Online Marketing in Hong Kong
A majority of my time at work is spent thinking about online solutions for clients so I have some limited insights on the market in this part of the world.
Hong Kong companies are generally more conservative than the rest of the world when it comes to using the Internet as a promotional channel. They have somewhere in the back of their minds that it is important, but perhaps due to a lack of understanding most clients expect things to be done cheap, quick, and with volume. This is of course do-able but the outcome is often less than desirable.
There are exceptions and I see that happening with some of the companies with less of a silo mentality. They are willing to invest, to do things right, and take the time to ensure their internet strategies are executed correctly. Granted you can get a local "design house" (*read: guy in his room who did one design course with Fevaworks - sorry for my lack of respect for Fevaworks grads) to crunch out mini-sites in less than a week. But are you willing to do the same with your magazine print ads? Why is your online budget often 1/10 of your offline's while the reality is almost 80% of your customers will visit your web site at one point or another?
I applaud those business leaders with the vision and desire to utilize this channel to its full potentials as it is indeed fast gaining influence with the mass market and is re-shaping the entire media landscape.
July 21st, 2006 at 2:31 am
I am not sure whether HK companies are really more conservative than overseas ones when deciding on how much to spend on online marketing; but if they are, I also hope that they can open their eyes asap to see the great potential of this sales/promotional tool.
Perhaps it’s just still easier and faster to see the ROI of offline marketing, so the budget is being spent in the way that you mentioned in most of the companies. It seems not easy to forecast the ROI when talking about online marketing, but I believe that KPIs will definitely help to show the positive (or negative) results of online marketing activities. By establishing different KPIs, it should be easier to quanitify the impact of online marketing tools.
I think your clients are very lucky, as you do have the vision to help them fully utilize the Internet to gain their best possible outcomes : )
BTW, I just visited this site by chance tonight but I am happy to see your article.
February 21st, 2007 at 4:26 am
I enjoyed this post and its a shame that you don’t write more often. It is rare to find someone especially in Hong Kong that has your kind of insight.
I have also found that Hong Kong companies tend to be less inclined to spend as much on their online presence than their offline. Maybe its their reluctance to be the first duck out of the water. In fact your post has given me a few ideas on a web copy I am writing.
Thanks,
Matt
August 19th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Internet Marketing and Advertising
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting