Advertising Trends
You have a great product. You want to let everyone know about the product so they will beat a path to your door. How do you do it? This question must be asked thousands of times every day in the minds of business owners that produce products. What is it that makes some advertising work and other advertising not work? That's a big question. It is often much easier to find what doesn't work then it is to isolate what does.
Effective advertising is a combination of several factors. The measurements of reach, frequency and targeting the audience are critical. Then there is the combination of the message and the medium. Timing is important. And finally is the consideration of cost.
Of all the factors listed above would suggest placement as the most critical element in the mix, since a major goal of the company is to reach a sufficient number of the right people.
In order to break through the clutter of the thousands of advertising messages each individual is subjected to, a company must get a person know about the new product, that is to build up brand awareness, through making them notice the ads. The high-tech XXI century puts innovative advertising media at the service of those how create ads. Generally it is acknowledged that there is no greater state of changes in business than in the advertising world right now. New advertising models are mutating and developing, while others are being abandoned as obsolete or doomed.
Here's what I am talking about. Thanks to DVR’s (Digital Video Recorders), the days of the 30-second broadcast TV commercial are numbered. Advertising agencies and developers must begin to think outside the box to capture the consumers’ attention. Advertisers and broadcast networks know this, and are desperately searching for a replacement model. That's why you're seeing more makes of cars, soft drinks, beer, and other brands being placed right into the TV shows themselves. This is nothing new, it's been done in movies for years. Only recently, however, have advertisers and broadcasters really begun to see the value of embedding their messages in the programming itself. This is being done in addition to running commercials. That, frankly, most of their audience doesn't even watch anymore.
Most advertising experts say that within a couple more years, the national TV commercial as we know it will be gone. 15 and 30-second spots will be limited solely to local markets during news broadcasts and late night hours. Prime-time advertising, as well as advertising during sporting events, will continue to evolve as they are before our very eyes. The ads all over the screen during the game, when they KNOW you're watching.
Advertising experts also believe that some forms of print advertising, namely newspapers and periodicals will whither and die. They are already seeing declining numbers which will continue over the next few years.
So in place of these dying dinosaur models, what hot trends are in the horizon for 2007 and beyond? Here are a few of the more powerful ones:
On-line Advertising - Keyword search advertising will continue to boom and become even more sophisticated and targeted. Already, major advertisers are jumping on board this model with great success. The cool thing about this kind of advertising is that the little guy has the ability to compete head to head with his bigger competition. No matter how much larger advertisers dominate, the smaller businesses will be able to thrive via specialization and localization.
Blogs and Forums - Blogging has become a major source of content on the internet, and the "blogosphere" has become a major force. Bloggers share content with other blogs through cross-linking. Readers can traverse to different blog sites in the same niche using links. It's a truly revolutionary flow of content and information. Advertisers have figured out that they can use blogs to provide in-depth content about their company and products, and in doing so create a dialog with their audience. Forums are being used in the same way, giving companies a channel to communicate with its audience on a mass scale, and provide the same kind of two-way dialog. Used wisely, this can be powerful stuff for advertising.
Direct Marketing. Direct marketing has definitely evolved from mail-orders. There will always be products that can be marketed directly to the buyer without the need for retail stores or other distribution. Largely due to the net, quick supply-chain distribution, and other innovations, it continues to go strong and evolve, growing at double digit rates as it generates immediate feedback in many cases. It will remain a hot trend for years to come.
There are several other advertising trends that are emerging. Some perhaps not yet ready for prime-time. Advertising through text messaging to mobile phones is a good example. Generally, to my mind, the wave of the future for advertising is high tech advertising. Advertising is moving in the direction of our global technological world. Advertising will not stand still and let the world move by. Advertising will keep up with the increasing technological aspects of our new global economic world. Be assured that many innovative trends will continue to surface, and the evolutions will continue. But only the smartest and strongest will survive.