Digital Media Convergence: The Advertising Campaign through New Media

Digital Media Convergence: The Advertising Campaign through New Media

Converging digital media, consolidation of resources and the bringing together of various forms of media is a positive result for advertisers and consumers, creating both opportunities and challenges as the possibilities are exploited. Advertisers have access to greater reach as the landscape includes traditional and new platforms such as the Internet and social networks. The greater reach effectively gives advertisers the benefits of “unpaid audience labour” in the building of campaigns (Meikle & Young, 2012). Further the participation of the audience through feedback and application of individual experiences allows advertisers’ to not only be more creative but also more proactive (Sheehan & Morrison, 2009). All of these aspects dramatically increase engagement therefore locking in the consumer to the advertisers’ content. Traditional advertising approaches and space is being displaced by digital media convergence.

Flowing of media content on multiple platforms, and participation and interactivity of the consumer with new media technologies

Jenkins’ (2006) definition of convergence involves presentation of content on many media platforms, cooperation and roving nature of the consumer in their quest for entertainment and information. The growing popularity of participatory mediums has devalued paid advertising space on television and radio, which were once highly sought out and valuable to give competitive edge (Appadurai, 2003). The flow of readers and advertisers to online participatory mediums has resulted in “competition for eye-balls and ad dollars” being aggressive (Kiehl cited in Dwyer, 2010). Advertisers’ have adapted to meet the nomadic consumer due to new media convergence; consumers are no longer confined to the geography, they are more flexible, individualised and a set time that previous media providers dealt with, is no longer a prominent factor for advertisers.

Advertisers’ can now use unpaid audience interactivity in the composition and production of their advertising campaigns. Convergent media companies, such as Google, Yahoo! Microsoft have successfully utilised users to do unpaid work of “building and promoting the business” creating content and advertising material for providers through using the service (Meikle & Young, 2012: 66). Further the viral campaign phenomenon is evident in advertising revolution, where an idea is launched from an advertising campaign on the Internet, in the hope that consumers will replicate it through their own social networks, such as sharing on Facebook and ‘tweeting’ (Spurgeon, 2008). The campaign idea then receives a wide exposure to a diverse range of consumers that would otherwise be extremely expensive through traditional media. Advertisers need only to invest once, navigate it through participatory mediums, such as YouTube, and let the consumers filter the advertisement through society. For example “The Force”, a Volkswagen viral campaign, features a child dressed in a Darth Vader costume.

This quirky illustration, uses the George Lucas’s Star Wars feature of ‘Jedi Force’ to show how the Volkswagen is differentiated from the everyday objects the child attempts to control. It reveals the digital media convergence displacing the previous advertising momentum – from television to online. It was released online ahead of US advertising showcase the Super Bowl gathering 12.5 million views world wide on YouTube before being broadcast on television.

Advertising has developed traditionally with the advertiser in control. Whilst feedback from audiences was sought at various stages during the production of an advertisement campaign, advertisers by and large created the advertisement and pushed it out on mass. The adaption of wireless technology allowing communication digitally has changed this change in power significantly. Instead there is now what Sheehan and Morrison (2010) refer to as a culture of “confluence” where users want to interact with content with varying motives. Content flows freely contributing to new levels of innovation and creativity in advertising.

Australia's Fresh Food People: storytelling example; the farmer

Advertisers’, who take advantage of the confluence culture and have moved away from the traditional one-way communication model, will benefit significantly. Further they will reach a greater audience resulting in more successful campaigns. Weaving consumers’ individual experiences into their campaigns increases engagement with content. Engagement is fundamental in media selection and media convergence will further enhance it. In a confluent, media convergent marketplace individual stories lead to recall associated with brands and these individual experiences are being invited and encouraged by advertisers’ from willing consumers (Jenkins, 2006). Brand association ultimately increases sales.

An additional significant benefit for advertisers working in a confluent environment is that they can receive early warnings of any negative messages in their advertising campaigns. Content and branding can be adjusted to either remove or refute these negative reactions to the message. This element of proactivity will further increase success for an advertiser from positive reinforcement of the product (Sheehan & Morrison, 2010).

Operating online users’ decide what they want, how and what they consume. Newer marketing approaches of subtle, passive advertising, have led online advertising to “stealth marketing techniques” (Calvert, 2008), permeating the subconscious with product information hidden when consumers use online sites, films and video games. In particular, online businesses such as Google, eBay, Yahoo! have forced the hidden marketing strategy to respond through specific media providers, to captivate these flexible, fragmented audiences (Dwyer, 2010). According to Meikle & Young (2012: 67), “ Facebook’s commercial operations are instead [of their users] business to business, grounded in advertising…”.

The example of Facebook highlights another aspect of digital media convergence and that is the privacy and visibility of the information gathered in large databases. While the reach is increased dramatically and the speed of reaching the audience is shortened significantly the result can be unpredictable. A single post to a friend liking a product, which was meant to be private, can be seen by multiple users on social networking sites and this is not controllable by the advertiser. The content that was once the accountability of the advertiser is changed when using digital media and this responsibility is now dispersed to the users (Meikle & Young 2012: 78).

The digital media phenomenon facilitates convergence allowing the flowing of media content on multiple platforms, and participation and interactivity of the consumer. These aspects create great opportunities for the advertiser, as new advertising space is available online and unpaid labour to build campaigns can lead to more creative and inexpensive campaigns. The responsibility of content however is no longer within the advertisers control and by soliciting participation of consumers an unpredictable result can materialise.

Reference List

Embedded Media

Mumbrella (2011) 'VW Passat puts pleasure before business' viewed 26th August 2012

<http://mumbrella.com.au/vw-passat-puts-pleasure-before-business-45261>

Volkswagen 2011, The Force: Volkswagen Commercial, YouTube, viewed 26th August 2012

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R55e-uHQna0>

Images

Rudden, J (2012) 'Media Convergence Signals the New Content Imperative' viewed 30th August 2012

<http://www.spredfast.com/2012/07/25/media-convergence-signals-the-new-content-imperative/>

WoolworthsAu (2012) Image Screenshot: 'Welcome to Australia's Fresh Food People - 2', viewed 27th August 2012 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9HoQ1NE2qsE>

Academic Articles and Books

Appadurai, Arjun (1990), 'Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy' in Public Culture, 1990, 2008, Vol.2(2), p.1–24

Calvert, Sandra.L 2008, 'Children as consumers: Advertising and marketing', The Future of Children, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 207

Dwyer, T. (2010) Media Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berksire, pp 1-23

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. pp. 1-24

Meikle, G, and Young, S (2012) Chapter 3 ‘From Broadcast to Social Media’ in Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 59-78

Sheehan, Kim and Morrison, Deborah (2009) Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world in First Monday vol 14 no 3, viewed 29th August 2012 

< http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121>

Spurgeon, C. (2008) Advertising and New Media. Oxon: Routledge. pp.24-45