Study: Advertisers are talking past 1.7 billion internet users
Online advertisers should tailor their messaging to specific regional markets and make greater efforts to reach non-English-speaking consumers, according to the findings of the «Untapped Billions» study, which was conducted by the research institute Cebr on behalf of Populis.
Anyone who knows that the slogan "Come in and find out" is misunderstood by most Germans as "Come in and find out again" can imagine that a native-language approach would help many people, Populis said in a press release. The study proved that out of a total of two billion Internet users, only 300 million grew up with English as their mother tongue. However, the vast majority of non-English-speaking users were responsible for 61 percent of global online purchases, spending 262 billion euros in 2010. On average, this group had a purchasing power of 154 euros per capita last year. The purchasing power of English-speaking consumers is still significantly higher at 533 euros per person. However, those who have not grown up with English as their mother tongue are catching up.
It has so far been difficult for agencies to adapt to this trend, the report continues. Advertisers on the internet still tend to focus on the English-speaking population. "Advertisers who needed to target many non-English speaking markets have so far encountered a fragmented media landscape. As a result, reaching these consumers has been complicated and costly," says Luca Ascani, co-founder and CEO of content producer Populis. "Publisher networks, of which we are one, bring together high quality content offerings in multiple languages under one roof. This gives advertisers access to high reach across language barriers in one step."
