I was at the Massive Technology Show today at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It was pretty interesting, though it is only in its first year, so still ramping up from an attendance standpoint (about 200 deligates, compared to 6,000 for the same but more established show in Vancouver).

But, there was an interesting session called “The Clash of the Titans” where representatives from Google, Microsoft/MSN and Yahoo discussed the future of search engines in Canada. At the end, I asked them about what they thought the economic outlook of online marketing was, from an insider’s perspective. I obviously knew they were limited in what they could say due to the nature of the talk, but I wanted to gauge their reactions anyway.

My personal theory, is that from an Economic standpoint, online marketing is an inferior good. I am not trying to insult anyone here (including myself ). An inferior good simply means that if someone’s income goes down, their consumption of that good goes up. For example – people will go to Walmart more in an economic downturn, and there was an article in the New York Times this weekend talking about how people are replacing red meat with pasta. Pasta in this case is the inferior good.

So – even though it is a time of economic downturn, online marketing will be okay or will even excel, since other traditional forms of advertising, such as print, radio or television would be much more expensive. People will be turning to cheaper forms of advertising – the pasta instead of the steak. With online marketing being the pasta.

The “Titans” seemed to agree with my theory – with the Microsoft executive adding that there is still aggressive growth going on in the whole industry, and the Google engineer adding that as consumers spend less, they will be searching more for cheaper alternatives using search engines.

So – long live online marketing! Plus, it has no unsaturated fat to trim bloated budgets (I never liked Atkins anyway ).

As a Canadian E-Marketing Manager, I have worked as a Canadian
sub-division of large American companies, and a Multinational Marketer
for the International head office for a Canadian company. Since
Canadians speak American (I mean… English) the question about whether
or not a Canadian site should be exists, when there is a perfectly good
American site, frequently comes up. I am sure that this is encountered
in other regions of the world that share languages as well.

The main reason why you want a local site is if you can offer something that no one else can offer.
The first question that you have to ask is “would my users and/or
advertisers benefit from having a local site”. Reasons can include:

1. Advertising space is limited. For example, on a high-traffic site, Canadian advertisers can be drowned out by American ones.
2. Product offerings differ by country. A central
   site does not account for differences in distribution or customization
   by country. This can frustrate users who keep seeing what they can’t
   have.
3. Local content is useful. In my experience, I have
   seen a lot of effort put towards creating local content, with rarely a
   reward. One good example of local content that I experienced was
   Canadian healthcare cost savings case studies, since our healthcare
   reimbursement system is dramatically different from the US, it made
   sense to have local studies instead of leveraging theirs.
4. Regional Languages. Sometimes languages differ by
   region. Anyone who has tried to create one site for Quebec and France
   understands this (French is a very rule-bound language, but it is not
   only one set of rules!)

Ultimately I believe that one day new technologies will obviate the
need for local sites. For example, advertisements, content and product
offerings could be served dynamically depending on the location of the
IP address (or language settings), modified slightly to account for
regional language differences. For now, this is still an important
issue.