Advances in technology continue to revolutionize how marketers reach consumers. Businesses are using interactive media to make advertising more relevant to consumers and deliver goods and services more efficiently. The traditional 30-second ad on television is facing competition from emerging trends such as behavioral targeting, advergaming, and in-program advertising. Social networking websites and the explosion of other user-generated content provide businesses new ways to engage the consumer. A number of panels at the Tech-ade Hearings examined these new advertising and marketing developments and considered the competitive benefits and challenges that they bring to consumers and businesses.
This topic was considered during the following panels:
Key Changes Predicted in the Next Tech-ade
Social Networking - Trends and Implications for the Future
User-generated Content - What Does it Mean for Consumers and Marketers?
Marketing and Advertising in the Next Tech-ade
See the Tech-ade Agenda for more information on these panels and for links to the panelists’ presentations.
Related concepts
- Advergames and in-game advertising: A widely adopted innovation in product placement, this category includes both interactive games on an advertiser’s website that incorporate the advertiser’s products, and also any video game that features a product advertisement. Ads can take the form of product placements similar to those in film and television, banner ads, short pre-roll video ads that appear before games load, or full integration of a product into a game in a way that permits the gamer to interact with the product.
- Behavioral targeting: This marketing technique relies on sophisticated technology to analyze consumers’ online activities and provide advertising identified as relevant to their interests.
- Interactive television or “iTV”: By creating a “return path” of information back to the broadcaster about consumers’ preferences and viewing patterns, interactive television will permit the personalization both of content and advertising for television viewers. Interactive features that are already commonly available include video-on-demand and digital video recording functions. In the future, iTV may allow consumers to alter the content and format of programming, and to purchase items directly through their televisions.
- Mobile marketing: Advertising can be delivered to consumers’ mobile devices—such as their cellular phones and PDAs—in a number of formats, including text messages, banner ads, and streaming videos. Mobile marketing that is targeted to consumers based on their location may be possible using GPS technology.
- Search advertising: One of the largest categories of online advertising at present, search advertising involves the purchase of keywords from search engines so that when a consumer runs a search on particular terms, an ad for a company’s website will appear in the results, typically as a sponsored link.
For more information, check out:
FTC Consumer Alert, Being Frank about Search Engine Rank, September 2002
- Viral, “buzz,” and word-of-mouth marketing: A variety of marketing methods rely on pre-existing social networks to increase awareness about a particular product or brand; the rapid communication facilitated by the Internet has enhanced the effectiveness of these techniques. Marketers may encourage consumers to pass along branded messages by offering incentives or by creating appealing, entertaining, or edgy content.
For more information, check out:
A Debate on New Marketing Techniques, October 30, 2006
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