Friday, August 31, 2012

Digital Media Convergence: Revolutionising and Proliferating Advertising in a New Media Landscape

 Verneet Kaur
The burgeoning of new media and subsequent phenomenon of digital media convergence, which Jenkins describes as “the flow of content across multiple media platforms,” (Jenkins: 2006, p 2) has overhauled the modern-day mediascape and exacted an incontrovertible impact on advertising. Contemporary audiences are no longer dependent on the newspaper as their primary informant or glued to their television screens – both practices have been somewhat supplanted by participatory and convergent vehicles of new media, such as the smartphone and the internet. Accordingly, advertisers have had to adapt to this radical shift in consumer behaviour, as thirty seconds on the television or a square in the newspaper simply won’t suffice anymore. In asserting  the notion that digital media convergence has revolutionised and proliferated advertising, this essay will examine the predominant way in which advertisers have endeavoured to engage a generation of consumers who are increasingly “distracted, distrustful and disinterested” (Spurgeon: 2008 p 27) in a new media context, and the significance of online viral campaigns in advertising.
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Digital media convergence has revolutionised and proliferated advertising in that advertisers now actively seek to engage a contemporary audience by capitalising on “device mania” (Dwyer: 2010 p 8), as it continues to percolate into mainstream culture. A key example is the smartphone, a central new media technology which has been described as being the “next great conduit between consumers and advertisers” (‘The Sell, Sell, Sell Phone’, 2007), and according to Sinclair and Wilken, a “portal” that connects consumers (Sinclair and Wilken: 2009). The smartphone accommodates for the flow of a myriad of new media practices, such as social networking, file sharing and internet access; all of which attest to its prominence as a digital convergent medium and justify advertisers' gravitation towards these devices.
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The iAd on the Apple iPhone is a platform that allows for third-party companies to embed their advertisements directly into any given application available on the iOS App Store, as opposed to directing the consumer to a separate page in the browser. The advertisements can be interactive and the option to click out of them and resume activity from the point at which the app was left is provided. Furthermore, the potential for these advertisements to reach an extensive number of consumers is immense – the official website even states that iAd will enable you to “reach the most engaged audience available.” These innovative and user-friendly features of this modern advertising network, along with its integration into the app itself are a far cry from the traditional advertisements that were disseminated across old media. If not for the digital media convergence that the smartphone exemplifies through the coming together of internet access and game play, this development in advertising would not exist. It is in this sense that advertisers have endeavoured to engage a generation of consumers; through their capitalisation on popular new media devices, whose convergence properties play an integral role in revolutionising and proliferating advertising.

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 The viral phenomenon is a major case in point demonstrating the impact that digital media convergence asserts upon advertising in its revolutionising and proliferation. It can be defined as the communication of unpaid peer-to-peer content from an identified sponsor using the internet to encourage its circulation (Porter and Golan: 2006). Arguably, the most distinguishing feature of the viral phenomenon is that it relies solely on the audience to propagate its content – which Jenkins calls a “spreadable model,” emphasising consumer activity (Jenkins: 2009). YouTube, a popular video-sharing website is an essential model of digital media convergence. It observes the coming together of audio-visual media and user interaction, especially through the “share” option, and endorses the idea of the prosumer; an individual who both consumes and produces content. This convergent medium affords a revolutionary and indubitably proliferating advertising opportunity – the viral video.


The Cadbury Eyebrows campaign was launched by Cadbury in 2009, to promote their Dairy Milk Chocolate. It presents a boy and a girl furiously moving their eyebrows to the beat of a song and has reached over nine million hits on YouTube, been featured on numerous news and media outlets and has been the subject of multiple parodies. Porter and Golan claim that the content of a viral video is paramount; it must forge an emotional connection with the consumer as that is what propels them to circulate it (Porter and Golan: 2006). This viral video engages the audience with its humorous depiction of an undeniably impressive feat (if one disregards the editing), bridging the emotional connection – it makes us laugh and think to ourselves, “whoa, look at that.” This extremely successful campaign would not have come to pass had it not been for the vessel that carried it through the depths of cyberspace – the convergent media model that is YouTube. If it was not for uploading this audio-visual content onto a website that enables “sharing” through Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, provides a space for users to publish their comments, an HTML code for embedding, a link for emailing, Google Plus Hangout so it can be watched with friends and the option to subscribe to the channel, the Cadbury Eyebrows campaign would not have been the advertising sensation that it was. Therefore, it is clear that digital media convergence plays a significant role in revolutionising and proliferating advertising, as in the case of viral video campaigns, it is the vehicle on which they travel. 
Thus, through the examination of the iAd on the iPhone and the viral video phenomenon on YouTube, it can be seen that digital media convergence asserts an incontrovertible impact on advertising in a new media landscape. It unlocks opportunities for innovation and potential for reaching a far wider audience than that which was possible in an old media context. It is through this that it has revolutionised the ways in which advertising is carried out and simultaneously impelled its proliferation, in a contemporary context.



References

 Reader
  • J enkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture, New York, New York University Press, pp 1-24.
  • Spurgeon, C. (2008) Advertising and New Media, Oxon, Routledge, pp 24-45
  • Dwyer, T. (2010) Media Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berksire, pp 1-23
 Recommended

Independent
  • ‘The Sell, Sell, Sell Phone’ (2007) B&T 25 February, URL: http://www.bandt.com.au/articles/35/0C049B35.asp?print=true [accessed 30th August 2012]
  • Porter, Lance and Golan, Guy. (2006). “From Subservient Chickens to Brawny Men: A Comparison of Viral Advertising to Television Advertising.” Journal of Interactive Advertising, 6(2). Onlinehttp://jiad.org/vol6/no2/porter/index.htm [accessed 29th August 2012]
  • Jenkins, Henry. “If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead (Part One): Media Viruses and Memes.” Confessions of an Aca-fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins, February 11, 2009. http://henryjenkins.org/2009/02/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p.html. [accessed 29th August 2012]

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