Do you ever feel
like whenever you use the Internet to surf the web that you have “eyes”
watching you? I do all the time, and I find it kind of creepy, not to say the
least. A while back, I noticed that many of the ads on the pages I visited
featured products that I had searched for on certain websites or through the
Google search engine. At first, I was taken by surprise and though my computer
was infested with some type of tracking virus. After running numerous virus
scans and searches on my computer for suspicious files, I thought, “I don’t
know how I’m going to fix this
problem!” Later on, as I opened the Google Chrome browser and signed into my
Gmail, I was met with a message from Google that said that they were going to
feature ads next to my search results that catered more to my interests. *Insert
a raised eyebrow here.* Once I realized that what I thought was a computer
virus was actually Google trying to help me find the products I needed, I
breathed a sigh of relief, but only a small one.
Why only a small
sigh of relief you say? Well, the very idea of Google tracking my every move on
the Web immediately brought the movie Eagle
Eye to mind. (You can view the plot synopsis for the movie here, and you can view the
movie trailer here.) I
had already sold a piece of my privacy to Google when I decided to purchase an
Android phone, so what was the problem? The problem was this: did I want to let
“Big Brother” Google further into my life to track my searches and interests to
present possibly appealing advertisements to me?
The readings for
this week in my graduate course introduced advertisers’ use of digital advertisements
to target certain audiences. My instructor asked the question “Is this fair or
is this something that advertising agencies have been doing for many years?” At
first, I didn't think it was fair that advertisers were able to pay to
advertise their products on search results pages, but then I thought about it:
advertisers have used this method for years. Think about the telemarketers who
harass us all day long with annoying sales pitches. How do they get access to
us? Through our phone companies, that's how. When we sign on the dotted line,
little do we know that we’re selling away our privacy and opening the door to a
flood of advertisers and their obnoxiously obvious sales pitches.
When I set up my
home phone, I started receiving ads in the mail with “Welcome to the
neighborhood!” sprawled across them, and phone calls from ADT and other
companies who are looking to sell home security systems. Emerging media such as
Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube have given these advertisers another,
more effective way to reach us. If they can’t reach us through traditional
formats, like radio, television, and newspaper, they can always catch up to us
on the Web. Crazy, huh?
By the looks of
things, digital advertisements will one day dominate all forms of
advertisements. In our constantly evolving society, digital anything and
everything has steadily become the norm. Where we once relied on books,
magazines, and newspapers for information and entertainment, we now have search
engines and digital versions of newspaper and magazines. Advertisers see the
trends towards emerging digital media, and they have figured out how to
capitalize on these trends. According to Clark Fredricksen’s article, “US
Digital Ad Spending to Top $37 Billion in 2012 as Market Consolidates,” “Digital
ad spending will rise 16.6% this year, and will experience double-digit growth
through 2014” (2012). In the Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media
Report, Katerina-Eva Matsa et al. (2013) reported that “mobile ads grew 80% in
2012. At $2.6 billion, mobile now accounts for roughly 7% of total digital ad
spending. eMarketer projects it will hit 21% by 2016.” Numbers like this reveal
something that should be obvious: digital is slowly becoming the new normal.
My instructor
asked another good question this week: are location targeted messages (ads) the
future of digital ads or is this something the public will protest to the point
advertisers walk away from this technology? At first, I didn’t think that these
types of messages were the future of digital ads, but I had to revise my
thinking, because it’s true. Think of the times you’ve visited YouTube to look for
a music video or to find out how to do something. Were you welcomed with an
advertisement promoting a product or service? Of course you were! Digital
advertisements have taken over YouTube, and we really don’t have a way to stop
it, or do we?
I’ve read mixed
reviews about digital ads, where some people find them slightly annoying at
first but interesting later, while others find them intrusive and a hindrance
to their viewing or searching pleasure. To answer the second part of my
instructor’s question, I think the public that is tired of the “in your face”
method of digital ads will protest to a point where advertisers back off with
the intensity of these types of ads. In the article “Google makes more money
from ads than print media combined,” Shara Tibken (2012) writes, “The company
last month reported somewhat lackluster results in its core business during the
third quarter. Among the disappointments was a 15 percent year-over-year drop
in advertising cost-per-click…” I believe when advertisers realize that their
ad revenues continue to decline because users are avoiding their pushy ads, they’ll
realize that this tactic won’t be as effective as they believed in the end. Don’t
get me wrong, though. Digital advertisements can have many benefits, especially
to those agencies and organizations that use them effectively along with
traditional and nontraditional media formats. I’ll use my college search
experience for an example.
I had already
attended college for a year four years prior to coming to Troy. By the time I
started at Troy, I had gotten married and had two small children, so I wanted
to find a school that would allow me to take classes while being completely
available to my family. When looking into the schools here in Montgomery, I looked
into Troy's programs, and what stood out to me the most was the university’s availability
to nontraditional students and the ability to take online courses. I was sold,
especially on the fact that I could finish a program in double the time if I
wanted to and not miss so much of my sons’ childhoods. Another thing that
swayed my decision to attend Troy was all of the Troy parking decals and
license plates I would see as I ran errands. By using a combination of
traditional, emerging, and nontraditional media, Troy was and has been very
effective in bringing in students and promoting the school's brand.
The key is being
able to use these various media formats in such a way as to not turn off the target
audiences. When advertisers become overly pushy in getting their brands out to
the public, they risk losing potential customers and revenue. Here is where
strategic communicators come into play. They must be able to analyze the
audiences their advertisers wish to reach and tailor communications around the
different media formats so that they influence the minds and pockets of
consumers quickly and successfully. When they fail to do this, they jeopardize
their chances of reaching consumers like me who would rather find products on
our own instead of having them thrown in our faces.
References
Fredricksen, Clark. (2012, September 20).
“US Digital Ad Spending to Top $37 Billion in 2012 as Market Consolidates.” eMarketer Inc. Retrieved from http://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/digital-ad-spending-top-37-billion-2012-market-consolidates/#LwofwLHLGRXtx6hw.99
Matsa, Katerina-Eva, Olmstead, Kenny,
Guskin, Emily, Holcomb, Jesse, Santhanam, Laura, & Anderson, Monica. (2013).
“The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism State of the News
Media 2013: An Annual Report on American Journalism.” Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/overview-5/key-findings/
Tibken, Shara. (2012, November 12). “Google
makes more money from ads than print media combined.” CBS Interactive Inc.
Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57548432-93/google-makes-more-money-from-ads-than-print-media-combined/
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