Page 37 - Sphere No.9 (Sep 2003)

down quickly and put up a new version if
it doesn’t work. This is very useful to
advertisers who want to try out different
campaigns within a limited budget.”
This high-speed, quantifiable response
has proved especially interesting in an
unexpected sphere: opinion polls.
The Hong Kong University of Science
& Technology last year placed an online
survey with the ESDlife portal, parallel to
a similar survey conducted in South
Korea and Japan.
It was a hefty poll, with over 200
questions, so there was a “lucky-draw”
incentive. The response was remarkable:
ESDlife registered 16,000 qualified
entries within just a few days.
Since then, two more surveys have
been conducted with equally impressive
responses.
ESDlife’s reputation of being highly
cost-effective enables it to develop happy
and long-term relationships with
advertisers. “We’re very pleased with the
e-services up and running, e-commerce
has developed in tandem.
“First we built a high-quality customer
base through the government services. It
helped familiarise the public with
Internet cash transactions and convince
them that e-transaction is safe and
convenient,”Tony explains.
“People now accept the e-government
service is reliable. They also recognise
Hutchison as a trusted Hong Kong
company. Together we have a very
powerful brand.”
Because people are motivated to visit
the website, ESDlife’s parallel
e-commerce business is a big attraction.
“We don’t offer free entertainment or
news,” says Tony. “Our 1.3 million
visitors a month come for a reason.They
want to get married, book tennis courts
or whatever. So if tennis balls are
promoted alongside tennis court
bookings, we are confident of reaching a
genuine potential customer. Anyone
who books a tennis court is usually in
the market for buying tennis balls. Just
like anyone booking a wedding is bound
to be interested in wedding banquet
offers, or honeymoon bargains.”
M AKING IT CLICK
In addition to its proven and attractive
e-commerce opportunities, ESDlife has
also seen an unusually good response to
its online advertising business.
The “click rate” for banner advertise-
ments at ESDlife is much higher than the
industry average. Furthermore, and as a
direct result of the high click rate, the
portal has defied a general advertising
slump. The number of advertisers more
than doubled last year amidst very
difficult economic conditions.
“It’s because we deliver value,” says
Tony. “Not only do we talk about our
traffic, but the quality of our traffic.
Visitors to our website are mainly well
educated and possess greater than average
spending power. The provision of
different public services also enables us to
reach target customers effectively.You can
advertise something on TV or in print
but not everyone who sees it is your
target customer. On ESDlife we know
what customers need and deliver the
right message to them and therefore the
response rate is always impressive.
“Online advertising can also adapt very
quickly to a market.We can respond to an
advertiser’s needs by setting up an advert
and putting it online in only two days.We
can judge the response and we can take it
S PHERE
35
Of the 35,000 marriages a year in Hong Kong, approximately 85%
are now booked online.