Advertising and New Media
Over the past fifty years, there has been a huge development in the ways in which media forms are distributed throughout contemporary culture. The introduction of the internet in the 1990's was the beginning of a new era of digital media production and sharing. Possibly the most effected by this technological shift has been the advertising agencies who had relied upon old media forms so highly when communicating to consumers in the past. Advertisers have thereforve had to consider new and innovative ways to reach these more contemporised consumers and ultimately utilise these new forms of media to their own benefit.
Convergent Media:
"The flow of content accross multiple media platforms, resulting in a type of migratory behaviour among consumers who will search out the kinds of content and experiences that they wish" (Jenkins 2006).
Convergent media involves the blurring of boundaries between media forms and the ways in which media production and distribution have evolved over the years due to new technological innovations such as the World Wide Web, social networking and smart phones. The introduction of such technologies have created new ways for media to be consumed. Starting back with the printing press and newspapers we can track the evolution of media forms all the way to television, film and eventually the internet. Advertising agencies have always been highly dependant upon these media forms and have also had to continue to evolve along with these technological revolutions in relation to new media marketing strategies. This can also be considered as confluent culture: "when traditional methods of work adapt to embrace the new reality of interactive content" (Sheehan 2009).
Youtube is the biggest new form of media being utilised by advertising agencies, becoming increasingly more commercial every day. Since the creation of video sharing on the internet, old media forms such as television have decreased in poularity. It is now possible to view almost any commercial, television series, movie etc from the privacy and comfort of your own home, and because of this advertisers are having a difficult time reaching a large portion of desireable consumers. However instead of viewing this issue as a problem, advertisers decided to utilise this new media form to their own advantage, using Youtube videos in exactly the same fashion as a television broadcast. These days a social networking site such as Youtube is covered in advertisements in the form of banners, commercials that play before your selected video may be loaded andbranded content. Trending and popular videos are now funded by advertising agencies who market their products in the same way as a television commercial.
An example of this form of advertising can be seen through the popular 'vlogger' (video blogger), Jenna Marbles who became a sensation in 2011 after her Youtube video "How to trick people into thinking your good looking" which currently holds over forty four million views, went viral accross the internet. Popular video bloggers such as Jenna are now being paid by advertising agencies to market their products through their videos. This is done by the showing of commercials before the video of choice is loaded as well as promotional banners being located within the pages layout.
Below is the famous viral video by Jenna Marbles. Throughout this video you will notice the continual advertisements that pop up on the bottom of the screen. To view the commercial advertising at the beginning of this video click here to go to Jenna Marbles Youtube channel.
Jenna Marbles is also a prime example of something else that advertising agencies have been attempting to master in order to market their products to the unaware consumer. Viral Youtube videos have proven to be a hugely successful in breaking through what advertisers call 'the clutter'. "Advertisers and their agencies often talk about the need to break through the clutter of advertising-saturated media environments in order to command the attention of the consumers they want to reach" (Spurgeon 2008). These days consumers themselves are becoming distributors in themselves, (Henning 2004) describes viral marketing as "using customer communication as a means of multiplying a brands popularity through customers spreading the brands name", this can be true in regards to both Youtube videos and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Advertising via social networks has been growing at extrodinary rates over the past few years (Spurgeon 2008), Facebook uses methods such as groups and sharing content in order to win prizes to reach consumers, advertisers are relying more on the circulation of media via the use of videos that are so entertaining that consumers will seek them out and distribute them themselves. This proves to be an effective method for marketers when they succeed with a viral hit as it saves a lot of money in circulation costs. It can also be decided through the success rate of a commercial released online, wether or not it is worth spending thousands of dollars on commercial broadcasting via the television. Advertisers often "wait until their commercials make it onto Youtube and hope they go viral" (Garfield, 2006).
Word of mouth and relying on consumer circulation is a growing trend within internet advertising and an example of this new phenonomen is the Youtube video created as an advertising campaign by T Mobile:
Much like Jenna Marbles, this highly effective advertising campaign was only successful because consumers took enough interest in the video that they were able to circulate it between eachother by themselves.This brings to the attention, the ways that advertisers are utilising the concept of branded entertainment through new mediums of technology such as online video and social networking. This particular video currently has over thirty five million views on youtube which means that T Mobile has succesfully embedded their brand within the minds of millions of unaware consumers. Spurgeon states that "Branded entertainment aims to contextualise brand images in ways that are so appealing that consumers will seek them out for inclusion in their personalised media and entertainment flows". The reason for the effectiveness of this marketing method is that the branded content is allowed to freely circulate by choice of the consumer. This idea of consumer distribution is a result of the recent consumer trend of becoming "less brand loyal than ever before" (Morrisey 2008) and of paying more attention to the reccomendations of friends and family rather than to marketing messages. This can also be seen by the advertising techniques utilised throughout the sharing of branded content through social networking.
The final example that needs to be pointed out is in relation to an advertising sensation that utilises every aspect of media convergence that has been mentioned throughout this essay. This campaign began online as a youtube video that went viral. Following the viral explosion, pages and links to the video began turning up on social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. Another new form of convergence between the different forms of social networking sites emerged where youtube videos are now embedded within social networking sites (Barnes 2009). The overwhelming poularity of this message was distributed from consumer to consumer until finally the video made a television premier on a well known commercial broadcasting station, as well as several news segments. With currently almost four million facebook likes and over ninety two million views on youtube, this campaign changed everything, and the effectiveness of media convergent advertising became evident.
References:
Barnes S, Hair N (2007) "From banners to YouTube: using the rearview mirror to look at the future of internet advertising" International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising,Volume 5, Number 3/2009.
Henning-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K.P., Walsh, G. and Gremler, D. (2004) ‘Electronic word-of-mouth
via consumer-opinion platforms: what motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the
internet?’, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.38–52.
via consumer-opinion platforms: what motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the
internet?’, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.38–52.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.
Sheehan, Kim and Morrison, Deborah (2009) Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world in First Monday vol 14 no 3
Spurgeon, C. (2008) Advertising and New Media, Oxon, Routledge, pp 24-45.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpwAtnywTk
Accessed 29/08/12.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM
Accessed 29/08/12.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
Accessed 30/08/12
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