Advertising and New Media
The way in which society has been using
media has rapidly changed in the past decade. Since the introduction and
accessibility of the Internet, society has shifted into a post-broadcast era;
seeing the decline of newspaper circulation, TV audiences, and advertising
revenues. This era has simultaneously seen the rise of traditional media and
audiences expanding online (Dwyer 2010:3).
The phenomenon of digital media convergence can be understood by
analyzing the ways in which new media and advertising change and adapt as
digital convergence continues to develop.
The change in the method in which people
are viewing and interacting with media via the Internet has caused the
‘flattening’ of all media ‘silos’; where once TV and newspapers were two
distinct categories, they have now been opened. The convergence of traditional
media and the Internet has resulted in the evolution of new media audiences and
the rise of new media forms (Dywer 2010: 14). An example of this is the
development of informational advertising via Internet search engines,
predominately Google. In recent years, Google and other renowned search
engines, have transformed into new, globally significant and, increasingly
locally relevant, advertising-funded media services and institutions (Battelle
2005 as cited in Spurgeon 2008).
Google
is a perfect example of convergence culture, where the power of the media
producer and the power of the media consumer interact (Jenkins 2006). The ‘new
millennium market’ is now individualized, highly differentiated and
increasingly flexible, advertisers have to either adapt or die (Khamis, Dr. S.
Lecture 4). Advertisers can no longer rely on TV advertisements as the best
means for reaching the largest audience, due to the development of recording
devices and the increasing popularity of downloading pirated TV series.
Therefore many advertisers have shifted their attention to capturing a share of
the online market, and are now probing into the new ‘search culture’. However,
in order to successfully reach the online media consumers an advertiser must be
able to provide the audience with a creative and refreshing tactic. This is as
a result of the new era of consumer sovereignty reborn by the Internet. The
concept of consumer sovereignty refers to the idea that online users are harder
to reach as they have fragmented, become less defined and now have the power to
decide how, what and when they consume (Khamis, Dr. S Lecture 4 2012). The
power that search based publication extends to end users in their every day
lives, has accounted for the rapid development and the transformation of online
advertising.
Search based marketing confirms the
importance of the informational value of advertising (Spurgeon 2008) and it
provides a significantly higher chance of the advertiser capturing it’s desired
consumers attention. Online advertising expenditure now exceeds outdoor, cinema
and magazine advertising. This can be attributed to the fact that search based
media allows advertiser information to become highly discoverable and digestible,
resulting in a higher chance of a transaction occurrence.
Google now generates income from a number
of advertising and marketing services (Spurgeon 2008). Google’s innovative
method for pricing and selling inventory is called ‘keyword auctioning’. This
auction mechanism revolutionizes pricing advertising inventory for all media.
Spurgeon states “Such a system would
optimize advertiser access to highly desirable, self-selecting market segment
across all media…” Marketers are becoming increasingly interested in search
engine advertising due to its considerable low risk association. Marketers can
gain a clear insight as to whether their advertisements were successful by
measuring the amount of ‘clicks’ it recieved. These ‘clicks’ are considered a qualified
lead as one can be certain that the person who clicks on the listing was truly
interested and looking to purchase, hence why they have clicked on the listing.
Society is online now more than ever
before, since the introduction of Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) in 1997,
offering Internet over mobile phones (Goggin 201: 253). The notion of a new
democratized media is seen predominately through the growth of networked media
sites such as YouTube (Burgess & Green 2009:36). YouTube is a ‘User-generated’
media form which features predominately video hosting, including not only the
media that users create but also new or remixed of already available media,
incorporating comments, blogs, posts and rating that users contribute to media
they access. The speed that videos travel on YouTube is due to the ease at
which the address of any clip can be made available (Lister, Dovey, Giddings,
Grant & Kelly 2009:226, 227). The profound popularity of YouTube has
resulted in the growth of branded entertainment. As stated by Spurgeon,
“Branded entertainment perpetuates the blurring of the distinction between
commerce and art, popular culture and public culture.” Branded entertainment
has seen the movement of advertisers and marketing agents away from traditional
media and toward innovative media forms such as YouTube. For example, big brand
names such as Dove, have experimented with online media in order to receive a
more direct response from its audience.
‘Evolution’, a short film by Dove, was part
of the company’s ‘Beauty Campaign’. First launched on YouTube, the
film-advertisement received 2 million views in the first two weeks and over 6
million now. It was featured on Ellen, The View, The Today Show, Good Morning
America, BBC Breakfast and many more. According to Janet Kesten, a co-chief
creative officer for Dove, its media value is estimated at 150 million. She
also states that its “aim was to promote the Dove Self-Esteem Workshops, which
sold out in Canada in minutes.” ‘Evolution’ does not feature any Dove products,
therefore viewers do not view the ad as more advertisement ‘clutter’ but rather
an enjoyable, creative and thought provoking short film. The aim of ‘Evolution’
was to promote dialogue and that is exactly what it did and more. The success
of Doves ‘Evolution’ can also be seen in the large number of ‘Evolution
parodies’ that resulted, most notably the ‘Slob evolution parody’.
The ‘Slob evolution’ mimics the original
version, with the same music, introduction and structure, however the message
has been dramatically changed. In order for a parody to be successful,
audiences must be familiar with the original. This parody indicates the
familiarity of the original to a great extent, thus highlighting the success of
the original. This particular parody received nearly 4 million views.
The past decade has seen a vast shift in
the way society consumes media since the vast availability of the Internet.
Society in the post-broadcast era, are no longer loyal to older mediums such as
newspapers or TV networks but are turning to the Internet to source information
and entertainment needs (Barkat, Hart & Salazar 2009:404). The ‘search
culture’ that drives media today and sites such as YouTube blur the distinction
between the viewer and producer, amateur and professional. As digital
convergence continues to develop, new media and advertising continue to adapt.
These changes have seen new trends develop in advertising such as the rise of marketing
via search media. Search media shorten the length of the transaction funnel-
the point between learning about a particular good or service and actually
buying it. Most importantly, search media optimize informational advertising by
enhancing its discoverability and relevance (Spurgeon 2008). The phenomenon of
digital media convergence can be clearly seen in the development of the new era
of ‘search culture’ and the ways in which advertising has changed and adapted
in order to keep up with its new-millennium market.
Reference List:
Dwyer, T. (2010) Media Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berkshire.
Spurgeon,
C. (2008) Advertising and New Media, Oxon, Routledge, pp 24-45.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where New and Old Media Collide, New York
University Press
Khamis, Dr, S. (2012) Advertising and New
Media, Lecture given at Macquarie University, NSW.
Goggin, G. (2010) “The Internet, Online and
Mobile Communications and Culture” in Cunningham, S., The Media and Communications in Australia, Third Edition, ed.
Turner, G., Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Burgess, J. & Green, J. (2009) “YouTube
and the Mainstream Media” in Youtube:
Digital Media and Society Series, Polity Press, Cambridge. (Recommended
Reading)
Lister, M.,
Dovey, J., Giddings, S., Grant, I., & Kelly, K. (2009) New Media: A Critical Introduction,
Second Edition, London N/Y: Routledge.
Kesten,
Janet. "Creativity Online." 2007 Creativity Award Grand Prize
Winner: Dove "Evolution" N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2012.
<http://creativity-online.com/news/2007-creativity-award-grand-prize-winner-dove-evolution/119085>
Embedded Videos:
2.
‘Slob Evolution’, Evolution
parody, Accessed 24/08/2012
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