In his explanation of the development and life cycle of mass media, James Potter identifies the fifth stage as adaptation. Adaptation usually occurs when an industry is on the decline, and is in need of innovation. Potter states, "A medium enters the adaptation stage of development when it begins to redefine its position in the media marketplace."
He then applies this to the nine major mass media industries, citing the appearance of television and how it brought about change in radio programming as an example. It is a simple concept that doesn't warrant a lot of explanation, but Potter explains it well.
But what Potter doesn't mention in his analysis is how advertising evolves along with the media industries. As these industries rise and decline, advertisers have to follow suit in order to reach audiences. This adaptation of advertising is as interesting to me as the adaptation of a medium itself.
With the growth of technology, people are able to avoid certain types of advertising. The rise of DVR has made it possible for people to record their favorite television programs to watch at a later time, giving them the ability to fast-forward through commercial breaks. Similarly, streaming video through Hulu.com cuts commercial breaks down into 20 to 30 seconds per break as opposed to the standard two minutes or so that viewers are used to seeing on television. And these are only a few of the ways that consumers are able to avoid these advertisements.
As consumption habits change, advertisers are continuously coming up with new and innovative ways to market their product. An example of this, and a recent favorite of mine, is the Absolut Vodka financed short-film entitled "I'm Here."
"I'm Here" is a short film by the well-known film-maker Spike Jonze and is viewable for free on it's own official website.
The website offers a unique experience, presenting itself as a virtual cinema. It is even has Facebook integrated into it, allowing users to invite friends to "attend" the showing with them. Technologically speaking, it's a long ways from your average 30 second television ad.
And the film itself is interesting. It is a love story, set in a futuristic world, with a robot as the protagonist. It's really quite entertaining. However, the most amazing part about it is that it has literally nothing to do with Absolut Vodka, aside from the brand being plastered onto the opening credit sequence.
Despite this, Absolut has a lot to gain with this endeavor. With "I'm Here" they are able associate their product to a great, cutting-edge film-maker and hip new music, which alone targets a niche audience that will seek this advertisement out. In addition to this, the short-film garnered some critical acclaim and made appearances at various film festivals, thus getting the Absolut brand even more exposure. And all of this was done outside the traditional means of advertisement we are accustomed to.
This is a great example of how advertisers have evolved with media industries, but it isn't the only way. There are new and innovative things being done nearly every day.
But until next time, I'll leave you with this. (Those of you familiar with Chatroullette should get a kick out of it.)
Take Care,
Dustin
nice work Dustin and very good examples in my opinion. The video link at the end was quite interesting too, good job overall.
ReplyDeleteGood blog, but I don't think you've been on hulu for awhile. Commercials are starting to grow in their run time on hulu. It's getting to the point where some commercial breaks are lasting up to two minutes. But this goes along with your evolution of advertising: first, hulu had no commercials, then it had 15 or so seconds, now it's almost like television commercials.
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