CJRW: Online Advertising Is The Future
By Xuan Huynh
Lemke Ledger Staff
The advertising business is looking outside of traditional media and exploring alternatives within the digital realm.
The vice president of the Little Rock-based firm Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods (CJRW) told Dr. Jan Wicks’ Media Planning classes to look into the future. Brian Kratkiewicz, vice president and director of media, interactive, and account services for CJRW, offered the company's outlook on the importance of online advertising and the explosion in the use of social media.
“We’re presenting what you need to know [about today’s advertising]. The bottom line is this: we’re experts. Let us do it for you. We will prove what we’re talking about and what we can do,” Kratkiewicz said.
Brian Kratkiewicz, vice president of Little Rock-based Cranford Johnson Robinson
Woods, says social media sites are becoming an important marketing tool that
future marketing professionals can tap into.
— Photo provided
There is an increase in online ad spending and ad share, Kratkiewicz said. Video advertising is becoming very popular. He talked specifically about CJRW’s work with the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. He summarized the different types of advertising employed to bring awareness to the Web site — from banner ads across Web sites to ads that appear on cell phones.
Kratkiewicz switched focus from the how-to of online marketing to the exponential growth of social media, which could be utilized for marketing today.
“Social media is digital media that allows people to add their input, influence, opinions, comments and feedbacks,” Kratkiewicz said. “It allows for interaction.”
Thirty-five percent of adult Internet users now have a profile on at least one social network in 2008, he said, a huge increase from 8 percent in 2005. Social networks include the ever-popular Facebook and Myspace. There are more than 200 million users on Facebook, with 4 million daily mobile users, according to Nielsen ratings and Facebook Direct.
The cost per thousand to advertise on Facebook is about 50 cents, Kratkiewicz said. The advertiser can design ads on the Facebook Web site for the right side of the screen with certain demographics being targeted. Whether the audience is male or female, young or old, the advertiser has control over who views the advertisement.
Other forms of social media include Loopt, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Blogger, TypePad, Trip Advisor, Wikipedia and Digg.
“Most ad agencies are finding new and innovative ways to reach people, using what works from both traditional and nontraditional media. It is important to keep learning, to keep up with the daily changes. We’re not going back to what was but looking forward to what’s next,” Wicks said. “We cannot predict technology, but we can adapt principles learned so you can be ready for work.”
On the social technology ladder, those who are considered the “inactives”— people who are untouched by social technologies — shrank from 44 percent to 25 percent, Kratkiewicz said.
“Who handles social media? The interactive department? The media department? The PR department?” Kratkiewicz asked.
His answer? They all do.
The lines of promotion and marketing get fuzzier as technology advances, he said.
Kratkiewicz has been with CJRW since September 1997. He has worked with Taco Bell in Irvine, Calif., and Grey Advertising in both Huntington Beach, Calif., and New York City. He graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in advertising.