How Interactive is Too Interactive??

Brands and agencies alike are pushing the boundaries of traditional methods of advertising to strengthen their relationship with the consumer. Advertising is not just about “selling stuff” now days, although that is the ultimate goal, it’s more about the way consumers interact with the brand. 

In recent years there have been fundamental advances in technology that have been cleverly utilized by the advertising industry to create interactive campaigns that engage consumers on a number of levels. An initial idea such as, a brand’s ethos and personality, can be played out on numerous media platforms, such as blogs, social networking sites, home made renditions of adverts spread via youtube and the list goes on. Jenkins describes this concept as transmedia that “unfolds across multiple media platforms with each text making a meaningful and valuable contribution to the whole” (Henry Jenkins 2006)

When applied to a brand this can be a very valuable asset. Perryman describes transmedia as “A participatory process that can potentially results in a richer entertainment experience”(2008). Culture convergence has moved the traditional ‘word of mouth’ to a  global platform. Consumers are now sharing experiences of brands across the globe.

Interactivity occurs on various platforms, however, this week’s blog is going to focus on the phenomenon that is interactive outdoor advertising. That provides an outlet for the telling of a story about a brand.

Imagine this....it is raining, the skies are grey and miserable and you are waiting to get on the number four bus to take you to work. You close your eyes and can hear the sound of a bird and the calming noise of waves lapping at the beach?!...you look to your right to see an enticing sun glowing brightly next to you...no you haven’t been transported to paradise!..although that would be nice on a drab Monday morning! You’re currently experiencing the new realms of interactive advertising. Advertisers have begun to use bright LED screens and speakers transforming traditional advertising spaces such as bus stops and billboards into virtual experiences of augmented reality. Holiday companies have been able to transform the usual “wish you were here” to actually feeling like you are there.

The global outdoor advertising supplier JCDecaux has taken interactive advertising to a whole new level! The popular channel five programme, ‘The Gadget Show’ recently show cased the company’s expertise when it comes to outdoor, interactivity. Showing advertising on floors, bus stops and phone boxes that prompts you to turn on your bluetooth, so that companies can personally send you information about the brand when ever you’re in that area. Interactive posters at bus stops where you can play games and compete against other bus stops to gain the top spot on the leader board. Adverts that show a 3D image on the screen when a card is held at a certain angle. And finally giant 3D images now jump off the billboard, grabbing your attention as your drive down the road.

The link below explains more about the campaign challenge.

http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/innovate/campaigngallery/campaign/?id=357

The main reason for advertisers to use interactivity is that is provides the opportunity for the brand to connect with the consumer on a deeper level. Wells, Burnett and Moriarty proposed in Advertising Principles and Practice that consumers respond to advertising in certain ways with the The Facets Model of Advertising Effectiveness, relating advertising to six facets, persuasion, perception, behaviour, association, cognition and emotion (2000). In my opinion, interactivity allows one single advert to resonate with the consumer engaging numerous facets, going beyond the effect traditional advertising has on the consumer. Adverts are now literally screaming out to the consumer to be noticed.

Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, recently spoke about how interactive advertising has blurred the lines between advertising and entertainment. I would agree to a certain extent that interactive advertising is entertaining, but if you can engage and promote a genuine interest in your brand from consumers, then there is the chance of building brand preference and loyalty; allowing brands to pertain these consumers for a longer period of time, rather than just selling a product. The link is below to an interesting interview about how valuable voluntary story telling can be to a brand.

Interview with Rory Sutherland

Another thing to consider is cost. Interactivity doesn’t come cheap and media planners are always there to bring creatives back to reality! The fairytale world of augmented reality and interactivity is one that comes at a price. Brands also need to consider what using such platforms says about the brand to its consumers and if the target audience even want or need interactivity.

So, what does the future hold for interactive media?...Well we are seeing more and more interactive campaigns from brands, however, I feel it will be a long time before this type of advertising becomes the norm. As a society we are just not ready to say goodbye to the old print advertisements.

Social Media: Friend or Foe of the Modern Advertising Agency?

Web 2.0 was something that I read about in Andrew McStay’s book, ‘Digital Advertising’ but something that was relatively unknown to me. Web 2.0 was a term coined by  Tim O’Reilly of Reilly Media and reflected a fundamental change in the way in which our modern culture communicates with each other. He described the concept as “creating network effects through an architecture of participation," using things such as flash player, search engine optimisation and social networking sites. Basically, the web became a whole lot more social! (Tim O’Reilly Media Inc 2010) 

Who is using Social Media?

Well, pretty much every single brand has taken advantage of this digital phenomenon. I am going to use Starbucks to illustrate how brands have successfully used the platforms that Web 2.0 enables. Starbuck’s Facebook page runs events, competitions and keeps the consumer updated on new product launches and store openings, it also connects the consumers to other forms of social media that it uses like Twitter. The company takes part in a lot of community work and is renowned for its corporate social responsibility, so where better to emphasise this than with the brand’s online community? 

It also regularly updates its Twitter feed to keep their loyal consumers interested and updated. The brand has adverts posted on YouTube that have ‘gone viral’ with over 99,000 hits and counting.

The company has recently decided to change their logo and actively encourages opinions and conversations about it on their website.

But, more generally what does the rapid growth of social media mean for advertisers?

Well, to answer that question, I found an interesting speech by Joanne Blakley, who talks about how social media will mean the end of gender. Traditionally segmentation has been largely based on gender and basic demographics, however she proposes that marketers will now have a large wealth of psychographic information, so that consumers are no longer defined by who they are, but what they do. For example, marketers will no longer define consumers by age, sex, occupation and class, but by their interests, so Starbucks consumers would be defined by the coffee they like etc. She talks about how social media will “free us from the absurd assumptions we make about genders in the media”. The link to her talk is below if you’re interested.

http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html

But I do question, whether stereotypes and representations can be so easily lost? Demographics are the fundamental way in which humans classify the world in order to understand it. I think that social media will provide a larger wealth of information, that will be used in addition to, but not a replacement of demographics. It will open up opportunities for advertisers to use the information to create more individualistic advertising campaigns. It will also enable advertisers and marketers to identify and successfully target more niche communities. 

So, we are going through an era of digital revolution, there is no doubt about that. Social networking has changed the way a whole generation communicate with each other, which has provided a new frontier, which advertising agencies must explore in order to compete. Digital communication has provided us with an ever changing circle of communication that is further perpetuated by change in our society. It’s worth thinking about, because it is happening now.  Facebook and Twitter are no longer trends that all your friends at school or work are doing, it is the signifier for cultural change globally. 

Is social media good or bad? In answer to this question, I really don’t know; the only thing that’s for certain is that it is here to stay! Advertising agencies and brands alike need to embrace it as a lucrative medium of advertising or get left behind with the invention of the printing press. And on that inspirational note I will sign off until next week :)