Page 174 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING

blogs, instant messaging, and other digital technologies integrate better
into people’s lives. The disruptive media of the past are giving way to
personally invited media.
In the future, advertising’s success will rely increasingly on finding
smaller and smaller niches of customers. The era of digital technology
is forcing advertisers to seek and find new, evolving forms of media.
The winners will target the few, not the many, for their success.
In this chapter you will discover how media convergence is forcing
advertising to evolve from mass media to niche media. We’ll look at a
short history of advertising, the numbers game in advertising, how the
Web has changed advertisers’ outlook, and the future of advertising.

Advertising Defined

Before we can understand how mass media advertising is changing, it’s
important to understand the traditional definition of advertising and
how it’s evolving. In the past, an advertising message had to be:
164
● A nonpersonal communication
1
● Paid for by an identified sponsor
2
● Sent through mass media
3
● Meant to inform or persuade
4
● Delivered to a target audience
5
● About products, services, or ideas
6

During the decade since the Web was introduced, the definition
of advertising has changed as multimedia options have grown. For
example, a personal communication may be sent through targeted
micromedia, such as cell phones, in an attempt to build brand
relationships among a community of users.
The transition from mass media to microtargeted multimedia has
greatly accelerated. The Internet has had a major impact on how,
where, and when people choose to get their information and entertain-
ment. The Internet has become a “digital queen bee,” credited with
creating and popularizing many forms of advertising. E-mail, search
engines, chat rooms, blogs, online games, instant messaging, and
Webcams are new media that evolved from the Internet and are
places where advertising messages can be delivered.