Discuss the phenomenon of digital
media convergence in relation to one of the following: Advertising & New
Media or Music Video Online
The
phenomenon of digital media convergence, along with the emergence of new
digital media in the twenty-first century has presented a number of challenges for
advertising and their ability to engage with mass audiences. The introduction
of the internet and its significantly increasing popularity, has posed large
consequences for advertisers, as the fragmentation of audiences have occurred across
the large range of new media that exists. Mass audiences no longer rely solely
on the television, newspapers or on radio broadcasting to access information
and entertainment content. Rather, consumers today are able to access this
content from multiple technological media nodes, and additionally choose what
and where they access media. This along with the introduction of
multi-channelled subscription television challenges the traditional media methods,
of scheduling what information and entertainment is distributed and when. Consequently,
advertisers have had to adopt a number of new marketing methods and techniques
to reach these audiences, through developing new creative advertising schemes,
brand advertising, advertising through online media and harnessing the
popularity of social media networks in hope of creating a ‘viral video’
campaign. This essay will additionally investigate these various new
advertising techniques through an exploration into the ‘Nike +’ campaign and
their use of new advertising methods.
The traditional media model of advertising to mass audiences
through scheduled times and specific media have had to transform to respond to
the converging nature of media in the twenty-first century. Advertisers must
now embrace the ‘convergence culture’ of the contemporary era (Jenkins, 2006)
and change marketing strategies to address the interactive nature of new media
and target the diversified users of the internet. Jenkins (2006) defines this
convergence culture as, “media convergence, participatory culture and
collective intelligence”. Effectively, as consumers expand to the use of new
media such as the internet and multi-channel subscription (Spurgeon, 2008)
advertisers can no longer take advantage of the scheduling and organised
content of traditional media. Consumers today are less confined than ever
before, and consequently advertisers have had to adapt their techniques to
apply to online media. This fragmentation of audiences is one of the most significant
challenges advertisers face, and has led to the adoption of range of online
marketing methods. Advertisers utilise search engines, such as ‘Google’ and ‘Yahoo!’
to market their product, through attaching advertisements to keyword searches
on Google, in hope of reaching mass audiences (Spurgeon, 2008). Additionally, advertisers
are able to trace the behaviour of users and identify the websites that do
attract mass audiences. Methods such as ‘pay-per click’ (Spurgeon, 2008) have
also utilised this marketing information, attaching advertisements to popular
websites such as social-media networks. These adaptions in response to new
media have been vital to the survival of advertising in the contemporary era,
in order for them to continue to reach the number of consumers they desire.
Contemporary marketing strategies must now dedicate a significant
amount of attention to what consumers respond too, and techniques must be
adapted to engage and attract the attention of these mass audiences. An innovative
technique that has been adopted is the aim to construct a creative video that
will have a viral response amongst social networks, essentially to achieve a ‘viral
campaign’. This was developed following the shift of power from industries to
the consumer (Spurgeon, 2008) as consumers today play a significant role in
defining what campaign will be successful and what will not. Marketing
strategies rely on the contemporary nature of the consumer to, as Deuze (2006)
refers to “bricolage”. That is, the distribution, “remixing” and recreating of
media messages among their own personalised networks. Essentially, through this
consumers take on the job of distribution through social Medias such as YouTube,
Facebook and Twitter, and are able to reach the large mass audiences that
traditional methods of advertising are not able too. This method has proven to
be an extremely efficient campaigning strategy, as well as highly cost
effective in terms of marketing schemes and in relation to traditional schemes.
However, despite the effectiveness of these campaigns, they also present
challenges, and the success of a viral video cannot be predetermined.
Advertisers must thus, harness the behaviour of consumers and aim to recreate the
techniques of advertisements that have previously been successful. Contemporary
examples of these techniques include the use of parody, such as the 'Durex Condom Commercial advertisement
from 1997 which gained over a million hits on YouTube, and became an extremely successful
campaign. Another technique that has proven successful is the use of modern
digital and visual effects used within advertisments such as 'The Evian' commerical, that digitalised dancing babies. Product
placement and brand also plays a significant role in advertisement today, as
advertisers utilise films, television programs and music videos to indirectly
promote their product. This shift of power from industries to consumers has
evidently, caused significant developments from traditional forms of advertisement
in response to new media.
A crucial
contemporary advertising example of a campaign that has utilised the various facets
of attracting a mass modern audience is encapsulated within the ‘Nike +’
Campaign .This is an example of product branding and
entertainment alliance. It is the merging of two extremely popular brands in
the marketing of a product. Essentially the combined product is a combination
of the Apple IPod Nano and Nike Runners, to combin two individually successful
products and create an innovative product that appeals to the new media
environment. The product is created to “enhance the running experience”, a
wireless device that records “exercise efforts, including running duration,
distance and energy consumption” (Spurgeon 2008). However additionally, a website is created to
support the production and essentially to create a social network and community
surrounding the new product. This technique significantly encourages, the uses
of new media as it incorporates marketing techniques of utilising social media,
the power of the consumer creating a network around the product and encourages
consumers to purchase other products associated with these two brands.
Additionally it includes the incorporation of Google maps, allowing consumers
to map their running routes (Spurgeon, 2008). This campaign provides a
particularly significant example of how new advertising techniques have adapted
in a new environment to continue to reach a mass audience in this contemporary
areas
It is thus,
highly evident that with the emergence and convergence of media today,
marketing and advertisement techniques have had to be highly developed in order
to survive. Following the fragmentation of audiences, across multiple nodes of
new media, creative techniques of production and distribution had to be
incorporated into marketing strategies in order to continue to reach the mass
audiences. Additionally with the increasingly reducing constraints on
consumers, advertisers had to adapt to marketing through online media in order
to remain successful. The Nike and Apple campaign illustrates both the new adaptive
techniques as well as the potential success of this technique in reaching a
mass audience.
References
Deuze, M. (2006) “Participation, remediation,
bricolage: Considering principal components of a digital culture,” Information
Society, volume 22, number 2, pp. 63–75.
Jenkins, H.
(2006) ‘Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide’, New York, New York
University Press, pp. 1-24
Sheehan, K & Morrison, D. (2009) ‘Beyond convergence:
Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world’,
in First Monday, vol 14 no 3 <http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121>
Spurgeon, C.
(2008) ‘Advertising and New Media’, Oxon, Routledge, pp. 24-45
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