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Ahmed Nassef, Group Vice President and General Manager, Maktoob.com.

Digital media has exploded in popularity over recent years.  To what do you attribute this, and can we expect to see a greater proportion of advertising channelled into the medium in the future?

Digital media is no different in our region than in other parts of the world - we are following the same patterns that we saw take place in North America and Europe.

But as an emerging market, we are running a few years behind due to the lag in internet penetration and PC ownership in parts of our region. However, we are now the fastest growing part of the world in terms of internet audience.

With over 45million internet users, digital media is now a force that can no longer be ignored by companies in virtually any sector. I think that within only two to three years, we will see digital trailing only television and print in GCC advertising spend, and that trend will continue to grow.

Do you think digital media in the GCC in general is raising standards and comparable to those for example in Europe?

The GCC digital landscape is not where it should be. Although we have seen many improvements and some great creative ideas, we still have a long way to go.

In the end, it comes down to the need for regional marketers, their agencies, and digital publishers to each play their role. Marketers need to stop treating digital as a last-minute extension to their print or television campaign and really take advantage of the medium's special interactivity and responsiveness potential.

Agencies need to go beyond tactical campaigns and begin pitching more innovative ideas for interacting with and targeting consumers. Publishers need to be transparent and invest in high-quality content and user community tools.

Is the pitch process here as competitive as elsewhere, or is the competition not so fierce?

It's not easy because we are still fighting to grab market share for digital from the old-time traditional media.

Things are getting a lot better as more and more advertisers are beginning to see the success stories and the fact that they just can't afford to ignore such a massive audience.

But on the other hand, we need more publishers out there banging the drum for digital - sure, it will become more competitive when that happens, but we'll be fighting over a much bigger pie.

Digital media represents good value for money compared with other advertising methods. Have you witnessed an increase in business? What impact do you see the economic situation having on budgets from different industry sectors? How are different clients reacting to the downturn?

Although we have seen the same level of tentativeness and delays in planning that the whole industry has witnessed over the past couple of months, we are beginning to feel a major transformation in terms of eagerness among marketeers to move more and more budgets toward online advertising.

It makes sense - at a time when you are counting every dollar spent, wouldn't you want to spend your money on a medium that is 100% accountable and measurable?

Certain industries in the region have been reticent to move away from traditional tried-and-tested advertising methods such as print. How do you overcome this prejudice? How can digital campaigns disassociate themselves from negative connotations such as spam?

It's all about education and awareness. Very simply, as a company, find out how many of your consumers are online.

With the online audience already at 45million and growing rapidly, the chances are your consumer is online. The next question would be whether you can afford to wait and let your competitor own that space.

The answer to that is an easy one. As far as spam goes, it comes down to delivering the right message to the right customer.

We can do that because we know who our users are - their country, gender, age and profession.

As long as you are not intrusive and as long as you have a customised message that adds value to a consumer, they want to hear what you have to say.

RELATED LINKS: Has online's time come?, Media mogul, Sultan of spin

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