online essay

MAS110 - Online Essay: Discuss the phenomenon of digital media convergence in relation to advertising and new media

Rob Stilwell

42874661

Sarah Keith 

Since the commercialisation of the internet in 1995, technology and its popularity in society has grown globally at an uncanny pace. Some of the latest devices and applications have brought what would have previously been two or more separate devices or applications into one. The smart phone and contemporary social media websites such as Facebook both have brought many functions of different media devices into one. Digital media convergence is what this process has been described as, and it has, and continues to change and challenge many different industries today. With the introduction of new mediums for viewing content, one of the most significant industries that it has challenged has been the advertising industry. As a result of digital media convergence, advertisers have had to evolve in order to continuously reach their targeted customer. New strategies for connecting with the consumer have been required to be employed by advertisers in this modern society of constant technological progression. Discussed in this essay will be the phenomenon of digital media convergence and the challenges and opportunities it has presented to advertising.

Originally, with the mediums of television and radio to work with, advertisers knew that the consumer's attention would be forced upon their advertisement when it was broadcasted live at specific times. Also known to the advertiser were the programs the advertisements would be viewed in conjunction with. Knowing all these facts made it somewhat easy for advertisers to effectively penetrate their targeted consumer at the right time. Demonstrated in the following photo is an example of a perfect time for advertisers to penetrate the market of fast foods. Known to the advertiser would be the time that families are expected to be sitting down for dinner. Moreover, the advertisement could have been used in conjunction with a program such as Masterchef, of which will have already somewhat made the viewers hungry.

 

However the introduction of the internet provided immense new challenges as well as opportunities to advertisers, and they were required to rethink their marketing strategies in order to grasp the attention of the modern internet user. Not only has the internet medium become another accessible option for viewing content, but it is arguably in the process of taking over the older media of the press, television and radio. The internet medium has been recorded as the fastest ever growing medium and is not showing any signs of slowing down. In fact it is quite the opposite. With the introduction of social media as well as internet usage on mobile phones, the internet, particularly in Australia, is on a seemingly unbreakable rise. As consumers have increasingly spent more time viewing video online, advertisers have found ways to engage this audience with their branded videos (Southgate, Westoby and Page, 2010).

A new phenomenon that has arisen in the advertising industry in an attempt to account for the rapid changeover from television to internet is viral advertising. Viral advertising refers to the idea of the consumers spreading a particular advertisement themselves. Rather than displaying it in many different locations, advertisers create one video, or one image in the hope that it will be spread by impressed consumers. Thus this method proves to be far cheaper than original advertising on radio, television or in public spaces, however it does require more skill and clever ideas for catching the consumer's attention in order for it to be a successful form of advertising. The following video is an example of an adverting campaign from Volkswagen that proved to become incredibly popular among the public.

After just one year of being uploaded to YouTube, this video has received over 54 million views. It is a perfect demonstration of advertisers taking full advantage of societies' new found habits of watching video online, and slowly moving away from television. Viral advertising succeeds among modern users of the internet as it complements the actions of the consumer that new media has cultivated. For example, a consumer that was entertained by this advertisement would be able to email the video to a friend. This is exactly the result that the Volkswagen advertisers were looking for, and they undoubtedly succeeded in making their 2011 campaign viral. With the growing popularity of smart phones and tablets, the video market for advertisers can only grow larger.

Mobile media, in particular mobile phones, can now be seen and heard everywhere and form an intrinsic part of the daily lives of billions of people worldwide (Sinclair, J and Wilken, R, 2009). The introduction of tablets and smart phones to society has seen an immense rise the popularity of online video, as users of these devices may now access the internet anywhere within a country that provides '3G' internet conections. Users of these devices are also able to use search engines wherever they please and the use of search engines by users has provided a huge new market for advertisers. Spurgeon states in her 2008 journal article, 'The internet search engine is, perhaps, the single most important development for informational advertising since the time of the first paid newspaper advertisements or the telephone directory'. A recent and powerful discovery for advertisers has been for companies to collect search items from individual users, and using these items they have searched for within the search engine, provide advertisements to the user that relate to the searches made.

Over the time of the developments of these new media, audiences have fragmented and have never before been less confined. This concept has proved to be a significant challenge for the modern advertiser. However new techniques such as viral advertising as well as making use of search engines to acquire users tastes have been just some of the measures that advertisers have taken to. With the constant progression of technology in society, advertisers will need to be on their toes as consumers will tire and become ignorant of old and classic forms of advertising. The most successful forms of advertising will always make full use of the latest technology, as these new forms of advertising will prove most significant in attracting the attention of contemprary technologically advanced consumers.

Reference List

• ·        Sinclair, J and Wilken, R 2009 'Waiting for the kiss of life : mobile media and advertising' Convergence: the journal of research into new media, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 427-445
• ·        Spurgeon, C 2008, 'From the 'Long Tail' to 'Madison and Vine'', Advertising and New Media, Oxon, Routledge, pp. 24-45
• ·        Southgate, D, Westoby, N, Page, G, 2010, 'Creative determinants of viral video viewing', International Journal of Advertising, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 349-368
• ·        DinnerTool, The Pros and Cons of Watching TV While You Eat, viewed 30 August 2012,  <http://www.dinnertool.com/pros-and-cons-watching-tv-while-you-eat>.