Impact of the Internet on Advertising
Impact of the Internet on Advertising
Introduction:
Advertising is a marketing communication tool used globally by organizations to influence the buying decisions of prospective customers. The advertising industry has undergone various transformations over the years with respect to media and in recent times, powerful technological advancements such as the Internet offer a new world of opportunities to advertisers.
The Internet has changed the advertising industry dynamics by becoming the fastest growing advertising channel. Emerging technologies such as mobile phones and social media platforms have made it easier for advertisers to reach out to consumers. Traditional advertising still has its niche, but the number of people watching television and radio has significantly decreased. The Internet is accessible from various devices and locations thus giving consumers more access and voice. In fact in this information age, consumers ask the questions, control the conversations and choose how advertisers reach them.
The introduction of the World Wide Web and the search engine in the 1990’s provided new ways to search for content. In 1994, when the Web was barely known, Yahoo Inc. developed a search engine and HotWired launched the first online magazine for advertisements. When the first banner ads were published with colourful notices, most users – about 10 percent were tempted to click on them, and were led to the sponsor’s site. This marked a new era in advertising.
In 1997, marketers began to think of the Web as a medium of advertising and in that year, internet advertisers in the U.S spent $940 million and in 1998, the figure doubled. Forecasts by Forrester Research at the time indicated in 2004, online advertising would become a $33 billion industry globally (Young, 2000).
Since 2004, the adoption of an online medium of advertising to achieve competitive advantage has been rapid, and there has been increased use of the Web by companies and advertising agencies as the central focus of marketing campaigns. Increased broadband
Capabilities and adoption have led to more innovative way of advertising such as ad video streams which have become prevalent and show significant growth compared to all other formats such as banners and in-line advertisements.
Industry observers have a tough time predicting the future of advertising, but a general agreement is that the enormity of changes and the pace of online advertising is bound to be ever on the increase.
Impact of the Internet and Social Media and on advertising content:
Social media and the interactive capabilities of mobile devices have revolutionized advertising by availing a ready audience for advertisers on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs (Schmidt, 2010). Geo-location services such as Google maps which are openly available have led to geo-targeting where advertisers can target a specific demographic group in a specific location, and with significant cost savings compared to traditional advertising.
Advertising via conversation helps establish strong social media presence in a forum or community platform as opposed to radio and television commercials, and print ads. While establishing a social media presence or consumer forum takes up significant effort and diligence, companies that communicate directly and build relationships with their customers have a better chance of surviving in the rapidly dynamic market.
Implications of the Internet on Marketing Education:
The advertising industry has rapidly changed, but most marketing programs in colleges still offer traditional courses, incorporating some few elective units on interactive or digital marketing instead of redesigning the curricula to focus on global markets, and digital marketing which falls in the Internet and technology scope. This could include supplementing curricula with courses dealing with such as online communications for advertising and press releases, website design for marketing majors, graphic design, and the relationships between online pricing strategies and financial analysis.
The lack of digital content in marketing and advertising education has led to market domination by technology experts who ideally, are not trained marketers. Digital technology had previously decimated news media and caused rapid changes in the business models for television, books, film, and music industries. Likewise, it has obliterated the ad production process assembly line since advertising management in the Internet realm requires a new skill set. Creativity and strategic thinking are core skills in advertising but most recently, new elements such as understanding complex technologies have been added to the skill set mix.
Technical knowledge is an important requirement in the creation of successful e-commerce models and companies now hire individuals with relevant education and experience in marketing but these people also require technical skills. In technical schools, students learn computing skills, and those in universities learn advertising and marketing theories.
The need for technical education has instantiated rapid changes in the advertisement business and people who previously had no interest in advertisement such as IT majors are now joining this lucrative industry. Agencies are now training young people who are tech savvy in management and marketing programs. In these new digital agencies, media planners, social media experts, technologists, creative and classical marketers work together and modulate tasks.
Overall, the educational system and advertising industry have utilized the functional view of marketing procedures and processes either taught or operated on. The Internet has caused significant disturbance in the industry and the significant potential of integrating all disciplines in the marketing process has not been fully realised.
Conclusion:
It is evident from the scope of this paper that the Internet has a significant impact on the advertising landscape. Online digital platforms cannot simply added to other traditional channels and instead, they blend all channels such as print, radio and television. This blending of channels and technology advancements in social media and the internet has led to significant reaps in benefits for those companies and agencies that have manoeuvred quickly to produce innovative ads and ways of reaching out to their target markets. This requires particular emphasis on technical skills and the various stakeholders should take up such.
In the advertising world defined by consumer control and technology, the potential for reaching out to wider audiences is greater than ever. The internet has more than 2 billion users and with due respect, traditional models of advertising no longer seem viable. Internet based advertising models can thus be said to have changed the way consumers react and interact with what they find online. The challenge now lies in marketers mastering the art of conversing with consumers and sustaining communities, as opposed to the earlier trends of storytelling and messages. Traditional advertisers, on the other hand, should come up with innovative ways of reaping from internet advertising. Some, like newspaper companies that used to benefit greatly from ads should consider new ways of generating revenues such as offering web subscriptions.
Works Cited:
Schmidt, B. (2010, July 12). Social Media has Changed Advertising. Inside Technology 360. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from http://www.insidetechnology360.com/index.php/social-media-has-changed-advertising-13821/
Young, S. (2000, May 16). Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising. HBS Working Knowledge. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from
References:
Joshi, N. (2013, April 24). How the Internet has Changed Advertising. Inside Business 360. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.insidebusiness360.com/index.php/how-the-internet-has-changed-advertising-378/
Raghavan, K. (n.d.). An empirical study of long-run impact of Internet advertising on consumer response behavior. DSpace@MIT. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/37121
Schmidt, B. (2010, July 12). Social Media has Changed Advertising. Inside Technology 360. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from http://www.insidetechnology360.com/index.php/social-media-has-changed-advertising-13821/
Young, S. (2000, May 16). Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising. HBS Working Knowledge. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from
