Thai marketers are aware of digital marketing but many are not brave enough to use it, according to Kent Wertime, the president of OgilvyOne Asia.
Many Thai marketers had an old-fashioned view of Thai consumers, Mr Wertime said at a recent marketing seminar held by the Sasin Alumni Association.
"Marketers think most online users are kids. They have out-of-date information. But you can see how many people in this room connect to digital media. A lot of Thai consumers are very sophisticated," he said, referring to the hundreds of participants using digital devices.
Digital marketing covers not only the Internet, but also mobile phones and fixed-line phones, with more than 10 millions users in Thailand.
Mr Wertime said that digital technology opened up marketing opportunities to businesses of all sizes.
"Noodle shops can run a Web site to promote their product but cannot advertise in Thai Rath," he said.
Thailand is still learning about digital marketing so Web pages are less attractive and effective, but Mr Wertime said Thai marketers were fast learners.
More people these days are spending up to six hours a day on the Internet rather than six hours watching TV, presenting an opportunity, said Ian Fenwick, a professor and adviser to the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration. Global advertising expenditures on traditional media are growing by only 6 percent per year but digital media spending is growing at 63 percent.
In Thailand, 13.4 million users have access to the Internet. But ad spending on the Internet was only 1.1 percent of the 92 billion baht (US$2.56 billion) in total spending, according to the 2008 Media Outlook by Group M, a communication and media agency.
Mr Fenwick said digital marketing was a "tectonic shift" in the way businesses communicate with customers.
Some of these fundamental changes are that consumers now come to product manufacturers (instead of waiting for them to sell products); devices are becoming digital; media are increasingly digital; people's time is increasingly devoted to digital products; and marketing is increasingly spent on digital channels.
Mr Wertime said that since more people were researching products online before they went shopping, marketers must provide more online content.
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