Tuesday, 8 February 2011

The Internet as an Advertising Medium

Throughout the history of Advertising there have been many mediums that have been used including print ads, radio and television, and events. The most recent medium to emerge is the Internet. Although the Internet is a relatively new creation it holds a huge amount of promise in its capabilities to reach a much larger demographic than print ads or even television.

The Internet is the fastest growing medium that we have ever seen. It achieved 50 Million users in its first 5 years, whereas it took TV 13 years to reach that figure and it took Radio 38 years. In North America roughly 70 out of 100 people use the Internet and on a global scale 1 Billion people are surfing the Internet every month. However because the Internet was only released to the general public in 1992 it is still a working development and the Internets full capabilities have yet to be discovered. As of today there is still 80% of the worlds population that does not use the Internet. And although the majority of this percentage is from Low Economically Developed countries, it means that the possibilities for global campaigns are still a far off thought. Joe Cappo says “So far, it has not been as effective an advertising medium as television, but its multidimensional adaptability supersedes that of any other medium.”

One of the major problems with the progress of Advertising on the Internet is the stigma created by spam emails. A lot of Internet users are overly weary of all Internet advertisements as they might be scams. These spam adverts normally consist of a message like “You are the Millionth viewer!!! Click here to claim your prize!” And because these spam messages are usually in the same places as genuine banner adverts, they all get mixed together and are equally ignored. So far the only real form of Internet advertising are Banners. These are small adverts which appear at the side, bottom or top of the internet page you are surfing. These banners can take many forms, ranging from just simple messages to interactive pieces. They are becoming increasingly interactive as agencies try and push the limits of what’s possible on the Internet. Some have started to use two banner spaces and have them interact with each other. For example there is an advert for the TV programme Fugitive Chronicles where there is a banner at the top of the page with a picture of a prison wall and then there is a banner at the side of the page about half way down selling car insurance with a picture of a car. A prisoner then runs across the top banner followed by two policemen and a helicopter. The prisoner then jumps from the top banner into the Car Insurance banner, steals the car and drives off. Other forms of banners are ones which totally dominate your page by interacting with it. For example, a promotion for the re-release of the film Back to the Future saw a banner with the famous car in it. When you clicked the car it drove out into your page and took you to an old newspaper page that contained stories relevant to the movie and played the trailer. These sorts of banners are very cool but agencies have to be carful with how they produce them. Banners that contain involuntary interaction can be very annoying, especially when you are surfing a site with a purpose. One example that I have found increasingly annoying is a pop-up banner by BT, promoting their Christmas programming, that would appear at the top of your page with a load musical chorus. The banner would then follow you as you scrolled down the page.

The Internet has also indirectly helped advertising. Researchers have previously explained that Word of Mouth (WOM) influences consumer behaviour, however consumers are increasingly turning to online WOM in the form of online forums and social networks. This helps the spread of advertising campaigns. In terms of Facebook, people will find an advert, usually a viral, and send it to a few of their mates as they want other people to know about it. Their friends will then send it to someone else. This creates a chain reaction and soon an ad can become way bigger than if it was solely showed on TV. Youtube has a huge part to play in this as you can pretty much find every video you can think of, including most adverts. Through this process ads can obtain cult status, such as the Heineken “Walk-in Fridge” ad or the Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Be” ads. There are also a lot of specialist blogs that help collect relevant material all in one space. This helps people find adverts that they might not have stumbled upon during browsing the Internet. Examples of these blogs would be Bannerblog, Adverblog, IBelieveInAdvertising and AdRants. In these blogs people can discuss adverts they liked or disliked and this helps WOM.

In conclusion, the Internet looks set to become a leading medium for agencies to produce adverts. Be it through banners, social sites such as Facebook and Twitter or viral ads on Youtube. Advertising agencies are increasingly shifting their budget towards Internet advertising and the Internet has become an essential part of an agencies advertising strategy. Increasingly an ad campaign will contain a TV advert, Print ads and some type of Internet banner. The Internet as an advertising medium is still in its early stages and it has not become a major priority over the likes of TV. However the Internet is progressing at an astonishing rate and soon agencies will be able to use technology in new and exciting way. The truth is that no one knows how far the Internet will take advertising and whether it will re-invent it or damage it, but in the next 10 years the face of advertising will be dramatically different.


