Technology develops on an exponential curve. Every time
there is a new development in communications technology society scurries to
catch up; building new institutions and industries, which in turn directly
affect the way society operates. In the modern sense, the process through which
this “catch up” occurs is known as convergence (Jenkins 2006).
Today convergence is happening often and everywhere:
including the smartphone, applications, and social media to name a few.
However, undoubtedly the biggest and most pervasive development in the last
half a century has been the launch of the Internet (Spurgeon 25). Since its
inception into our lives the Internet has become absolutely intrinsic to our
daily lives. However the advent of the digital age has also led to the
devaluing of many previously dominant industries, such as print media,
television, radio and even the home telephone system (Edmonds et al.). In the
fallout of the meteoric rise of the Internet many other industries have
struggled to catch up. The subject of this essay will be the challenges and opportunities
facing the advertising industry, and how they have attempted to overcome and
exploit them respectively.
The advertising industry has been faced with a tremendously
different playing field since the rise of the Internet: primarily with the mass
exodus of viewers away from traditional media to the Internet (Sheehan and
Morrison). This shift alone has cause for concern among advertisers, moreover
the new land settled by these digital denizens has afforded them unforseen
agency, dramatically changing their consumption attitudes.
One of the primary traits of the online audience is their sovereignty.
The online consumer has the ability to choose what they want to see, when they
want to see it; that is if they even want to see it at all (Spurgeon 25). This
is sharply juxtaposed against traditional television or print media, where
consumers were force-fed advertisements, unable to choose whether they wanted
to see them or not (ibid 27). Even more so, with newly developed software
capable of completely blocking out conventional advertisement on the web, the
future of online advertisement looks bleak (http://chromeadblock.org/).
This makes the new consumer market more evasive than ever before. Without the
right approach, companies and even industries could lose out on lucrative
opportunities or collapse all together.
The Internet is filled with vast amounts of information; it
is also a place where many cultures and societies coexist in a surprisingly
cohesive way. This is aided by the implementation of new programs attached to
search engines like Google, which give users the option to translate entire
sites from its native language to their own (Wagner). This cultural convergence
leads to greater exposure to brands and art forms that would have otherwise
been barred by geography, nationalism and industry norms. As a result consumer
tastes are becoming increasingly complex, which in turn leads to a sort of
fragmentation among traditionally cohesive and predictable consumer bodies
(Sheehan and Morrison). This fragmentation has made consumers increasingly
difficult to encompass with a single ad campaign, there are too many new
variables for an advertising company to continue to rely on traditionally held
preconceptions of certain markets.
Digital denizens have also developed their own online
cultures, which interact with one another, create their own unique content, and
critique the work of others. This culture, referred to by Jenkins as
“Participatory Culture”, is key to the movement of media convergence (3).
Increased user autonomy and opinion legitimacy are foreign to advertisers; the
previous one-way street of producer consumer relations has changed to a two-way
street where consumers are having greater input into the production of their
goods and services (Spurgeon 8, Deuze 245). Bioware, one of the worlds leading
video game companies has recently begun holding online questionnaires and
forums to ask for fan input into the development of their upcoming games
(Krupa). These new attitudes of entitlement offer both a challenge and
opportunity to the advertising industry.
With all this stacked up against advertising companies, how
can they hope to break into this new digital market? The answer lies in
ingenuity, advertisers will have to abandon “old” media methods and adopt newly
evolved approaches that play to the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet
(Spurgeon 27). Two examples of original methods that met with great success are
the Philips Parallel Lines campaign
and the viral Old Spice campaign.
Parallel Lines was an initiative by Philips Electronics to
gain recognition for a new line of high definition television sets they were
about to release. The campaign sent out a short script with only a few lines of
dialogue to 5 of the worlds leading directors, they were to direct and produce
their own short film completely financed by Philips. The shorts were “aired”
online, and later the winner was picked based on user feedback (Williams).
The Old Spice body wash campaign used a more traditional advertisement, however it used a modern sense of humour and a primarily “creative” style as opposed to the more commonly used informative approach (Spurgeon 24). It immediately had its desired effect, going “viral” within 24 hours and boosting sales considerable (Morrissy).
What these ingenuitive campaigns do is bypass much of the
prejudice against advertising that exists online. They are subtle, often using
product placement or sponsorship to convince consumers subconsciously that the
product has class: a stylish ad campaign means a stylish product. The Parallel
Lines campaign was not only interesting; it was seen as supporting the art-form
while ignoring the financial conventions of the film industry.
Because of this unquantifiable Style these advertising campaigns have, they manage to “cut through
the clutter” of other online advertisement which use a more traditional
approach. Online denizens will actively seek out these advertisements,
broadcast its existence to their friends, talk about it in forums and social
media, and even make videos of their own praising or parodying it (Sheehan
& Morrson).
This “pull” effect, which would otherwise be a hindrance to
advertisers, is now being used as a method of distribution. If an advertisement
is effective it can very efficiently cut distribution costs normally associated
with traditional advertisement (Sheehan & Morrison). The participatory
culture of the Internet will propel the ad along the necessary currents, generating
its own hype (Deuze 246).
We are experiencing more than
just a transition period; as technology is only going to develop faster and
faster, industries are going to struggle to keep up. With the right expertise
advertising companies can seamlessly integrate into the online community, like
the have before with radio and television, but first they are going to have to
learn to adapt to the ever-changing nature of the Internet and Media
convergence as a whole. Jenkins concedes that the road ahead is going to be
full of obstacles “most of which seem insurmountable”, even so industries will
have to find a way, otherwise they will crumble, and it’s not going to get any
easier (10-11).
Works cited
Deuze, M. “Convergence Culture in
the Creative Industries” International
Journal of Cultural Studies 10 (2007). Print.
Dwyer, T. Media Convergence, McGraw Hill:
Berkshire, 2010. Print.
Edmonds, R. et al. “Newspapers: by the numbers” State of the Media 2012 (11th
April 2012) Journalism.org, accessed 29th Aug. 2012.
<http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/newspapers-building-digital-revenues-proves-painfully-slow/>
Jenkins,
H. Convergence Culture, New York: New
York University Press, 2006. Print.
Krupa, D. “Report: Leaked Dragon Age 3 Questionnaire” IGN.com (20th July 2012)
accessed 31st Aug.
Morrissy, B. “Old Spice’s agency flexes its bulging stats” Adweek (4th Aug. 2010)
accessed 30th Aug.
<http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/old-spices-agency-flexes-its-bulging-stats-12396>
Spurgeon,
C. Advertising and New Media, Oxon:
Routledge, 2008. Print.
Sheehan, K. and Morrison, D. “Beyond
convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a
changing world” First Monday 14.3
(2009). Print.
Williams, E. “Philips Parallel Lines Films” Creative Review (7th April
2010) accessed 31st Aug.
< http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/april/philips-parallel-lines-films>
Wagner, K. “Google Translate for Android can now read
pictures in foreign languages” Gizmodo
Australia (10th Aug. 2012) accessed 30th Aug.
<http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/08/google-translate-for-android-can-now-read-pictures-in-foreign-languages/>
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