New Technologies in Advertising: How new technologies are going to change the way we communicate 

Author: Dimitris Mitsopoulos 

 

1. Introduction 

This paper deals with the rapid growth of new media as new mediums of

communication. The first thing that is analyzed is the Internet, as in the last

decade, it has an enormous growth on users and has advanced

technologically in a geometrical growth. We see how the internet have

changed the way we communicate and they way we behave, and the social

impacts that it has in our everyday life. Secondly, we see the mobile phones

as a second medium of communication, and how this new trend has

influenced our everyday life, and whether this is a good medium for

advertising. Lastly, we see the future trends in the new media. The main

issues that are being addressed here are

2. Internet as a new way of communication  

Today, Internet is a part of our life. Every single one of us is seeking

information in it. The launch of search engines (Yahoo, Google) has been a

revolution in information seeking. Most of us communicate through Instant

Messengers, have emails which we can make business with, and use it very

 

frequently. It has become a necessary need for our lives nowadays, and a

necessary tool for everyday jobs.

But this evolution, has a lot of social impacts in our everyday life, as

computer mediated communication has a lot of effects on our society.

Several studies have been made for these social impacts, and how the

Internet has influenced our way of living, our way of communicating and the

way we behave. The results are surely worth pointing.

According to Tom Postmes (Intergroup Differentiation in Computer-

Mediated Communication: Effects of Depersonalization, 2007), the Internet

creates great anonymity. Although this can interconnect a lot of people from

different backgrounds, cultures, religion status, social class, etc, and reduces

the stereotypes that the real life communication might have, the use of

pseudonyms does not allow us to know, in several cases, which is the other

on the other side that we are exchanging opinions in an Online Forum for

example.

Others have added that if, for example, you were having an email

communication with someone you want to make business with, this

communication is words apart from the communication that you will make

when talking to the other by phone, and very different when meeting him face

to face (LILLEMOR ADRIANSON and ERLAND HJELMQUIST: Group

processes in solving two problems: face-to-face and computer-mediated

Communication, 2007.)

Last but not least, the rapid growth of Internet using, plus the fast way of

living, has led us to isolation and lack of face to face communication. This has

led to online social media and communication Websites (Hi5, Facebook,

Twitter) with millions of subscribers globally. People nowadays socialize

through these websites, and it is a very interesting and worth pointing for our

further research. People spend a lot of times in these; they flirt online, they

make new friends online, they do their entire social life online (Keith N.

 

Hampton NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE NETWORK SOCIETY: The e-

Neighbors study, 2008).

This is the part where online advertising found a good ground to plant its

seeds and found an enormous growth. Social media is the new trend that

nowadays has a great success, and it is a place which an advertiser must

definitely take into consideration in order to catch specific audiences.

Online ads should follow users and communities, since users are the ones

to decide what content they want to put where. Digital content is less about

free-standing web sites these days, as users share videos, blog posts, and

widgets with each other across sites, and as big media (like CBS) starts to

push their content out to multiple distribution partners. At the same time,

digital content is starting to flow off the PC and onto mobile and IPTV

platforms.

This dual flow is changing how we interact with digital content and ads. It’s

starting to push a proliferation of ad formats (beyond pre-roll, overlay,

interstitial, banner, etc) and ad targeting paradigms (beyond contextual,

demographic, social, behavioral). We can expect to start seeing more ad

models that allow for the ad message to travel around with content, or that,

like behavioral targeting, follow the user regardless of the content they’re

consuming.

Thus, we need to base on the Web 2.0 essence: Interactivity. According to

Phil Leggiere, 2007 point about online advertising, we need to do behavioral targeting (BT) : “The fundamentals of behavioral targeting are simple: getting

the right message to the right person at the right place at the right time.” (Phil

Leggiere, 2007).

This is the new trend that is already being followed. Facebook was the first

to do this. The website was built, to interconnect people around. Through web

 

applications, quizzes etc, that people share, it can collect useful data for its

users, about their beliefs, about their habits, or in a nutshell, as mentioned

before, about their behavior (BT tactic). This can lead us to several, targeted

ads for people with similar behavioral characteristics, and target each group

differently! In fact, this is what Facebook is doing, by having different ads in

the profile of different users.

