Convergence culture and new media has significantly risen in a new wave capturing contemporary methods, ideas and practices. Marketing is an example where modern techniques have been employed to ultimately engross and capture target audiences. Advertising campaigns heavily rely on consumer culture and in this notion, marketing strategies must employ tactics to create appeal, thus have a positive outcome from the campaign. Advertisers must embrace a new world and thus engage with those who embrace and seek to participate in a cyber world. Today the Internet provides mediums for marketing and advertising that engages and seeks to change public discourse about a product. Social media sites such as Facebook capture media convergence in terms of technological and marketing convergence.
In an innovative and rapidly changing world, marketing is required to comprehend and appreciate a new, more creative style to create appeal. Today advertising campaigns have heavily shifted from the norms of a product simply highlighting the ‘needs, wants, and functions’ and delves into an arena of entertainment. A modern audience is somewhat compelled by an increasing movement into entertainment rather than information. In this notion, there has been a shift from forwardly providing information about the product and its value to an entertaining, thus more intriguing advertisement where the product is only known at the end of the advertisement. Entertainment value in advertisements provides a challenge to converge music, script and scenery and is consequently a result in a increasing artistic campaigns not only to engage a target audience but to interact. Hence, this add replicates an entertainment value for a mobile phone brand, captures the audience with music and voice over, and the audience can interact using their iPhones and app ‘Shazam’ to enter a competition.
In this particular add, it is clear that they have encompassed forms of new media and attempted to reach into the public sphere of participatory culture. The advertisement itself is about the convergence of video and camera on a cellular phone and in this analysis media convergence becomes relative. The advertising techniques demonstrate how companies manipulate new media, aim to involve viewers with other forms of media and thus, the sales of a product become successful.
Participatory culture is now embedded in our lifestyle and marketing in effect, adheres to address audiences and consumers in their campaigns. The demand for hearsay and interaction whether it be verbal or social networking calls for advertisers to form new techniques where audiences can enact on a process of watching, understand, comprehending, involving and sharing. Additionally advertising is vastly stepping away from the straight just information of a product and persuasiveness of why one should purchase it, but in contrast looks to broaden an indirect involvement with responders through all types of new media outlets. (Sheenhan,2009).
Marketing has always involved brands, slogans and logos that acts as representation for a certain brand. Branding acts as a safety net for consumers to know that what they purchase will be the same, providing the satisfactory element. In a new media world, logos need to work harder to engage, entertain and satisfy a consumer audience. One could question as to how do brands resonate with customers before they even try the product. This is an area where marketing and convergence of new media combined to engage prior to trying a product. Attempting to resonate a brand is highly prevalent in food for example where consumers need assertion about a brand before they attempt it. The following clip is an example of where an advertisement has attempted to establish themselves as a reliable brand of bread.
In this add, ‘Tip top’ attempts to establish their brand through the use of jingle. Jingles highly resonate with audiences and interact with audiences of a different platform. The jingle becomes a form of logo and appears In most other Tip Top adds. The jingle not only is catchy but aims to entertain and promote the brand subconsciously to the consumer. The branding is also portrayed in the add and is a logo reminder of the bread.
Branding and new media work in cohesion with consumers, as they are able to share and create a public sphere around a certain product. Consumers, particularly in Australia have sought to take on humorous campaigns and products that a somewhat of a novelty to purchase. In this analogy, branding becomes important alongside convergence media as a traditional form of advertising is incorporated with new form of entertainment and humor. Snuggie is a brand for example that Australians have embraced. The product is evidently almost absurd, however the brand has rather echoed in consumers ears making the brand successful.
Consumers have then attempted to reincarnate and add the comical and outrageous commentary to the brand. It is this technological advance of voice over that new media can change the whole prospect of a brand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48ypbqa-H1Q
Advertisers have launched at the enormous online participation of the Internet and new media and as a result, have attempted to engage a target market of those who are apart of a cyber culture. The internet provides and new dimension where users are subjected to advertising as a apart of their online social interaction with the world. Facebook is an outlet that resembles the trend of advertising infiltrating our networking. Online advertising plays a whole new role in that more power is put on the consumer. A consumer is able to read an advertisement but they themselves have the power to click and enact about more information. Tools such as, music and film suddenly become alienated but and traditional billboard advertising is reinstated. Instead the a visual image, or short questions of rhetoric and other traditional marketing methods are employed. However is it different in the fact that it is displayed on the new wave media screen with the involvement of social networking?
What the public sphere doesn’t know is that there is a degree of personalization where consumers are specifically target marketed in terms of gender and age. For example women may have clothes add campaigns where as men may have sporting activities tickets or men’s apparel.
Marketing today is a challenge that is continuous and searches for creative, new and innovative techniques to portray a product. Advertisers must allow for the consumer to interact and engage with a product on another level and new media convergence is the ultimate medium where one can participate. New media has allowed branding to become personal to a degree for consumers and intrigues and invites rather than inform. Advertsing will be forever changing along new media and convergence, industries should embrace and deliver a product for a successful outcome.
References:
Deuze, M. (2007). Convergence Culture in the Creative Industries. International Journal of Cultural Studies 10(2) pp. 243 – 263
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NY University Press
Sheehan, K. and Morrison, D. (2008) Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world. First Monday 34(3-2). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121
Taylor, C. and Neuborne, E. (2002) Getting Personal. MediaWeek 12(40) pp. 101-105
HTC,2012 Mobile Phone,Youtube, Shazam
Spurgeon, Christina L. (2008) Advertising and New Media. New York: Routledge
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