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Digital Media Convergence
Advertising and New Media
The phenomenon of digital media convergence has influenced new media and all that are affected by the dramatic change of technologies. Advertising is something that decades ago was most prominent on the television set. The black box confined individuals to wait for their favourite show and sit through commercials absorbing the information that was being presented to them. Advertisers have been forced to converge their techniques alongside digital media convergence. They must 'adapt or die' to survive in the realm of new media. Many advertisers have been able to do so by amalgmating the 'Madison and Vine' concept that Christina Spurgeon had introducted in her text From the 'Long Trail' to 'Madison and Vine'. Another outlook on advertisment is one that actively involves consumers. Consumer sovereignty shapes the way advertisement agencies should present a commodity, and this is insinuated in Kim Bartel Sheehan and Deborah K. Morrison's Beyond Convergence: Confluence Culture and the Role of the Advertising Agency in a Changing World.
The concept of Madison and Vine is the idea that advertisers must amalgmate both advertisment (Madison) and entertainment (Vine) for consumers to be drawn into a product. Spurgeon touches upon two evils of advertising which consist of two key ideas that advertisers have to consider when creating a visual for their media audiences. One is that they cannot simply predicted that media audiences are passive (Spurgeon, 2008). The catalyst for this is that the consumer’s ability to access information online is becoming increasingly significant. Digital media convergence has opened doors to media audiences (Sheehan & Morrison 2009) that allow them to be much more critical before they decide to consider commodities. This is something that challengers advertising agencies. They cannot simply expect to persuade consumers to have faith in a commodity that is represented as desirable which relates to the second evil of advertising that conveys that “perfect information in a market can only be attained through rational, instrumental allocution”(Spurgeon, 2008). This echoes the ‘Madison and Vine'. An example of a successful ad campaign that has become successful through entertainment and advertising is a commercial for BMW, which was presented as a short 10 minute film. In favour of advertisers, this new way of representing a commodity was incredibly popular online. BMW sales increased by 12% in one financial year.
Kim Bartel Sheehan and Deborah K. Morrison's convey the concept of cultural convergence. The individuals are moving online to seek more and more information, which Jenkins refers to as "collective intelligence"(Jenkins, 2006)
Youtube is a key influence on the popularity of many advertisments. Once one video leaks over Youtube, it will effectively leak onto social networking sites which further promote a product. It cuts through the clutter, that is tedious advertisements. Individuals are moving ideas through the online realm, enhancing its value.
New convergent media has effectively created a foundation for individuals. One that holds a new way of doing things. As media has converged so have people, and they have created another life beyond the real, one that entitles the flexibility of space and time. Audiences do not have to wait for their favourite show to air on the television, and they do not have to plan their day around missing a particular show. The catalyst? New media. The internet is the most signficant media source of our current era (Sheehan & Morrison 2009). Audiences are capable of diregarding the tedious commercials that are presented on Television, and this is why advertisement agencies have turned online. Youtube is a forum where individuals are able to post content and vlogs to an international audience. Advertisers are utilising Youtube as a way in which is more cost effective and in a way that targets an international audience that will hopefully move a commodity through culture. Old Spice advertised men's scented body wash gained a profound 42 million views online. An advertisement that went viral. Online users of social netwroking sites such as Facebook and Twitter moved the video through new media, sharing the Youtube clip with friends and family who further moved the video to others online users. After this clip went viral, so did the face of Old Spice, Isaiah. Microsoft later emplyed him to be the face of their newest product. The sent Isaiah to Bondi Beach to promote a commodity, which inevitable worked to Microsofts advantage. The online video had made Isaiah incredibly desirable and humourous that enriched the value of the product. Because we had been exposed to one advertisement, another was able to 'cut through the clutter' (Jenkins 2006). It is interesting to note that this Ad had become an online sensation before making it to the television. This insinuates a tactic for advertisers, that online, they are able to test the popularity of a product before they decide to air something on television which evidently is much more economically repressing.