The interactivity that nowadays’ users want, makes the online

communication challenging. The most effective way, though, is the

Behavioral Tactic - as far as Internet is concerned. We can reach the user in

the right place, at the right time, and give him the right message. Although

sometimes annoying for them, Facebook users, DO click on most ads shown

on their profile. Sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes because it might

interest them even a little, but they do click on the ad to see the message or to

be led to the website driven by the ad. It is a successful strategy, although it

has some ethical arguments from many directions. This “gather them in one

place and segment them” tactic, makes advertising very targeted and

effective, thus it has reached its basic objective.

      2.2 Interactivity as a way of communicating with consumers  

Interactivity is the key to the Web nowadays. Let us try to analyze this.

Google AdSense for example is the key to the search engine optimization, by

tagging specific words in your website or your web application, so when a

user queries the phrase: “Greek Hotels” for example, he can find several ads

linking him to products and services related to this query. Not only that, but he

can find information that someone could have written in a wiki page, in his

personal blog, or in an online forum, concerning for example his experience in

 

Greek hotels. Reviews, comparisons and much other useful information are

all around the Web.

      2.3 The future of online advertising   

More or less, these are the new trends and are already being followed by

big companies. In the future, viral campaigns will play an important role in

online advertising. Predictions say that in the next 5-7 years, visualization and

3D will be the next trend. There are already a lot of applications that are run

as pilots.

 

 

 

The experts indicate that this is the future. We cannot say for sure how the users will interact to this new technology. It is sure though to come, and online behavior WILL change, so new tactics have to be established.

In fact, it is predicted that the keyboard and the mouse will be abolished,

and will be replaced by new, interactive 3D environments, that gesture will

place an important role. The entire human – computer interfacing will be done

by gesture movements, where the user will be able to interact according to the

movement of his hand. As a matter of fact, there are already a number of

games machines like Xbox that have already established this new technology

in some of their games.

3. Cell Phones communication: Can we advertise?  

As mentioned earlier, there are two key issues in today’s advertising:

Behavior of the consumers (Behavioral Tactic (BT)).

Interactivity

By catching these two, we can have a successful marketing campaign.

Mobile phones are the second most exciting achievement of the global

 

technology. Everyone uses them, and they have definitely changed the way

we communicate.

With the radical growth of this new technology, the impacts were the same

as the Internet’s. Isolation, flirting through sms, talking for hours with someone

and when we meet him we do not have anything else to say. Some say, that

mobile phones have replaced the hangouts, where people used to meet up,

without even having arranged something, as done today with the mobile

phones. People were going to a pub or a cafeteria, where they were sure that

they will find most of their friends there.

As far as communication is concerned, mobile phones have helped a lot,

because have made our life simpler, hence the rapid growth. But searching it

thoroughly, it has the same social impacts as the Internet.

So the question still lies: can we advertise in cell phones? The answer is

yes, but we do not thing that this would be very successful. In order to do this,

we can send thousands of text messages to subscribers. Furthermore, we

can send the info – ad via Bluetooth messages. There are some problems

though.

Even if we send bulk text messages, how can we be sure about the

behavior of the recipient? How do we know about his mental state at the

moment? Imagine that you receive a text message in a stressful time of your

day. How are you going to react? It is nearly impossible to “catch” the

behavior of each recipient.

Secondly, it is interactivity. Let’s say that we do install a wireless hot spot in

a mall, where people have more or less the same behavior, and we send

messages via Bluetooth. First of all, the user must have its Bluetooth on, and

secondly, if on, he must accept the data that are sent to him. There is a

process which has many steps, and as it is understandable it is very difficult.

 

So the new trends, Interactivity and Behavioral Tactic are difficult to be

applied. Although it is a good technology, it is quite doubtful to have an

effective impact.

 

4. Beyond PCs and the Internet: New technologies in the market ­ Visualization and Interactivity 

 

As we have seen so far, interactivity and visualization play a major role in

today consumer’s perception. In computing and Internet area, many

companies, have already invested a lot of money to follow this. Major steps

have been made for better visualization techniques. Microsoft, for example,

focused to provide a great graphical and visual interface with the new

operating system Windows Vista.

