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WHILE the Internet might have a lot of potential as an advertising medium, web advertising in the Philippines is still a small market due to lack of awareness and skepticism over its effectiveness.

"I think market maturity has a lot to do with it. In other Asian countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, many companies are already spending on Internet advertising, but here it is still just starting to take off," said Linda Lee, market development director for Southeast Asia of I-Quest Corp. HK Ltd. I-Quest is the company behind the business travel portal Worldroom.com at www.worldroom.com and a whole suite of Internet connectivity solutions for hotels such as Worldroom Connect.

"That doesn't mean, however, that there's no future here. It's just a matter of education," added Tina Di Cicco, founding partner and executive vice president of Worldroom.com.

One of the problems is the lack of concrete data on the country's market for web advertising. In a separate interview, an analyst at International Data Corp. Philippines told the Inquirer that her firm's Internet studies on the local market are not yet that active.

"We're still conducting a study," said Zen Perez, Internet research analyst at IDC Philippines. "It hasn't been finalized yet, and we can't make a forecast because we are still at the stage of gathering the data."

Perez told the Inquirer that IDC began conducting the study about a month ago in coordination with a local Internet organization. The market for web advertising in the Philippines would actually just be one of the sections in this report. She said that the report might come out this May.

"We want to get a clear picture to see how big the market for e-commerce really is in the Philippines. It (Internet advertising) will just be a part of this study. Nobody knows the real picture right now," Perez said.

Meanwhile, the account manager for another dotcom company agreed that an information campaign is still needed to convince more companies and their advertising agencies that the web is already a viable advertising medium in the Philippines.

"In the Philippines, Internet advertising is still in its infancy," admitted GoPinoy.com's Ruth Mendiola. "Right now, people are not yet that ready. It's just like before with TV, when it was still not an accepted medium." GoPinoy.com at www.gopinoy.com is a Philippine portal.

According to her, however, some advertising agencies are already seriously exploring how they and their clients could use web advertising as a tool.

"Two weeks ago, we gave a presentation to one of the largest advertising agencies in the Philippines. They asked a lot of questions--not just their own but the concerns of their clients. The bottomline really is education," Mendiola said.

Worldroom.com has also been conducting presentations for media buyers, and this has reportedly generated positive feedback though education is still necessary.

"The media buyers are listening. They're very interested in the potential of web advertising," said Worldroom.com Internet sales manager Val Muñoz.

According to Di Cicco, creating awareness on web advertising in the Philippines is a three-step process.

First, you have to educate the media buyers about the Internet as well as on web advertising terminology.

For example, while they might be familiar with print advertising where you think in terms of column centimeters, the conventional measurement for web banner ads is pixels, with "click throughs" referring to the number of people who click on the ad and get brought to the advertiser's site.

Also, some people get confused over "hits" and "page views." Hits, while a widely used term, is actually a fuzzy concept referring to the number of files downloaded when a surfer clicks on a webpage. This not only includes the actual HTML file, but also other files like the images on that page, meaning several hits can be generated with just one click. Meanwhile, page views (or page impressions) refer to the number of visitors viewing that page. Web advertising rates usually come in CPM or cost per thousand page views or page impressions.

After familiarizing them with the Internet, Di Cicco said that the second step is to show them the value of the web as an advertising medium. Third, of course, would be to convince them of the value of your site. After all, with millions of websites out there, why should they choose yours?

In the end, the effectiveness of web advertising in the Philippines might still be in question, but Di Cicco for one said that it is a medium that most companies would have to seriously explore.