Digital advertising is not much different from the traditional medium of promotion. It is just a medium where all brands are going to use the medium to send the message to the audience. The principles are not different. How an advertiser would use traditional medium- be it television, outdoor, radio – to reach out to a certain audience with a certain message- the same principle would apply for Internet as a medium. Generally, people have been considering it different probably because of it is much newer.

But as each medium has its own uniqueness like the way TV is different from radio or print, so is Internet. It allows you to have interactivity with the consumer which is the first point of differentiation. It also lets you point your target audience. For example, if one uses Yahoo’s email service, he or she can actually send an email customised according to likes and dislikes which they listed when they joined yahoo. So it allows customisation and far more interactivity.

However, for a marketer today, it is not one medium against the other. They do not consider the advantages of one medium and disadvantages of another or whether they should put money in any one of the selected mediums. In any marketing campaign there is always a judicious mix of different medium and that is the basic structure integrated marketing communication works on. So depending on the category, the campaign will always have a mix. It might be a TV, print and Internet mix or an Internet and outdoor mix. In any case, it is not one against the other. For Example, in an auto industry, there is either a marketer who wants to do a heavy campaigning on print or television, depending on the model. The more mass targeted it is, (the more) it will go on television. It all depends on the specific needs for the brand.

One of the major concerns of the marketers is that of losing control to the consumers. Atul Hegde, CEO Ignitee Digital Solutions says: “Marketers do need to let go of their brands much more. And especially for social media, it is all about letting go of your brand. We educate the client right from the beginning that don’t get into this medium if you want to control everything and don’t want to hear anything negative about your brand. Social media is a platform where people come and give their opinion, vent their anger and share a good experience. So you have to take the positives with the negatives. You will see that most of the brands which are on this medium reflect that they are forward thinking. But the amazing thing is that when you respond to brickbats, the affinity you build for your brand is something that cannot be measured and that’s a huge benefit to the brand.”

Many brands worry how to combat the user generated content (UGC). But according to the communication experts, it is not advisable to combat UGC. Best brand are those that have managed to leverage UGC. Brands can provide the right information and can provide the right environment for people to generate content. If you empower the Internet user or your consumer to actually go and write a blog, upload a picture or a video or some form of UGC, it will have a positive rub-off on the brand.

It is true that one can control negative publicity but only till a point. However, a good reputation management programme will show that there are also a lot of good things spoken about the brand, that doesn’t mean they will try and suppress all the negatives things that are coming in the market but respond smartly.

The beauty of this medium is you know exactly who is making a negative comment and why; and using the technology you can just reply back. And that can make a huge difference in how your brand is perceived. And one of the reasons why social medium is booming in India is because we are a country full of options and that is what makes this medium thrive.