· Joe Cappo (2003) The Future of Advertising

· Gerard Prendergast and David Ko (2010) Online word of mouth and consumer purchase intentions

· www.bannerblog.com.au

· http://www.bizwaremagic.com/quick_internet_history.htm

· http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/15-facts-on-global-internet-usage/

· http://www.buzzle.com/articles/internet-facts.html


Post Modernism

Post Modernism came around as a rebellion against the conformity of modernism and saw a total disregard for its views on the future and trying to progress. Post modernism took a very negative view and is often seen as pessimistic. It has a disillusionment of the idea of absolute knowledge. It was very much driven by the new generation after modernism and carried the typical rebellious nature against the rules enforced by an elder generation. Modernism is seen as an expression of modern life, technology and communication, whereas Post Modernism is seen as the reaction to these things.

Post Modernism is mostly associated with architecture but can also be seen in Advertising. In the modernism era adverts were very much to the point, giving you the necessary information and images. However in the post modern era ads became a lot more complex and became almost an art form rather than an information service. A good example would be most car adverts. In some of these ads the only indication that it is an Ad for a car is the company badge at the end. Advertisers started trying to sell you a feeling using visual stimulation.

However with every new generation the rules implemented by its predecessors can be seen as very old and each generation wants to create its own identity. Many people disregard the idea that we are heading towards a post-post modernism era, but i feel that we are heading towards something totally different to both modernism and post modernism. With more enfaces being put on Viral advertising and the use of new media such as the internet, it is becoming apparent that the new generation is creating its own era in the arts world, especially advertising.


New Media & Visual Culture

A definition of new media would be Modern systems of communication and distribution supplied by relatively small groups of cultural producers, but directed towards large numbers of consumers. There are lots of criticism that you can make about Mass Media as it can be seen as very superficial and trivial. It is seen as very conservative through its encouragement of the Status Quo and the pieces success is measured by its viewing figures. However there are many positive things that you can say about Mass Media. Not all of it is of low quality and lots of social issues are addressed. Also it gives a chance for the transmission of high art material to reach a broader audience.

A lot of fine art is incorporated into mass media and given a new meaning. A relevant example would be the Pears Soap ad which incorporated a famous painting of a child blowing bubbles and gave it a new meaning. This sort of manipulation has been used numerous times for album covers, such as the Franz Ferdinand album that incorporated an old Russian propaganda poster, or The Stones Roses cover that used a Jackson Pollock painting.

There are many people that think that art should be autonomous and should not be used in mass media. However it is my view that this is a little portentous and in many cases mass media has helped the engagement of the audience towards the original piece.

Advertising & New Media

New Media is becoming an integral part of the new era of advertising and therefore is the most relevant to us as budding creatives. Advances in technology over the last 20 years has meant that there have been far more possibilities to use more mediums to advertise in than previously.

Possibly the biggest form of new media is the internet. Advertising on the internet gives agencies the chance to reach a larger demographic than other media forms. And you can reach specialised groups more accurately, for example if you wanted to reach 15-25 year olds the perfect place to advertise would be Facebook.

Another form of new media advertising that has emerged in recent years is viral videos. These have only really come about since the creation of video sites such as Youtube and Vimeo, in which a database of videos can be stored and accessed at any time. Viral videos consist of some sort of stunt or event that indirectly relates to a product. The way they are spread is through word of mouth. These are a very affective way of advertising as they can gain cult status if good enough and cost less than if you were to make an advert for tv and pay for placement. With virals you can also reach a much larger audience, with some videos reaching 20 million hits.

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Photography is a way of documenting what the eye sees. Its about capturing that moment in time and having it on record for the rest of time. The most prominent photographs in our history have mostly been shots of great disaster or despair. Like the iconic Vietnam Napalm photo by Nick Ut or the photos taken by Robert Capa which where the only photographic documentation of the D-Day landings in Normandy. More recent photographic documentation would be the photo of the falling man by Richard Drew on September 11 2001.

In terms of advertising, the most well known documentation in an advert would be the photos taken by Oliviero Toscani for the United Colours of Benetton. This was a very controversial campaign which concentrated on depicting the issue of race or domestic abuse rather that their clothes. It sparked worldwide debate over its content, which in the end was probably what they wanted as it made the advert notoriously well known and far more successful than if it had just contained people wearing Benetton clothes.

Another example of using photography as a basis for an advert is the Canon Powershot ad, in which they staged an event in a big city square which giant paper-machet bugs that roamed around spraying smoke and interacting with the crowd. They then gave out lots of their cameras to the crowd, who then documented the event and helped create an advert.