The rise of mobile devices such as computer tablets and smart phones too is starting to create opportunities for advertisers who will now able to follow their customers throughout the day.

Sci-tech caught up with Shoaib Khalil, the marketing leader at Microsoft Pakistan to talk about the future of online advertising and its trends in general.

Tell us a bit about you and your job description at Microsoft?

I am the marketing leader and my areas of responsibilities include PR, corporate social responsibility and business management, besides the traditional marketing role. Prior to Microsoft I have also worked at SAP and Reckitt Benckiser in both sales and marketing departments.

Over the years I had the opportunity to work with multiple marketing audiences in industries as diverse as consumer goods and public sector and at the same time I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to experiment with both traditional and digital media.

What made you enter this field and what has the experience been like?

Spending many years of my career in sales roles, directly interacting with customers and partners, made me aware of the gap that sometimes exists between sales and organisation's marketing strategy. I also feel that marketing allows you to think strategically and take view of the world that goes beyond the month or the quarter end.

Where do you think the technology is taking us?

During the past few decades' incredible advances in technology have revolutionised the way people around the world communicate, run business, find information and much more. In the coming years, information technology will continue to transform business productivity and have a positive impact on our day-to-day lives. It will also help us address important global challenges related to education, healthcare, energy and other issues.

Who is the potential audience of your company?

Given the breadth of our offerings and technology stack we cater to a diverse audience. On the one hand, our offerings like Windows and Office satisfy the need of consumers, small business and large enterprise alike. Then we have Microsoft Dynamics ERP/CRM and other business solutions for business audiences, while X-Box, Zune and Windows phone are primarily consumer play. We also have extensive programmes under our citizenship, umbrella primarily catering to the needs of underserved communities and geared towards bridging the digital divide in society.

Can you please give us more details on the breadth of media on offer?

A relevant example would be the launch of Windows7 in Pakistan last year where we explored the breadth of digital media and were able to achieve great traction with our audiences along with a healthy ROI.

If I were to list in order of priority it would be engaging the blogger community, viral marketing and live webcasts.

Applications like YouTube, Twitter and social networking sites are immensely popular yet they attract little advertising revenue in Pakistan. And their users are resistant to advertising. What progress is being made to resolve the problem?

Since we are in the early stages of technology adoption, I guess we will see shifts in user attitudes along the way. More and more companies in diverse industries are realising the potential reach of these social networking and video sharing sites and it's just a matter of time before we see advertising revenue flowing in this direction.

The web presents advertisers with a great opportunity to engage in dialogue with consumers. Can you give us a recent example of this kind of activity especially if you can cite a Pakistan example?

If I can stretch your question a little bit I would like to look at what's happening in the online world as response to the most devastating floods that have hit Pakistan. Companies like Microsoft, Google and Yahoo put up disaster response portals (using their online properties) immediately and they were able to link the public with disaster relief operations and NGOs in the field, and people were able to donate online. Today most organisations have some kind of Pakistan flood relief information on their websites.

The print media have had enormous problems monetising their websites. What do you think we can do in this regard? Do you think we can also develop a paid-for model for Pakistan? If not, what's the solution for the publishing industry?

As I mentioned earlier we are at the beginning of the technology adoption curve and it will take time and awareness before we can move in the direction of monetising. Since the traditional newspaper is still popular it would be a big challenge to get people to switch to online version only, and then there is this demographic reality where a big chunk of newspaper readers are in their 40s and 50s who may not like the idea or may not have the necessary know-how required.

Do you think web TV will eventually replace or converge with conventional broadcast TV?

For markets like Pakistan I don't see that happening in the near future.