[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="245" caption="Image via CrunchBase"]
[/caption]As we pursue a study of advertising, we are still asking if large businesses are going to take over social media to the detriment of its social nature. Let’s look at media and advertising approaches over the internet.
Actually, advertising by the large businesses have already come to the internet as consumers spend more time on their computers getting their music and news often their movies. Advertising on the net is a new development in the ongoing genesis of the medium. Prices for web-based ad space depend on the relevance of the surrounding information and the traffic the site receives.
Digital Signage
Digital signage is most likely going to become an important advertising form since it can reach a larger consumer base for less cost. It also has the singular ability to target the audience. Advances in technology have allowed advertisers to tailor the message with such precision that messages are specific to the target group at any special time and any particular location getting an increased response from the ad. Digital signage is used very successfully in grocery stores, restaurants and malls.
Email ads are another recent addition to web advertising. However along with the good comes the spam, which is extremely unwanted advertising.
Unpaid advertising, which is also known as publicity advertising creates acceptable exposure at little or no cost. Some ideas include the suggestion to tell a friend, thus spreading the buzz, which can actually cause brands to become common nouns. Some examples are to Google, which means to search on the computer, Xerox for any form of photocopier and Band-Aid to mean any adhesive bandage. Not all companies like this because it turns their brand into a generic term that causes the brand to become lost.
As mobile phones have become smarter, advertising over the phone has become more intense, including the use of barcodes, QR codes and mobile product landing pages.
Along with this has come a new type of advertising not seen anywhere before, known as social network advertising. This is online advertising focusing on social networking sites. Advertisers are using the demographics the user supplied to the site, like Facebook, to target just the people meeting their criteria. Also as used by Starbucks Coffee, they got more clients through friendertising over their social media sites.
New media, new advertising
The internet has brought about advertising phenomena like Popup, advergaming , banner, flash, Popunder, and email advertisements. Since the start of entertaining advertisements, some people may enjoy an ad so much that they to want to share it with friends later or watch it again themselves. This has just begun to exist, but the advertising companies are not happy with it. They paid to create the ad and paid to have it shown. They don’t want it given away. However, not all advertisers feel that way and some advertisers have used the net to allow anyone to see their ads who wants to.
Niches and niche marketing
An interesting trend that advertisers are watching is the growing significance of the specific market to target ads. The point is to reach niche audiences. In the old days the most best means to send an ad to the target was to cover the largest mass market audience the advertiser could. Using computer tracking, Facebook and other profiles and an increasing interest in niche content as seen by the multiplicity of blogs to social network sites advertisers are not able to reach smaller, more targeted audiences, which leads to ads being more pertinent to views and resulting in better sales.
Crowdsourcing
Lately certain television advertisers have asked views to share how they use the product and then the advertiser uses this to make the ad. This idea started when in 2007 Doritos held a Crash the Super Bowl contest, asking consumers to create their own commercial. By 2010 Doritos ad was the most buzzed about ad as counted by Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics. Crowdsourcing advertisements are becoming more popular because it’s cost effective, has high consumer engagement and generates word-of-mouth. We’ll see where this one goes.
It is certainly true that large businesses have invaded computer space. Have they succeeded in spoiling the listening effect so prized by the small business? I don’t think we have an answer yet. What do you think? Please leave a comment in the box below.
Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.
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