The phrase “thinking out of the box” is a cliché but for the past year, that is exactly what advertising and marketing people have been forced to do, what with most people confined to their homes and glued to their computer or smartphone screens.
Itamar Gero, chief executive officer of Axadra Ventures, the parent company of SEO provider and digital marketing firm Truelogic Inc., has outlined the trends related to businesses in 2021.
First, Google has prioritized desktop search for decades but now the search engine crawls, indexes and ranks web pages via smartphone user agents.
“This makes sense. Statcounter Global Stats’ report on Desktop vs. Mobile vs. Tablet Market Share worldwide in March 2021 shows a 54.22 percent market share for Mobile vs. Desktop’s 42.93 percent,” said Gero.
His recommendation is for businesses to consider their mobile ad campaigns that appear on Google Search, Google Discover, as well as social media platforms.
“Attend to your link building strategies around your mobile web site silo, but you should still have inbound links to your web site’s desktop version.”
Based on Statista, global ad spending in the digital advertising market is expected to grow 12.2 from 2020-2021 to $398,762 million (or $398.7 trillion).
“It’s not a surprise that search advertising will earn a 43 percent share of $171,641 million,” said Gero.
About 6.95 billion people around the world were mobile phone users in 2020 and this is expected to reach 7.1 billion this year. Search engine optimization and search engine marketing (SEM) will be more important than ever, as consumers look to bank, shop, send money and find the most current information on businesses they want to transact with.
A big SEM trend in 2021 is video advertising.
“Big brands used to traditional TV advertising, Out of Home [OOH] or Digital Out of Home [DOOH] had to take a long, hard look at their budget allocations in 2020. In the Philippines, one week after the May 2020 shutdown of ABS-CBN’s free-to-air operations, average TV viewership levels dipped 24 percent to 30 percent. Restricted mass movement and the ban on large gatherings also reduced widespread exposure to outdoor advertising,” said Gero.
Fast-moving consumer goods went to YouTube with uninterrupted 15-second ads or launching short, highly memorable campaigns in YouTube’s six-second bumper ad format.
To support businesses, Google and YouTube welcome DIY videos and have even offered their own tool: the YouTube Video Builder.
If you are a PPC (pay-per-click) advertiser, it means you are a click away from a soft or hard conversion, whether it’s a sign-up, inquiry, or link to a product that can be purchased online.
“Call-to-Action overlays can lead clicks to products, services, or other landing pages of your choice,” said Gero.
Another big trend is PPC advertising.
“This has gone social in a big way. Paid media specialists and ad buyers are spending on Facebook and Instagram advertising—and have many new platform options for display ads and remarketing. Advertisers can stop worrying [at least for now] about ad-blockers; it’s paid social’s biggest advantage over display ads,” said Gero.
This means businesses can easily advertise online without too much supervision. E-commerce businesses can use this development to promote ads on hundreds or thousands of products.
This also means opening the door to “programmatic PPC advertising optimization.”
Other developments, said Gero, include reduced access to search term information and the move toward event-focused analytics.
RESTORING TELCO SERVICES AFTER A TYPHOON
WHEN Capt. Joel Alviar and Capt. Noelo Albano were called upon by Pacific Global One Aviation (PG1) to prepare for a critical mission on November 3, 2020, they didn’t know what to expect. A few days before that, Super Typhoon Rolly had unleashed its full fury on Bicol, flattening the province of Catanduanes. Rolly cut off the province from the rest of the country after it downed communication facilities.
“All pilots were alerted, and all air assets were prepared for the flight mission. We were put on standby and told to be ready to go once cleared,” said PG1 director of operations, Capt. Joel Alviar. He was the company’s chief pilot then.
PLDT and Smart mobilized all available resources to restore services in the area. While there were available equipment and personnel who were willing to go to Catanduanes, the question was how? In the midst of a raging pandemic and travel restrictions, PLDT tapped its aviation unit, PG1, to carry out the mission. That fateful flight on November 3, 2020 almost didn’t happen because of logistical challenges, health concerns and limited availability of aviation fuel in the Bicol region.
“We were scheduled to depart around 12nn to 1pm. But there was a big problem: there was no aviation fuel available for us in Legazpi City, Albay. All supply had been reserved for the Philippine Air Force,” said Alviar. The two pilots didn’t give up. By contacting friends and former colleagues in the Air Force, they were able to strike a fuel supply deal with the PAF.
“The Philippine Air Force lent us three drums of aviation fuel which we were able to replenish in three days. Because of the PAF’s generosity, we were able to take off for Catanduanes,” explained said Alviar.
Just before sunset, the Bell 429 carrying Smart senior engineer Orlando Cubacub and equipment landed in Virac, Catanduanes.
The two pilots spent the night in Legazpi City, Albay before ferrying other personnel and more equipment back to Virac the following morning.
Because of the critical missions flown by Alviar and Albano, Smart became the first carrier to restore mobile services in Catanduanes, less than a week after Rolly battered the province.
“We established a signal at 8:42 am of November 4. We were the first to restore mobile services after Super Typhoon Rolly,” said Smart senior engineer Orlando Cubacub.
Other than the special mission to Catanduanes, PG1 air assets were also tapped to fly healthcare personnel and medical supplies across the hospital network of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. all over the country to augment the workforce and replenish stocks in critical locations.