Digital Media Convergence and Advertising
By Nali Lishomwa - 42345235
The Digital Convergence has been explained as the flow of
content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiplr media
industries, and the migratory behaviour of audiences.(Jenkins 2006: 2)
A prime example of media convergence can be seen in the world of advertising. With the convergence of media advertisers are able to reach a wider audience by having their adverts appear in different forms of media.
While billboards and the mesmerizing late night adverts still exist, in the digital age advertisers have had to adapt to the new world and have found ways to get their adds to the audience almost regardless of where the audience is and what the audience is doing.
Music has been a staple of advertising for years, with digital media convergence on the rise advertisers have fast started choosing one of three jingles to go with their ads, either a old yet familiar song that will remind us of “the good old days” and forever link the product with those happy times, a catchy new pop song which every teenager may already love or will love after hearing it, or a specific jingle that will have the user furiously searching “what is that song in ad XYZ?” on www.adtunes.com .
These catchy tunes end up being advertising in and of themselves as the audience describes the song as “that song from ad XYZ”, without knowing it when they tell their friends about the song or ad their friends then go and watch the ad, this brings in another audience member and they cycle keeps going and going, in a sort of Electronic Word-of-Mouth.(Phelps 2004)
A prime example of media convergence can be seen in the world of advertising. With the convergence of media advertisers are able to reach a wider audience by having their adverts appear in different forms of media.
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| Effective Advertising? |
While billboards and the mesmerizing late night adverts still exist, in the digital age advertisers have had to adapt to the new world and have found ways to get their adds to the audience almost regardless of where the audience is and what the audience is doing.
Music has been a staple of advertising for years, with digital media convergence on the rise advertisers have fast started choosing one of three jingles to go with their ads, either a old yet familiar song that will remind us of “the good old days” and forever link the product with those happy times, a catchy new pop song which every teenager may already love or will love after hearing it, or a specific jingle that will have the user furiously searching “what is that song in ad XYZ?” on www.adtunes.com .
These catchy tunes end up being advertising in and of themselves as the audience describes the song as “that song from ad XYZ”, without knowing it when they tell their friends about the song or ad their friends then go and watch the ad, this brings in another audience member and they cycle keeps going and going, in a sort of Electronic Word-of-Mouth.(Phelps 2004)
Here we have an example of all three
Classic music: Modern Catchy music:
Classic music: Modern Catchy music:
Custom Jingle:
However, this adding of popular, classical or custom jingles
to songs doesn’t always work, its very possible to have songs that the
audiences hates or has gotten tired of hearing, and this can have a negative
effect on the product.
While adding music to a commercial has been going on for
what seems like forever, with growing convergence a new form of advertising as
risen, product placement in music videos, why stop at having a popular song in
your advert, when you can have your product in a popular song. Music Videos
such as Lady
Gaga and Beyonces Telephone seemingly go out of their way to show off brand
labels of products as a form of advertising. This is clear cut example of
Digital Convergence as the brands being shown off are only just related to the
song and an audience who might not have ever been exposed to these products are
seeing them front and centre being used by their favourite artists.:
Here are some screen caps of the video in question in which
you can clearly see full frame shots of nothing but brand products being shown
off.
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| HP Envy, Beats by Dre and Plentyoffish all being advertised in a music video |
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| Virgin Mobile and the LG slider being shown off by Lady Gaga. |
The integration of internet access everywhere is arguably
the biggest impact to advertising since print, content can sent and viewed by
users pretty much all the time, with electronic word of mouth and viral
marketing advertisers need only attract a small number of users who will then
spread the word through convergent media technologies such as Facebook.
The image below shows the structure pass along emails while
not fully relevant today it is still relevant in the sense that Facebook wall
posts have taken over from the pass along email and the decision making steps
are still the same.
With almost every electronic device having some sort of
facebook integration, users see an advert that interests them or makes them
laugh and they cant help but spread the word.
