Bangladesh pacing fast towards Online Advertising and Digital Marketing
The digital industry now requires both advertisers and end users to be tech savvy and the smartest of the packs, digital enthusiasts, took advantage into becoming a bridge and create a platform so that the world of digital can survive.
The vocab list for online advertising or digital marketing is expanding day by day and it has become quite a chore when you actually look up for something specifically digital and you are instantly bombarded with maestros having a list of terms that at times confuse more than portraying clarity. Well ! they are not to be blamed. The industry is booming and it is expected to lead all future jobs alone. The developed parts of the world just has not been the pioneer to get digitized or online but also implementing advanced possibilities already. Bangladesh being in the developing part of the world, evidently is still learning digitization.
Quite a number of surveys have been conducted and analytics been published by digital enthusiasts and professionals locally that clearly states that Bangladeshi advertisers have well grabbed the idea and utilizing digital platform at full swing. So What Exactly made them drastically consider going online from sheer offline ? A simple answer would be, advertisers go places where they can find leads.
Before the internet and data era existed, RDCs, TVCs, Newspaper Ads, Magazine Ads, Billboard Ads etc have been the only few options for advertising. People would then use mobile phones (the only fancy gadget back then) just for the purpose of communication. People did not just pay attention on screens and rather looked at road views when travelling looking at billboards, reading newspapers or magazines in the morning over a cup of tea, and watching TV or listening to FM Radio as their favorite leisure time. Then came the era of Internet. The only places people would go for access of internet were Cyber Cafes and browse for limited duration as there were user queues. The condition improved with the implementation of Dial up network and for the very first time people tasted the ownership of remote access. The service was costly and thus usage was limited.
Soon came a breakthrough of Broadband followed by 3G, 4G and finally what i call “The Data Attack.” Honestly, i cannot explain how fast the penetration was and how tactful it was for the vendors to create such a loyal and outnumbered user base. No matter how it was done, it was an era that drove businesses crazy and people are always online. Yes, you read that right. PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS ONLINE. People are busy on their favorite gadget screens. People got busy surfing about stuffs that interested them and everyone’s social networking skills were at peak kind of overnight. They started spending more time in the internet rather than paying attention to billboards, they don’t watch TV much rather download their favorite series or movies and watch them when convenient, they don’t buy magazines like before or newspaper but do get their interest news online.
As mentioned earlier, advertisers go places to find leads, digitization was the only straight way forward for them to get to people with their products and services along with TVCs and all. Our habit of indulging into the digital world was the herald of ‘Digital is the Future.’
According to BTRC report, internet subscribers increased at a steady rate with more than 90% being mobile internet subscribers as of February 2017. Also according to a report by Future Startup the growth of smartphone users marks the pace of digitization in Bangladesh.
No matter how the platform shifted from offline to online, the basic purpose of advertising stayed the same. People visit news portals for news and they see ads, people keep scrolling in their Social media website news feed and see ads along with their friends’ updates, people search a lot and thus search engines have slots for ads as well. It’s no hush hush that more than 90% of Google and Facebook revenue come from advertising, and these two are the most popular avenues availed by businesses.
The digital industry now requires both advertisers and end users to be tech savvy and the smartest of the packs, digital enthusiasts, took advantage into becoming a bridge and create a platform so that the world of digital can survive. A lot of them worldwide has created solution systems that imitate Google and Facebook services and they have been successful. Bangladesh has been one of them too. Lately though, team G&R has successfully created their flagship product, Ad Network, that operates locally and with an added advantage of serving ads in Bengali, is currently competing with GDN. It serves almost similarly to Google AdSense just a way lot local which definitely offers extra benefits to the local advertisers and publishers. Most of the businesses in Bangladesh is for locals and thus G&R Ad Network is like their best friend in local advertising.
Even though we are a lot behind our pioneers in the digital world, it a matter of pride that we are getting technologically authentic. This gives us a push forward to have more innovations that will not only help secure future jobs but also build Bangladesh as a fast moving nation indicating that we are not any less tech savvy.
G&R’s Ad Network is a pro and it has gained traction in the market very quickly. The extra advantage was G&R did not broadcast their presence rather went to advertisers and publishers creating awareness of their product. The idea was so unique and demanding that potential clients requested a detailed session of the product beforehand. Helping the clients understand created awareness to a level that a few decided to advertise via G&R instead of GDN. The success story was already looming and in a time span of only 5 years, they had officially launched 4000+ publishers on board and counting. The crew are now passing busy days with a few other products in their pipeline and they are planning to present the nation with yet another tech product, GoromCha , by the mid of 2017. G&R’s journey with Ad Network is just one of the many inspiring stories that clarifies enthusiasts working hard to make Bangladesh renowned as a technologically driven nation.
