Online Advertising is a Win-Win Situation

September 27th, 2008 in Online Marketing- Middle East

As Internet usage in the Middle East becomes more and more popular, online advertising is also growing. We talk to Husni Khuffash, Google’s country business manager for the UAE, about the benefits of online ads and whether they invade people’s privacy.

What state is the regional online advertising industry in?

I have been with online advertising for 11 years, and in that period, it’s picked up big time. When we started, we went to companies to talk about online advertising budget, and many of them had no idea what we were talking about. Now any decent company, big or small, understands the importance of online strength. Today there is a lot of understanding among agencies and clients about online advertising and communicating through the Internet.

What are the strengths of online ads?

Firstly, they can measure your campaigns; no other media in the world can effectively do that.

Secondly, there’s cost effectiveness. That’s because at the end of the day you know whom you are targeting and what their expectations are.

Next, there’s flexibility. You can start the campaign and stop it at any time, and also expand it across different countries if necessary.

And lastly, there’s the cost of production of the ad. If you want to do a TV commercial, it will cost millions, whereas online ads don’t cost as much.

Anybody looking at cutting costs, and at the same looking for maximum reach, which is targeted, can use this medium.

Is Google’s advertising content-related?

It’s not only content-related; we also use our search technology. Take for example a male guy, around 20 years old, who is looking for the new fighting Wii game release. This is what we call the magic moment in Google. We see the exact product he is looking for, at that exact time from a particular place. So we can show the ads of a shop near his location, which sells that same product.

We can capture the user when he is looking for you, it’s not like he is passing by [billboards on] Sheikh Zayed Road and may see your ad.

But does that amount to breaching the privacy of an individual?

Just to assure you that no one person in Google is sitting and serving ads or reading e-mails. It is an automated solution. Suppose you, as a user, would like to buy a new car. You then go and check it out online. When you search online, Google not only gives you the information, but also serves you the relevant ad.

What we have is a beautiful concept because I get exactly what I want.

This is a win-win-win situation. We are trying to give you what you are looking for, the advertiser is happy because he can reach out to his customers and the user is happy because he gets what he wants immediately without wasting too much time.

On the other hand, I am not interested in Pampers, but am shown the ad on TV. I think that breaches my privacy.

Considering the regional market, do you have to follow any censorship?

We are a very responsible company about what we communicate. For example, across the world we don’t advertise alcohol. We have our principles, and in fact we put more restrictions on ourselves than even local companies do.

Secondly, we look at what’s right and wrong in general. Like the issue of child porn. We don’t allow ads related to child porn anywhere. We always respect the laws of the country.