Priceline (joint promotion) and Bank of Communications. Their total ad spend on Shanghai Expo related display advertising campaigns makes up 60% of the ad spend of all the advertisers involved.

 Chart 3: Top 10 Advertiser by Ad Spend

The top 3 publishers of Expo related campaigns were Yahoo!HK, South China Morning Post and MSN HK, indicating that the campaigns were targeted mainly to the mass market. Besides, the nature of most of the campaigns was sales promotion, advertising events such as special offers for Shanghai Expo travel packages, free Shanghai Expo souvenirs and customer engagement activities like free Shanghai Expo travel package for the winner of a competition.

With reference to the above statistics, despite its worldwide popularity and the national celebration of it in China, the Shanghai Expo was not a very attractive gimmick for marketers, except those from the travel/accomodation industry, who are major beneficiaries of the tourist boom in Shanghai and thus took advantage of the trend to start campaigns promoting travel products. The limited number of advertising campaigns related to the Expo and lack of variety of advertisers shows that this event drew relatively less attention from local marketers in comparison to other global events, for example, the 2010 World Cup (for more details, please refer to the article “2010 World Cup Related Online Campaigns” published in July 2010), illustrating a sharp contrast between its perceived popularity among the general public and the advertisers' expectations of its effectiveness in achieving advertising goals. 

(Source from Admomo.com)

男士健康及美容產品市場概況

在女性為主導的護膚品及美容市場，針對男性用家的健康及美容產品於近兩年迅速冒起。截至2010年7月，健康及美容產品廣告商單單投資在本港網上橫額廣告（Banner Ad，後稱「網上廣告」）的廣告媒體費用（ad spend，後稱「廣告費用」）已達3,500萬港元*，其中有關男性健康及美容產品約佔300萬港元*，為健康美容產品市場總額的百分之九，同時較2009年全年男性健康及美容產品的「廣告費用」上升百分之三十六。在2010年首7個月共約40個相關「網上廣告」，較上年同期增加5成，數目亦已超過2009年全年相關「網上廣告」數目的總和。

圖一: 2009/ 2010年男性健康美容產品「網上廣告」數目及「廣告費用」比較

無論以「廣告費用」或「網上廣告」數目計算，首三名男性健康美容產品廣告商在兩年間都出現了較大的變化。於2009年，MSC皮膚護理中心（Men’s Skin Centres）、倩碧（Clinique）和歐碧泉（Biotherm）高踞首三位，它們的「廣告費用」已佔男性健康美容產品「網上廣告」市場總額的七成。而2010年，除了MSC皮膚護理中心（Men’s Skin Centres）保持於榜首外，Gatsby 和巴黎歐莢雅（L’Oreal Paris）分別進佔第二和第三位，「廣告費用」約各佔市場的百份之二十。另外，以「網上廣告」數量計算，除了主打男性護膚品的LABS SERIES由去年榜尾攀升至今年第三位，其餘排名與按「廣告費用」計算的結果大致相同。

圖二: 2010年按「廣告費用」計算的首10名男性健康美容產品品牌

市場評論

（一）男性健康美容產品品牌在「網上廣告」策略上個別發展

在健康美容產品業中，以女性主導的市場無疑較男性市場成熟，男性市場的潛力及空間仍有待進一步開發，是以男性健康美容產品品牌在使用「網上廣告」作市場推廣的發展迴異，策略和「網上廣告」預算變化亦較大。若以「廣告費用」計算，雖然投資在「網上廣告」的金額較去年同期錄得倍數的增幅，2010年首七個月的「廣告費用」較同期上升約2.5倍，但也有品牌在2009年後，至今暫未有「網上廣告」推出，例如露得清（Neutrogena）和CRABTREE & EVELYN等。另外，以巴黎歐莢雅（L’Oreal Paris）和碧柔（Bioré）為例，「廣告費用」則較去年升逾100%及250%，遠高於年度增長的百分之三十六。反之，倩亮（Clinique）較去年同期出現負增長近百分之一百。而兩年位於榜首的MSC皮膚護理中心（Men’s Skin Centres）在「網上廣告」方面則有較平穩的發展，今年「廣告費用」較同期略升百分之六；而在媒體策劃（Media Plan）上，MSC皮膚護理中心（Men’s Skin Centres）於2010採用了更集中的策略，多選用YahooHK!、Atnext.com等大眾網站，拼棄一些主題網站，如DCFever、Price.com.hk等，更針對品牌在大眾市場（Mass Market）的網上曝光率（Online Exposure）。

（二）「網上廣告」宣傳活動性質的變化

男性健康美容產品宣傳活動性質在2010年起了明顯的變化。去年，品牌多於網上作銷售推廣 （Sales Promotion）及產品宣傳（Product Promotion），例如優惠劵下載或免費試做/ 試用（Free Trial）等的推廣，分別佔去年男性健康美容產品「網上廣告」總數量的一半。反觀今年的情況，品牌以提升顧客參與度（Customer Engagement）作為宣傳策略重點，例如登記參與網上遊戲或上載相片到宣傳活動網頁等，佔今年相關「網上廣告」數量的三分二。

總結

男性健康美容產品「網上廣告」在2010年首7個月錄得明顯的升幅，「廣告費用」達健康美容產品業總額約一成，以男性為目標客戶的市場於業內正逐漸擴大。然而，各品牌於「網上廣告」的推廣策略發展分歧，或與男性健康美容產品市場內各品牌定位仍有待進一步清晰有關。若以現時的增幅推算，2010年度男性健康美容產品「網上廣告」的「廣告費用」總額將達500萬*港元。

*取近似值百萬位

（資料來源: www.admomo.com ）