As far as interactivity is concerned, there have been some efforts to provide

real based 3D graphics. The future lies upon the 3D and interactivity. As

mentioned earlier, there are technologies that have already replaced the

mouse and the keyboards.

 

Gaming platforms and gaming software have made important steps for this.

They try, via the gesture technology, to give to the people the senses that do

not have – the realistic, 3D experience. This is the future in software and

operating systems.

Interactivity and visualization will destine the future in the next decade . This

is going to change the way we communicate and behave as consumers.

People will want to have computer based technology in the streets , stores ,

malls , everywhere , so they can gain access to whatever information they

need. Moreover , they will want to be able to interact with the platform quickly

and efficiently.

 

 

Personal sales in stores will be replaced by machines like the one above ,

where the customer will enter the store , and be able to interact and visualize

every detail of the product (or service ) that the store offers. The consumer

nowadays is quite suspicious and has high expectations. He needs to be able

to “field test “ everything he purchases, and see if the product meets his

personal needs/ wants/desires and criteria. All of us have spent hours in

dressing rooms trying lots of clothes. We need to test something before

buying it . Imagine a mobile phone – the tv ad is a 20 seconds spot in which

you cannot get a great idea of what the mobile phone is offering ( meny ,

usability etc) .

The sales person tries to pursuade the customers about its great functionality ,

its great features , and tries to stimulate your needs / wants -but this is a preterit

technique nowadays , although it is still followed. If a big screen is there ,

 

showing the functionality – the menu , the style , the colours , everything this

mobile offers , the user will definitely know what he buys , and will be sure about

his expectations. If you add the interactivity that the shopper can have , by

exploring his choices and watching details that he was asking the mobile sales

person – and getting answers that he could not visualize , but only imagine - this

makes selling better. The right message goes to the right person , according to

the new “ Interactivity – visualization” trend that the consumer nowadays has.

 

 

 

   4.1 The new advertising and communication process : How to send the message  Communication has changed. People are bombed by so many messages

everyday. This has led to the phenomenon of interactivity . Interactivity

means freedom . Freedom of choice od what I want to see , of what I am

interested to see , of what I want to gather more info about. I interact to the

message provided to me – or ignore it – and I lead myself to the further

messages I would like to receive . Consumer nowadays have closed a lot of

 

ports in their minds and their perceptions , in order to protect themselves from

this bombardment of messages that are used in advertising.To make the

person interact , and receive my message , we need good visualization that

will be combined with interactivity availiability.

 

   The above picture shows the shop window of the future that is already

applied in several cases. The people that walk in front of the store see a fog,

and they see that when walking by the window, that the fog clears up in some

cases. The camera catches the people and makes the message a bit clearer.

Even a very busy person, will find this interesting. So, when some person

comes closer to the shop window, he can gesture and make the fog disappear

completely. The visualization and the interactivity, has to do with the message that it wants to pass: “Clear the financial fog”.

This is where communication and advertisement plays an important role. As

for today, we knew that communication was based in this:

 

In the channel, there were all the traditional media (TV, radio, print ads).

The companies spend thousands of Euros to constantly repeat their message,

and not efficiently all the time. Once the Internet was developed, especially

with Web 2.0, there has been the Behavioral Tactic, and thus, it was easier for

the advertisers to develop targeted ads (combined with interactivity that the

Web 2.0 offers).But this, will not last for long, as it will start to become

oversaturated , and the Internet does not offer a lot of opportunities.

Therefore, we need to find new channels of communication with the

consumers.

The already successful tactics used on the Internet, will be applied in the

streets as well. The only difference is that the Internet has limits, where the

streets do not have. We can make the people interact in any way we want.

 

   Therefore, the communication model has to be altered to reach the new

standards. We will have to decide what message we want to send. By doing

this, we have to decide how to make an attractive visualization in order to

make people interact, and when they interact, we have to find the correct

correlation between the visualization – interaction – messages, to pass it

correctly.

So, in the place of the channel, we will soon have the visualization – interaction technology.

    

References:

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Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MC.2004.184