And unlike pass along emails which were complete private from user to user, Facebooks Wall posts are semi private in that only people who are deemed friends may see it, but every one of your friends will see.
As such one good wall post of an interesting advert can get a companies ad from 1,000 views to 1,000,000 simply by having friends of friends of friends keep viewing it and passing it on.
And unlike pass along emails which were complete private from user to user, Facebooks Wall posts are semi private in that only people who are deemed friends may see it, but every one of your friends will see.
As such one good wall post of an interesting advert can get a companies ad from 1,000 views to 1,000,000 simply by having friends of friends of friends keep viewing it and passing it on.
Another place where digital media convergence has really
helped advertising is in the videogame industry.
There are two main models of videogame advertising, Advergames and in-game adverts.(Sadler et al 2008: 10), advergames are games that are commission by a marketer and designed solely to advertise a specific product.
There are two main models of videogame advertising, Advergames and in-game adverts.(Sadler et al 2008: 10), advergames are games that are commission by a marketer and designed solely to advertise a specific product.
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| BMW M3 Challenge an Advergame for the BMW M3 |
Games such as BMW
M3 Challenge are campaigns that will far outlast most conventional
advertising campaigns as users can still download and play the game months even
years after the games launch, BMW M3 Challenge is free to play so users feel they are getting the good end of
the deal.
Most advergames keep things as simple as possible as so to keep the user hooked, games such as the U.N Food Groups’ FreeRice, which is simply a multiple choice trivia game, in which the prize is grains of rice, has kept users entertained since 2007 in March 2012 alone over 310,000 grains of rice were won.(FreeRice)
Most advergames keep things as simple as possible as so to keep the user hooked, games such as the U.N Food Groups’ FreeRice, which is simply a multiple choice trivia game, in which the prize is grains of rice, has kept users entertained since 2007 in March 2012 alone over 310,000 grains of rice were won.(FreeRice)
In-Game advertising on the other hand, brings real world
brands into the fictional universes of videogames. In-game ads themselves can
be broken down into two groups, static and dynamic, static ads are ads that are
hardcoded into the game and remain the same regardless of when you play the
game.
Dynamic in-game adverts can be changed by the developers if the computer or console is connected to the internet as so to always have the newest products being shown off, or to target a specific demographic based on other information gathered.
In this way advertisers are using digital media convergence to reach the videogame playing audience that they might not have been able to reach before, for instance with me I never really watch TV or watch music videos, most of the advertising that I get is actually through Videogame websites or Videogames themselves.
Here is an example of in- game advertising in the game Need for Speed:
Dynamic in-game adverts can be changed by the developers if the computer or console is connected to the internet as so to always have the newest products being shown off, or to target a specific demographic based on other information gathered.
In this way advertisers are using digital media convergence to reach the videogame playing audience that they might not have been able to reach before, for instance with me I never really watch TV or watch music videos, most of the advertising that I get is actually through Videogame websites or Videogames themselves.
Here is an example of in- game advertising in the game Need for Speed:
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| Real world brands being advertised in a Video Game |
In Conclusion, the convergence of all these different media
technologies has brought about a new age for advertisers as they find more
creative ways to get their products seen.
Digital Media Convergence and nigh constant internet connectivity has made it almost too easy to get adverts out, the hard part is now making adverts that not only have lasting appeal but that are also capable of compelling the user.
Digital Media Convergence and nigh constant internet connectivity has made it almost too easy to get adverts out, the hard part is now making adverts that not only have lasting appeal but that are also capable of compelling the user.
References
Jenkins, H (2006), Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide, NY University Press.
Phelps, J(2004), Viral Marketing or Electronic Word-of-Mouth Advertising, in Journal
of Advertising Research DOI: 10.1017/S0021849904040371
Sadler, S , Kelly, TS and Rhind, A(2008), Advertising and Video Games, Havas
Digital
Retrieved from: http://www.mediacontacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/mc_insight_advergaming.pdf
Retrieved from: http://www.mediacontacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/mc_insight_advergaming.pdf
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