It was startling last November to read that spending on online advertising in the UK had for the first time surpassed spending on TV advertising. This watershed was more incredible given how far behind Ireland is in terms of adoption of Digital Marketing. Spend is the ultimate litmus test of where an industry is in terms of its embrace of a particular channel. And while we await propper figures from the IAB I would like to gaze into my crystal ball and predict that spend on digital marketing in Ireland as a percentage of advertising budgets still won’t pass 10%.

Why do I make this prediction? For digital marketing to spend in Ireland to come anywhere near UK levels we must overcome 3 hurdles.

1. GRADUATES CAN’T WALK THE WALK
My own college education provided me with scant practical experience.(Not surprising since I studied history) It seems little has changed since I graduated in the early nineties. Recent marketing graduates who attend the Digital Marketing Institute courses know absolutely nothing about digital marketing. It isn't even covered in the curriculum of their marketing degrees. (Please Shout if its included in yours)
3rd level colleges and institutions need to urgently engage with the Digital Marketing Industry to bring expertise and practical skills into the classroom. Digital Marketing Institute has approach and is in discussion with several colleges with a view to getting graduates access to practical and relevant skills.

2. BROADBAND IS STILL A MESS
According to the governments Next Generation broadband consultation paper released last year, our broadband strategy has been very successful with broadbandtake-up in Ireland is nearly at 1.3 million subscribers. These broadband penetration stats are the most often cited by the government to prove that they are doing something about broadband. However these figures are pig in a poke and hide the awful truth about Ireland's broadband infrastructure.

There are 3 aspects to broadband infrastructure...Cost, Quality and Availability.

Cost is still at rip-off levels. Quality is so low it almost doesn't even constitute broadband and Availability is still hamstrung by Eircom bought and sold 5 times in the past 10 years; a fiscal basket case that is loaded with debt and not investing in infrastructure at anything like the rate that a smart-economy needs.

Even the sluggish and toothless Telecoms Regulator is finally coming around to the truth and recently admitted that the development of a high-speed broadband system might take between three and five years and may not be in time to satisfy the country's smart-economy requirements. Com Reg pointed to a recent New Zealand study which claimed that next-generation broadband could deliver a 1.3pc annual boost to gross domestic product.

Eamon Ryan, minister for communications says that the government is relying on the private sector to fund the development of broadband infrastructure. This investment did not happen throughout Ireland's boom times and it certainly wont happen in the downturn.

3. ADVERTISING AND PR AGENCIES STILL DON'T GET IT!
We are approached on a weekly basis by companies who tell us that their Ad and PR agencies simply don't get the web. The current constraints on advertising budgets and even greater need to prove that the spend is working creates a perfect environment for the use of Digital Marketing. Ad agencies are battling 3 things.

Lack of Skills.
Again like the graduates from earlier there was little investment in Education during the boom so people with 20 years marketing experience are floundering when it comes to the web.the Digital Marketing Institute is providing both scheduled and customised course and working closely with Advertising and PR agencies to re skill their staff.

Swimming against established networks.
Any ad or pr person can quickly book a radio ad or a TV slot or a print supplement, they have the contacts, they know what’s involved, they understand the time it takes and what they can charge and how much they can make. The Internet is a new channel for ad agencies who sat on the laurels of the celtic tiger and didn't prepare for the shake out. Staff in agencies looking to use the web have to forge new paths and networks in order to deliver value to the customer and revenue to themselves.
Ad agencies are floundering when it comes to establishing new lines of revenue based on Digital Marketing.

Start at the Top
One of the key goals of most people who attend the Diploma in Digital Marketing was summed up brilliantly by a student recently, he said "we want to be able to have an intelligent conversation about the web" We have adopted is as one of our own key goals in providing training in this field. Thankfully we are seeing more and more senior management from companies and agencies of all sizes attend our courses. All change comes form the top down and this key constituency of senior management and business owners are linchpins in the successful adoption of Digital Marketing in Ireland


The Digital Marketing Institute runs Diploma Courses in Digital
Marketing. (12 Week Part Time or 1 Week full time Boot Camp)
Advanced course are also provided.
Call Peter on 01 2711816
peter@digitalmarketinginstitute.ie
www.digitalmarketinginstitute.ie

Ian Dodson