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Online Campaign Planning for Digital Media Part 1: The Shift from Offline to Online Media
- theo5416
- Sep 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 19
When planning a digital media campaign, the first step is understanding how advertising has shifted from traditional offline channels to online platforms. This change has redefined how businesses allocate budgets, reach customers, and measure results. In this post, we will explore why the shift is happening, what it means for different industries, and how businesses can get the balance right between offline and online.
Why the Shift is Happening
Traditional media such as television, print, and outdoor advertising once dominated marketing budgets. But today, digital platforms capture most of people’s attention. In Thailand alone, over 55 million people are digitally connected, spending more than 80% of their time on mobile and PC devices. Despite this, only about 14% of advertising spend has gone to digital channels in recent years.
This gap between consumer attention and brand spending highlights why the shift is so important. Companies that fail to adjust are missing opportunities to connect with customers where they actually spend their time.
Media Mix by Industry
Not every industry transitions to digital at the same pace. The right media mix depends heavily on business models and customer behavior:
E-commerce, streaming, and software often allocate 80% or more of their budgets to digital channels, since their customers are already online.
Automotive, real estate, education, and insurance typically balance their mix around 50/50. These industries still rely on offline trust-building, but digital plays a growing role in research and decision-making.
FMCG, oil, and pharmaceuticals still spend the majority of budgets offline, around 80%, because these products are bought in-store and often driven by mass awareness.
Understanding your industry’s benchmark is a useful guide, but each brand must also analyze its unique audience behavior.
Thailand vs. USA: A Spending Gap
In the United States, digital spending has already surpassed offline in most sectors. But in Thailand, offline spending remains higher even though digital consumption dominates daily life. This lag may come from cultural reliance on traditional channels, slower adoption by large brands, or gaps in digital skills.
For marketers in Thailand, this represents an opportunity. By investing in digital earlier and smarter than competitors, brands can achieve lower costs and higher impact before the market fully catches up.
Getting the Balance Right
There is no universal “correct” media mix. Instead, companies should:
Analyze customer journeys: Are your customers researching online before buying, or do they respond more to mass offline campaigns?
Test and learn: Run smaller digital pilots alongside offline campaigns and measure results.
Shift gradually: Move budget toward the platforms where you see better return, but maintain balance to avoid over reliance on one channel.
For example, a property developer may still need offline billboards to drive credibility, but supplement with search and social ads to capture leads. A fashion retailer might find more efficiency shifting the majority of spend to digital, using offline only for brand reinforcement.
Final Thoughts
The shift from offline to online media is not just a trend — it is a fundamental change in how customers interact with brands. Companies that understand their industry benchmarks, study consumer behavior, and experiment with digital channels will be better prepared to succeed in today’s marketplace.
In the next part of this series, we will look at the building blocks of digital media planning — the key metrics like CPM, CPC, and ROI that every marketer must understand to make data-driven decisions.
If you would like to dive deeper into this session, you can watch the full lecture here:
Want to see how your own digital media mix stacks up? Click below to request a free Insight Audit from AIQ and discover opportunities to optimize your campaigns.
