Online advertising continues to grow strongly in with a growth of 35% making it the highest growing advertising sector in 2007 (AFA, 2008). Social networking has moved into the advertising mainstream as the internet has become a popular form of communication with young Australians forcing the advertising industry to re-evaluate online advertising strategies. (Price Waterhouse Coopers, 2008) Online Blogging has also become a unique medium of communicating with target audiences that are highly engaged attracting corporate advertising dollars. (Price Waterhouse Coopers, 2008) This section of the report will discuss the growing popularity of the new forms of advertising online and my experiences relating to this advertising.
4.1 The not so Secret World of Online Social Media Advertising
When I started my internship with Shifted Pixels the only knowledge I had of internet advertising was banner advertisements being strategically placed on websites viewed by target audiences. I have studied advertising for four years at university and TAFE and had no idea of the depth and benefits of using the internet as part of an advertising campaign. I had never heard of blogging, social media engagement or search engine optimisation in relation to advertising before. This form of advertising is of great interest to me as it is a way of starting a conversation with a target audience and potentially creating a meaningful relationship with the target market. (Gibbon, 2008) This relationship is a two way communication channel where companies must listen to their consumers as the consumers now have a voice and if they are not happy with a brand they will tell people about it. (Bernoff, 2008) The internet has given the consumer the power to amplify their voice and tell people what they think about a brand. The relationship with consumers can be beneficial to a company. If a consumer is happy with a brand they have the power to spread the message of a brand. (Bernoff, 2008) This form of word of mouth on the internet is extremely useful and powerful to companies as they can use their consumers to advertise their brand using the already existing social networks on the internet. (Gibbon, 2008) The negative discussion surrounding a brand can be an opportunity to a company as they can find out what is disliked about their brand and create a solution with the help of consumers. (Bernoff, 2008) If a company chooses to ignore this valuable information it could potentially cause damage to their business.
Dell is a computer brand that has created a community-like website that collects consumer’s negative feedback and uses this feedback to strengthen the Dell brand. Idea Storm www.ideastorm.com(Figure 1.) encourages Dell customers who have purchased a Dell computer to leave suggestions on the website. Other customers can then vote for the feedback that applies to them and Dell will attempt to implement solutions to their products using this feedback. The website also shows the stage of implementation Dell is working on to provide a solution to the feedback so consumers can see that Dell is listening to their suggestions and doing something about it.
4.2 Unexpected Blog Audience
On my first day of my internship my supervisor requested that I start a blog that described the tasks I worked on during my time at Shifted Pixels. I then decided that this blog would become my daily log to complete assignment 3. This Blog was then created to be Assignment 3 to suite the Internet Advertising Agency environement I that I compleated my internship in. I filled the blog out everyday and in very casual language describing tasks I was working on for Shifted Pixels. The blog included the process and current campaigns I was working on and I did not expecting anyone to read my blog but my supervisor. At the same time Shifted Pixels was working on the process of advertising the website that I was working on – MyPhatBreak. When the MyPhatBreak website was searched for in Google the link to my blog was displayed just under the MyPhatBreak website. Anyone who looked up key words to do with the website would be able to view the website and then the processes the agency was working on to advertise the website. Although I placed the information on the internet I was upset that someone who I did not know was reading my blog and copied the information and placed it on a website and then emailed the link to my supervisor demonstrating to him the potential problems my blog could cause for the MyPhatBreak campaign.
The internet can be used to damage the reputation of a brand or company. Anybody can say what they want on the internet with little consequences to themselves. (Bernoff, 2008) My blog was not very damaging to the campaign but I had not fully thought through who would be looking at my blog and how it would make Shifted Pixels look as a company. Everyone must carefully consider the information put onto the internet as the information can easily be found with a search engine such as Google. My blog has not been copied and placed on another website and as I put it on the internet they have the right to copy my blog. My original blog has been changed and code has been put into the blog so Google will not find it.
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