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the new media world:
navigating a converging landscape
How are modern advertisers coping with the processes of convergence? This essay explores some of the principal mechanisms that are being employed It can be seen that the industry is still finding its way, but that the challenges posed by convergence are only surmountable for those agencies prepared to adapt to the new media reality.
The emergence of convergence culture
In the early 1990s, the widespread contentions of a
‘digital revolution’ whereby new media would supersede traditional media did
not actualize (Jenkins 2006 p. 19, Dwyer 2010 p. 8). Rather, advertisers are
faced with a far more complex reality: the two have become intermingled, and
the nature of this mixture is constantly in flux (Jenkins 2006 p. 20).
This picture illustrates the intermingling of old and new media, in that traditional forms of entertainment (the newspaper) are increasingly becoming accessible via new mediums of entertainment (the iPhone).
This picture depicts the way that new media is existing alongside, not necessarily in the place of, traditional media.
This picture illustrates the intermingling of old and new media, in that traditional forms of entertainment (the newspaper) are increasingly becoming accessible via new mediums of entertainment (the iPhone).
Users rather than consumers
Jenkins (2006) highlights that the standard
Producer-Consumer model is no longer sufficient for describing the myriad
relations occurring between actors in media. A broad spectrum of types of
people are now involved in media.
New media allows for a huge array of activities in
which people can partake, and a growing variety of roles individuals can
assume.Jenkins (2006 p. 19) describes the new phenomenon
well: it is more appropriate to think of everyone as ‘participants who interact
with each other according to a new set of rules that none of us fully
understands.’
Challenges for advertisers
Berman, Battino, Shipnuck and Neus (2007) posit that
advertising around this time, and in only a very short window of time, will
hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 years did.
It was also predicted that all media formats would have equal importance for
advertisers, and indeed, this is beginning to occur.
In the past, the television and the radio were the
dominant means of reaching consumers, and attention was quite easily captured
and held because there were relatively narrow options for entertainment.
With the rise of Internet and smart phones, however, users are now
spoiled with content and have before them a baffling array of entertainment
options – as Weight (2006, p. 413) puts it: ‘variety has become the spice of
media consumption.’
This has altered consumer behaviour dramatically, in
the sense that since we are aware that there is so much out there to explore,
if we are bored we just go elsewhere, with one click – we are nomadic, we are
more informed, and we have higher expectations of entertainment.
In order to sift through the overwhelming amount of information,
people are in a constant dialogue with other users. Bassett,
Hartmann and O’Riordan (2008) refer to convergence as involving a ‘networked
media economy increasingly based on social capital… as well as traditional
content.’
Social networking has become crucial for people to
decide what they should spend their time viewing, and such choices are now
based upon what their friends recommend, and what the Twitter or Facebook community
is talking about. Youtube similarly assists users with sorting through
material, with people choosing to watch what others are watching, through the 'Recommended for you' tab.
It’s not all bad: plenty of opportunities for
advertisers
Since media consumers now bounce off one another,
producers can enter into this conversation and better inform their advertising
strategies. Through social networking sites, blogs and other such spaces,
individuals now publish their values, interests and desires in a public realm. Advertisers
are therefore able to study consumer behaviour in ways they never could before.
While we may be difficult to reach in the sense that we are migratory, what we
enjoy is discoverable for truly intuitive advertisers.
Online spaces are being utilized as a cost effective
means of testing ideas and divining whether campaigns will be successful in
traditional media. Evian's
Roller Babies commercial is the best example of this. It received such a
positive online response that it was then released as a television commercial.
Using an Australian example, another advertisement that
effectively employed advanced visual effects was the ‘Cane Toad Road’ video
uploaded to Youtube by Ford.
Media flowing in new directions
As a result of the participatory culture that new
media has created, media need not necessarily flow from producers down to
consumers. It is now a multi-directional interaction, where consumers dictate
what works, and based on this, producers then tailor their marketing strategies
in ways they know will capture consumer attention. In advertising, the cyclical
nature of convergent processes is clear. Elliot’s comment (2007, as cited in
Sheehan 2009) rings true: ‘people’s
relationship with a brand is becoming a dialogue, not a monologue.’
The compatibility of new and old media can be observed
in many modern advertisements. Never Say No to Panda was a 2010 serious of
television commercials created by Elephant
Cairo advertising agency for Arab Dairy’s range of Panda cheeses.
The advertisements featuring a very hostile panda were successful as TVCs but gained huge exposure as YouTube videos, with one of the advertisements currently harboring close to 19 million views. It has since won numerous prizes, including a Cannes International Advertising award.
This campaign illustrates that, despite the enormous amount of advertising that exists and threatens to drown out campaigns, a unique and well-executed concept can always ‘cut through the clutter’ and reach huge audiences. It is also a demonstration of viral advertising, the power of which all modern advertisers would love to exploit.
The advertisements featuring a very hostile panda were successful as TVCs but gained huge exposure as YouTube videos, with one of the advertisements currently harboring close to 19 million views. It has since won numerous prizes, including a Cannes International Advertising award.
