Brave New Digital World Still Needs Old Skills and Knowledge.

LONDON -- Digitisation is changing the world dramatically but many of the basics of business will still apply. That's the message that came from the keynote speaker platform on the second day of Internet World 2007.

Speaking to an audience of more than 500 business managers, Mark Howe, the UK sales director for Google, said the internet and digital media offered exciting new tools to marketers but they still needed to do the basics right. "You still need to reach the customer at the right time, at the right place with an offer that will engage them in an interaction," he said.

And the opportunity for advertising was growing quickly. "30 billion dollars was spent online last year, in the UK the spending per capita was PS1000 and that is expected to rise 30-40% this year. Yet only 12% of total media spend is on the internet. That is well behind the time spent on line and so the advertising pound will follow," he said.

He also warned that marketers need to use the internet as a marketing channel and not just for sales. "The act of clicking is an act of interactive engagement so the landing pages are critical and have to be good," said Howe.

This theme was taken up by Rod Henwood, the new business director of Channel 4, who said there is "a broadcast revolution being played out before our eyes" with on demand broadcasting where viewers download programmes that were recently aired or from the back catalogue. He said this was turning "viewers into customers" but for the channel to succeed in this new world it needed to play to its traditional strengths in areas like programming and building relationships with viewers.

Loic LeMeur, the executive vice president of weblog software company, SixApart and blogging evangelist, revealed that the phenomenon is just the traditional art of having a conversation with friends but without traditional limitations of time and place. He added that they are an opportunity for companies to develop relationships with their market but it isn't yet being exploited.

"In the old days products were developed in secret, tested on a small group then launched. But with blogging you can involve your customers directly in development and bring in their ideas," he said. "I am very disappointed by the focus that large companies have in seeing it as a gadget and they are afraid of it. My advice is to find the top 10 bloggers in your area and read them every day. If they criticise you, answer them - do not hide negative stuff because it is impossible."

Internet World continued to be a strong draw for the industry with thousands of visitors on the second day attracted by the high quality content programme and a need to find out more about the potential for their businesses. It also reflects the re-emergence of the internet as a business tool.

Several exhibitors used the show as a platform to launch their innovations.

* NQcontent, the web content management company, introduced Jumptags - a bookmarking web service to allow users to collect, store and share on line resources, services and information. The company describes it as "the next generation productivity tool".

* 3B revealed a three dimensional entertainment experience where users can design and build their personalised space displaying content such as from MySpace or Bebo, friends' web pages and photos on flickr.

* Server Monitoring announced ipPatrol at the show, a new monitoring solution that alerts users of problems to their sites or their servers and so increasing site availability.

And in industry news at the show, Escenic announced it has sold its web publishing solution to News International for all of its web titles including Times Online. In a separate deal its partner Sapient has sold a web content management system to News International for all of its sites.

The show continues for its third and final day today at Earls Court 2. Next year's show is from the 29th April - 1st May 2008. Look forward to seeing you there.