MAS110 Assessment 1
William Taggart Kirbyshire (MQ ID: 42889286)
The interlinking of new media with advertising has become
increasingly prominent, efficient and effective as the advertising potential of
new media platforms has been realised. Advertisers now have access to multiple forms
of information distribution and have quickly leaped at the prospect of
exploiting these new media, through bringing together different forms of media
as well as other creative endeavours to ensure a constant supply of customers. The
scope of contemporary mixed media has helped to facilitate a larger audience
for all advertisers, permitting smaller businesses with less money the ability
to market themselves, as well as providing big business a means to further
consolidate their customer base. These trends have had a number of implications
on both the nature of adverts as well as the media themselves.
A number of technological advancements have become crucial to
media and subsequently advertising. The somewhat revolutionary
commercialisation of the internet, combined with the relatively recent rise of
internet videos, internet flash-based games and the ousting of dial-up
connections, permitting faster bandwidth speeds. Of particular interest is the power of the
search engine as a means to find relevant material. In this way, advertisers
have been able to market products directly and almost exclusively to their
target market. Web based advertisements also provide a cheap means to advertise
to a wide audience. This has enabled relatively small businesses audience to many
internet users across the globe. Some of the larger more well-known companies
have used the internet in more creative and interactive ways than the simplistic
side-bar advertisements. For example New Zealand’s latest tourism campaign,
‘Kiwi sceptics’, specifically targeted towards Australians that are less
inclined to travel to New Zealand. They have released five videos online, with
just enough wit and humour to keep the viewer watching. This convergence of
advertising techniques, bringing video onto the internet together with clever
narration, addresses one of the main issues confronted by internet advertisers;
the internet user has to wish to click on the advertisement. The other
interesting implication of internet as a media platform is that it extends to numerous
consoles, such as computers, smart phones and gaming consoles. It is intriguing
to note the level of advertising even present in gaming consoles, especially
the Xbox 360, that take the form of videos, pictures and text on the console’s home
page or ‘dashboard’. The proliferation of different media forms on these
consoles also means the advertising is targeted not only at games, but music,
films and the combination, music videos, which can all be watched, accessed and
even purchased on the console. These essentially cease to be exclusively gaming
consoles just as Ipod’s have ceased to be exclusively music players, presenting
advertisers with new potential for sending their respective messages.
An example of one of the 'Kiwi Sceptics' advertisements for New Zealand Tourism.
Advertisements not only permeate the internet though, having
well been accustomed to film and television shows for decades before the
internet became commercial. Some of the earliest advertising in films
especially was product placement, a technique still often employed by
advertisers though in a more advanced and subtle sense now than has been in the
past. One need only recall films like ‘Iron Man’, flaunting the protagonist’s
latest Audi automotive, a background Dell computer, LG phones and many other
products. ‘Toy Story’, now hailed as a Pixar classic, is perhaps one of the
most successful and cleverest films in relation to product placement. The very
premise is built around toys like Barbie and Mr Potato Head. Music videos have
also had similar treatment, with some hosting arrays of products, instantly,
and if executed well sometimes even subconsciously, recognisable. A rare
occasion of product placement was even present in the recent and well received
video game, ‘Sleeping Dogs’, with the protagonist clearly holding an Iphone for
one scene. This is not the only way in which advertising has pervaded television
though, with multiple forms of media used to market and in some cases affect
television. The Australian political and philosophical discussion show, ‘Q and
A’ uses an online voting system so that viewers can interact with a poll which is
presented at the end of the discussion. Furthermore reality television shows
such as ‘Big Brother’ similarly appeal to the Australian public to vote, though
via phones this time, as to the show’s outcome.
Various television shows have also started using multi-media
to advertise. An example of how advertising has penetrated to television shows
is the long-running series, ‘Doctor Who’, which appeals to contemporary
internet culture in particular through precise marketing. The BBC website hosts
multiple interactive games, specially recorded interactive ‘webisodes’ which
play out in a similar way to the once popular ‘choose your own adventure’ style
books, video blogs detailing behind the scenes production techniques, tweets
and various other textual blogs, quizzes, extensive pages detailing the lore
and plotlines of the show, photographs, clips from episodes and many more
features. Through the online medium Doctor Who has gathered on online cult
following and has, perhaps unintentionally, been the subject of numerous
‘memes’. Memes are a largely internet phenomenon which usually encompass
photographs and text relating to an idea in popular culture. They are humorous
for the most part and bear insightful, funny, or occasionally nonsensical
meanings. The meme culture has embraced Doctor Who, with numerous memes spawned
from the franchise. They tend to be started by internet forums as opposed to
being proposed by companies and in turn become an organic way in which a
culture can share and in a sense, advertise certain things. This untraditional
and usually unintentional form of advertisement is parallel to viral campaigns,
capitalised upon by companies that use people to spread their message through
the internet as opposed to the standardised, scheduled commercials.
An example of one of the viral fan-created Doctor Who memes.
To conclude, the convergence of media has provided businesses
with vast new modes of advertising. The internet has been a large component of
this, as it can be accessed through many varying kinds of devices and is
versatile enough to encompass numerous forms of multimedia. This can provide
advertisers with more engaging ways to sell products, like games, videos and
various downloads. The convergence of media onto singular platforms such as the
Iphone and the Xbox has also granted advertisers the ability to cheaply and
effectively sell products to a large audience of people. Films have been
infiltrated by advertising, as have music videos and video games by way of
product placement. Media convergence has allowed a barrage of advertising from
all fronts in a cheap, effective, and efficient manner.
References:
- Neil Perryman, “Doctor Who and the Convergence of Media: A Case Study in ‘Transmedia Storytelling’’, (Sage journals, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 14, 2008) p.21-39
- Spurgeon C., ‘Advertising and New Media’, From the ‘Long Tail’ to ‘Madison and Vine’, (Routledge, New York, NY, 2008) p.24-45
- http://www.airnewzealand.com.au/kiwi-sceptics - Kiwi Sceptics website with the aforementioned tourist campaign video advertisements.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0 - The Doctor Who website discussed.
- http://t.qkme.me/354ld9.jpg - Dr Who fan meme URL location (Found via Google Images).
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