“Traditional advertising players risk major revenue declines as budgets shift rapidly to new, interactive formats, which are expected to grow at nearly five times that of traditional advertising. To survive in this new reality, broadcasters must change their mass audience mind-set to cater to niche consumer segments, and distributors need to deliver targeted, interactive advertising for a range of multimedia devices. Advertising agencies must experiment creatively, become brokers of consumer insights, and guide allocation of advertising dollars amid exploding choices. All players must adapt to a world where advertising inventory is increasingly bought and sold in open exchanges vs. traditional channels…â€
Internet is capturing more minds every day, people spend less time watching television and more time browsing the net. Generation of young adults from 14 to 25 have abandoned television in their majority in favor of the World Wide Web. Future of marketing is not hard to predict. Television advertising and TV in general is already experiencing a steady decline in viewers numbers and will die a slow death unless it completely shifts to internet like on-demand scheme. Though it will be a player for years to come, due to the fact that it holds a good grip on older generation – its days are numbered.
A Big Part of Traditional Advertising Will Have to Go – Subliminal Messages.
Television ads, in their majority, spin highly subliminal content playing on people’s desires and placing accurately hidden messages in peoples unconscious. We could have a new section on this topic, but as an example I want to mention an interesting commercial about a washing machine. There was a lovely lady swimming and dancing in clean bed covers that she took out of that machine while throughout the ad, a cute little puppy was in the frame.
We all have seen puppies, their innocent child like eyes melt even the toughest hearts. It was no accident that creature found its place on national TV. By placing it into a commercial of a washing machine, marketers painted a very specific felling towards their product.
Its puffiness (it was long haired) placed an image of innocence and purity on the outcome of their product, which in the case of that commercial were clean bed covers washed in their machine. And who doesn’t want their bedding clean pure and puffy? Unsuspected house wives were a subject to unconscious conditioning and whenever they would go shopping for a new washing machine, they would have an appeal towards that brand without even knowing it.
Our brains are that powerful and our subconscious is like a sponge – it is sees and remembers everything. O hail Freud.
How does that relate to internet marketing? I believe subliminal messages, on which most TV advertising industry exists, will lose a lot of its ground, and major changes will occur in the mentality and education process of the marketers. Even though pictures that contain hidden messages are as effective, you will have to get people to view them in the first place, which on the internet is a task in itself.
Point and Shoot is Obsolete – Marketing will be Consumer Driven.
Whoever adapts to the consumer will win. Facebook is already on a roll. Having gained access to the most precise marketing information, Facebook is fiercely working towards and integrated marketing platform that will target only qualified individuals on per product basis. Though it is somewhat unethical to scoop around private information in such a manner, their user agreement states they can do whatever they want with it.
SEO firms are going to be key players in marketing due to a simple fact – they are consumer driven. Nothing sells better then the products that consumers look for with an intention to buy.
Next step after establishment of the SEO as a necessity, I envision a mix of SEO with very precise targeted copywriting. Those who figure out how to optimize and manage to implement very convincing sales messages are going to have an edge over traditional SEOs, because not only they will drive traffic, but convert as much of it as possible. This might involve more developers on SEOs side to create more back up responses and more copywriters to implement the copies, however I believe it will be used as a method to stand out from the crowd once it gets too crowded and bases are established to afford it.
Very Niche, Targeted Marketing is the Future, while TV is Left in the Dust.
Freedom of information drives people to the net, not only because they can compare and find best prices, but because blunt FOX News style propaganda is not fooling anyone anymore. Information is the driver and internet marketers will have to figure out how to appeal to every niche possible and provide in-depth, resourceful information along with it, because not only search engines love content, people do too.
There numerous other methods like: in game ads, PPC, in video ads, banners, press and I am sure many more on the way – it all comes down to the core. Information. Having gained access and insight(Facebook, Hitwise) into the most private details of the prospects companies are arming themselves with the most formidable weapon. Those who will know the most will make the most. How will that play out on SEO, we will see. For now, feel safe in making a right choice, it is here to stay.
Search Engine Optimization is a Great Window, Seize the Chance.
“Search is utilitarian. Search is constantly accused of not being sexy. That drives me nuts. The irony is that in pigeonholing search as being boring and utilitarian, all these brilliant advertising minds are missing the biggest idea of all: search works because it’s the customer driving the process, not the advertiser.â€
Source
As you can see, a lot of people are still not aware of the potential, which in all cases is an advantage. It won’t be for long though. It is a matter of time before search marketing goes supernova and becomes as necessary as having a website, we just have to wait and prepare ourselves, because when it does you better be ready.
IBM file.