This campaign illustrates that, despite the enormous amount of advertising that exists and threatens to drown out campaigns, a unique and well-executed concept can always ‘cut through the clutter’ and reach huge audiences. It is also a demonstration of viral advertising, the power of which all modern advertisers would love to exploit.
Vital to venture into new media, in spite of
the risks
Sheehan (2009) asserts that all advertisers must
acknowledge the processes of convergence happening around them and become
involved in it if they wish to survive. The article draws a distinction between
those companies that are grappling with new media and making attempts to
harness it, and others that are in denial that new media is even an issue that
affects them.
A course of action proposed by Orgad (2009 p. 211)
for conquering the uncertainty of tbe convergent landscape is to ‘connect the
new and unknown with the familiar…accommodate the new technological world by
‘lodging’ it in an old one.’
BBC's
franchise efforts with Doctor Who is an example of such an attempt. It conveys
the risks associated with venturing into new media, but the ultimate rewards of
having the courage to try.
The story of Doctor Who was successfully protracted
across the different types of multimedia avenues, breaking out of the confines
of the television and utilizing other ways of engaging with audiences.
One project they undertook as part of this aim was not
a success. TARDISodes were mini episodes intended to be consumed via mobile
phones, but consumers did not take to it.
This is an excellent illustration of the way that only
those prepared to venture outside their comfort zones by incorporating new
media possibilities will truly flourish in the convergent environment. One is
only able reach the nomadic and participatory audiences of today’s world by
daring to try to understand it and penetrate it.
It also reinforces the argument that the industry must move away from what Deuze (2007, as
cited by Sheehan) calls show–and–tell advertising, and instead provide the
means for consumers to create their own stories.
The tool of the YouTube parody
Another advertising technique which advertisers are
aware consumers respond to is the parody. A homegrown example of a parody that
succeeded in creating an online buzz was the send up of singer Carly Rae
Jespen’s pop hit ‘Call Me Maybe’ by presenters Fitzy and Wippa, released by
Nova FM via YouTube to promote the radio station.
Since a parody necessarily requires a person to be familiar with that which is being satirized, parodies create in viewers an enhanced feeling of connectedness, a feeling which advertisers try to take advantage of.
Since a parody necessarily requires a person to be familiar with that which is being satirized, parodies create in viewers an enhanced feeling of connectedness, a feeling which advertisers try to take advantage of.
Ithiel de
Sola Pool predicted a time characterized by uncertainty and unpredictability,
in which people would have to take risks and find out, largely by trial and
error, what works in a new media world. That time seems to be right now!
Despite the unknowns of this media milieu, one thing is assured; advertisers
that have the guts to meet the challenge of technological and cultural
convergence will float, and advertisers that shy away from it will sink.
References
Dwyer, T. (2010) Media
Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berkshire, pp. 1 – 23.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence
culture: where old and new media collide, New York, New York University
Press pp. 1 – 24.
Perryman, Neil (2008) ‘Doctor Who and the convergence
of media: a case study in transmedia storytelling,’ Convergence: the
international journal of research into new media technologies, vol 14 no 1,
pp 21 – 39, viewed 23 August 2012, < http://con.sagepub.com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/content/14/1/21.full.pdf+html
>.
Pool, Ithiel de Sola (1983) Technologies of freedom, Harvard University Press.
NovaFM (2012) Call Me Maybe parody – Aussie blokes
version, online video, viewed 23 August 2012, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRVPyw_BorY
>.
ap3116171 (2010), Never say no to Panda! online
video, viewed 23 August 2012, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21mJh6j9i4
>.
QuestComedy (2010) Panda Cheese Commercial, online
video, viewed 23 August 2012, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWywHqHCrSA
>.
Ford of Australia (2012) Cane Toad Road,
online video, viewed 23 August 2012, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00jyd-p-DiA
>.
Sheehan, Kim and Morrison, Deborah (2009) Beyond
convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a
changing world, First Monday, vol 14,
no 3, < http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121
>.
Orgad, Shani (2009) 'Mobile TV: Old and new in the
construction of an emergent technology,' Convergence: the international
journal of research into new media technologies, vol 15, no 2, pp 197 – 214,
< http://con.sagepub.com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/content/15/2/197.full.pdf+html
>.
Bassett,
Caroline, Hartmann, Maren and O’Riordan, Kate (2008) Editiorial of ‘After
Convergence: what connects,’ The
FibreCulture Journal issue 13, viewed 23 August 2012, < http://thirteen.fibreculturejournal.org/ >.
Weight, Jenny
(2006) ‘I, Apparatus, You: A technosocial introduction to creative practice,’ Convergence:
the international journal of research into new media technologies, vol
12, no 4, pp 413, viewed 24 August 2012 < http://con.sagepub.com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/content/12/4/413.full.pdf+html
>.
J Berman, Saul, Battino, Bill, Shipnuck, Louisa, and
Neus, Andreas (2007) ‘The end of advertising as we know it,’ IBM Global Business Services Report, IBM
Institute for Business Value: Media and Entertainment, viewed 24 August 2012,
< http://www-05.ibm.com/de/media/downloads/end-of-advertising.pdf
>.
Dr Susie Khamis, ‘Advertising in the Digital Age’
lecture, 22 August 2012.
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