This post is about the increasing importance of interactive marketing. Since we discuss telecom ads and marketing, there is relevance (anyway weekend is a good time for off topics posts). If you look at the marketing strategy in developing countries, it is clear that the low connectivity means that digital marketing is not very high. Most of the spending goes to TV and hoardings – the conventional media. Digital media is new and tricky as I posted on twitter today. Many telecom companies in Pakistan do not have a strategy for social media. However there has been a distinct change in the last 2 years and there is more attention being paid to the blogs, at least by the PR departments.

For the brand managers out there, the trend mentioned here should be very important. See the chart and excerpt from Forrester blog.

In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement “we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing.” Only 7% said “we have no plans to increase our marketing budget.”