The concept of Madison and Vine is the idea that advertisers must amalgmate both advertisment (Madison) and entertainment (Vine) for consumers to be drawn into a product. Spurgeon touches upon two evils of advertising which consist of two key ideas that advertisers have to consider when creating a visual for their media audiences. One is that they cannot simply predicted that media audiences are passive (Spurgeon, 2008). The catalyst for this is that the consumer’s ability to access information online is becoming increasingly significant. Digital media convergence has opened doors to media audiences (Sheehan & Morrison 2009) that allow them to be much more critical before they decide to consider commodities. This is something that challengers advertising agencies. They cannot simply expect to persuade consumers to have faith in a commodity that is represented as desirable which relates to the second evil of advertising that conveys that “perfect information in a market can only be attained through rational, instrumental allocution”(Spurgeon, 2008). This echoes the ‘Madison and Vine'. An example of a successful ad campaign that has become successful through entertainment and advertising is a commercial for BMW, which was presented as a short 10 minute film. In favour of advertisers, this new way of representing a commodity was incredibly popular online. BMW sales increased by 12% in one financial year.
Youtube is a key influence on the popularity of many advertisments. Once one video leaks over Youtube, it will effectively leak onto social networking sites which further promote a product. It cuts through the clutter, that is tedious advertisements. Individuals are moving ideas through the online realm, enhancing its value.
New convergent media has effectively created a foundation for individuals. One that holds a new way of doing things. As media has converged so have people, and they have created another life beyond the real, one that entitles the flexibility of space and time. Audiences do not have to wait for their favourite show to air on the television, and they do not have to plan their day around missing a particular show. The catalyst? New media. The internet is the most signficant media source of our current era (Sheehan & Morrison 2009). Audiences are capable of diregarding the tedious commercials that are presented on Television, and this is why advertisement agencies have turned online. Youtube is a forum where individuals are able to post content and vlogs to an international audience. Advertisers are utilising Youtube as a way in which is more cost effective and in a way that targets an international audience that will hopefully move a commodity through culture. Old Spice advertised men's scented body wash gained a profound 42 million views online. An advertisement that went viral. Online users of social netwroking sites such as Facebook and Twitter moved the video through new media, sharing the Youtube clip with friends and family who further moved the video to others online users. After this clip went viral, so did the face of Old Spice, Isaiah. Microsoft later emplyed him to be the face of their newest product. The sent Isaiah to Bondi Beach to promote a commodity, which inevitable worked to Microsofts advantage. The online video had made Isaiah incredibly desirable and humourous that enriched the value of the product. Because we had been exposed to one advertisement, another was able to 'cut through the clutter' (Jenkins 2006). It is interesting to note that this Ad had become an online sensation before making it to the television. This insinuates a tactic for advertisers, that online, they are able to test the popularity of a product before they decide to air something on television which evidently is much more economically repressing.
The process of digital media convergence has shaped consumers and the types of audiences that advertisers have to target. Because of this convergent nature of technology, audiences have become much more individualised. Their collective intelligence is moulded through the information they are able to access. This is why the Madison and Vine concept purposed by Spurgeon increasingly more significant for advertisement agencies. They must "adapt or die" in the exercise of being successful. Audiences are much more difficult to please, which is why advertisers need to combine the two concepts of advertising and entertainment to be successful. The videos that have gone viral have not just gone viral with one or the other. Both Old Spice and BMW's Star have cut throught the clutter through representing both a product to be sold and a form of entertainment that can we watched time and time again. A video that will be spread across the face of the online realm, reaching an international audience.
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References
- Spurgeon, Christina (2008) Advertising and New Media. Oxon Routledge, pp 24- 45
- Sheehan, Kim, Morrison, Deborah (2009) Beyond Convergence: Confluence Culture and the Role of the Advertising Agencey in a Changing World. http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121
- Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture: "where old and new media collide" pp 68 - 69
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