Media Convergence Essay
The current media environment is
described as convergent, as existing modes of communication have progressively
become multilayered and centralised. Dwyer explains media convergence as the
merging of traditional forms of media that “have previously been thought of as
separate and self-contained” (Dwyer 2010:2). This includes television, radio, newspaper,
magazines, and books and so on. Recent years have seen the declining
consumption of content through analogue systems and the rapid shift towards
digital media convergence – we now consume much of the media online and through
networks. Moreover, this digitisation has meant that the way we engage with
media content has changed drastically, challenging the advertising industry’s relationship
with the consumer and its strategies based on “decades-old paradigms” (Sheehan
and Morrison 2009:40).
Today, digital media is largely
controlled by its own consumers, with users being important and interactive
generators of content and with the time and place of consumption becoming highly
personalised. Digital recording devices, personal computers, smart phones, tabs
and other devices featuring network access now provide consumers with the
freedom to view and listen to content in their own time and avoid commercials
rather than scheduling their routines around programs (Sheehan and Morrison 2009).
The changing behaviour of media consumers has led to the need for advertisers
to adapt their approach to attracting the numbers lost in the traditional media-scape.
‘Skittles’ and 'Dove' have been an interesting cases where advertisers have employed a
highly convergent approach to exposing the brand, utilising social media sites
and other multimedia platforms.
 |
 |
| Some recognisable search bars |
In response to the search media
culture that has emerged, advertisers have sought out strategies that seem less
intrusive but instead, supportive of the new sense of empowerment that search
capabilities provide for people. Consumers expect to find only their desired
content so people have become less interested in and less trusting in
traditional brand content. Spurgeon suggests that a useful way for advertisers
to effectively engage people has been to “creatively embed” branding in the
online experiences of consumers – having people seek the branded content
themselves (Spurgeon 2008:27). This is developed further through what Jenkins
describes as ‘participatory culture’ in practice, referring to the growth in user-created and
exposed media content (Jenkins 2006). Online, successful exposure is indicated
by the level of buzz created by advertising campaigns and whether consumers
choose to ‘like,’ share and discuss brand content across social media, blogging
and so forth. Brands are situating themselves in the new media experience in
order to seem less intrusive than for instance, display advertising in the
newspaper, commercial breaks in the middle of watching television or encounters
of pop-ups during web browsing.
The ‘Skittles’ “Experience the
Rainbow” campaigns have provided an example of the potential for use of new
media advertising to create online hype and user engagement with its brand. Skittles
radically shifted its promotional sites into new media advertising in 2009 when
its website was relaunched as an unfiltered Twitter feed (There Is Gold at the
Other End of the Rainbow 2011). While a lack of filtering led to inappropriate
messages and unfavourable feedback, the hype created by this campaign
contributed to the future success of other online advertising ventures. Its current website hosts its campaign
slogan, twitter updates, video campaigns, short and witty messages to viewers
and featured links to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+, as well as an
invitation to “upload to the rainbow”. The Skittles Facebook page allows followers to
upload photos of themselves for their chance to temporarily be named ‘The greatest
fan in the world.’ Skittles has provided the outlets but as Sheehan
and Morrison explain, “fans will always find ways to create and disseminate the
content they create for the brands they love” (Sheehan and Morrison 2009:42). Currently, its Facebook page has over 22 million 'likes.'
Jenkins also discusses a concept
which he identifies as “affective economics” whereby the distinguishing line
between branding content and entertainment content are blurred to effectively
engage people (Jenkins 2006). In this way, brand content is experienced as part
of a personal “brand story” rather than from a transactional perspective (Sheehan
and Morrison 2009:41). The Skittles YouTube channel features many promotional
posts that follow popular online video trends. For example, popular DIY
musician Ryan Beatty, following the likes of others such as Justin Beiber
before him, is featured in a recent video singing on a Skittles-covered
microphone. Also, the ‘Mob the Rainbow’ campaign videos are
a manifestation of participatory culture and a representation Sheehan and
Morrisson’s “brand story” as they document Skittles fans contributing their
online presence to spreading cheer to individuals in real life. In the third ‘Mob
the Rainbow’ video, the cause is giving a young man a scholarship for bowling
college by gaining 100 000 likes on Facebook.
As fragmented consumption of the
media has become situated in our everyday lives, traditional media as the space
for advertising can no longer expect reach on a mass scale to the degree that
it once did. While only such mediums as event television hopes to attract
advertising revenue, traditional advertising has not become irrelevant but
rather, has adapted and integrated with the new (Sheehan and Morrison 2009:41).
Multimedia capabilities have provided a digital space for aspects of both traditional
and new media advertising. As quoted by Spurgeon, John Battelle explains that
without the old media – for example television and recorded music – there would
be no need for the navigation interfaces that make up new media (Spurgeon
2008). Personalised consumption provided by the internet has made it possible
for limits to time and length to disintegrate and has opened advertising to a
new level of creativity. For example, Dove’s “Evolution” advert which is longer
than the standard 30-second video commercial was initially released online on the
‘Canadian Campaign for Real Beauty’ website and then on YouTube. Portraying the
realistic transition of an average woman into model-material, the video spread
virally and attracted publicity through gaining critical acclaim, fan-made
parodies, as well as other media such as the television news and talk show
programs (Duncan 2006).
As shown, while old media created little
avenues for consumers to interact with advertising content, new media places
the consumer in the driver’s seat. The digitisation of the media capabilities
and technology allowing individuated consumption of the
media has led to the need for advertisers to adjust to shifts peoples’ behaviours
and expectations of the media. For advertising, digital media convergence has
created both threats and opportunities to marketing paradigms. Because
consumers search for content online and in their own time, they less welcoming
of traditional informational advertising that was previously abundant on
television, newspapers, the radio and magazines. In a move to provide a less
intrusive form of advertising, people can now expect more subtle forms of brand
exposure through user-interaction involving sharing content. The consumer can
now expect a cross-over of entertainment and advertising content. As “new technologies
are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and cultures”
(Dwyer 2010:2) we are living in a convergent media environment that features
multiple layers of digitised content and outlets among old media that continue
to prevail in an adapted form.
References
Anonymous, “There is Gold at the
Other End of the Rainbow” published 25 June 2011, http://www.socialinkmedia.com/2011/06/there-is-gold-at-the-other-end-of-the-rainbow/,
accessed 26 August 2012.
Duncan, “Dove Evolution in Campaign
for Real Beauty” published 21 October 2006, http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2006/dove-evolution/,
accessed 28 August 2012.
Dwyer , T. (2010) “Media Convergence”
McGraw Hill, Berkshire, pp. 1-23.
Jenkins, H. (2006) “Convergence
Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide” NY University Press.
Sheehan, K., & Morrison, D.
(2009) "Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the
advertising agency in a changing world" First Monday [Online],
Volume 14 Number 3 (26 February 2009)
Sheehan, K.,
& Morrison, D. (2009) “The Creativity Challenge: Media Confluence and Its
Effects on the Evolving Advertising Industry” Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 9 Issue 2, pp 40-44.
Skittles: Experience the Rainbow, http://www.skittles.com/, accessed 26 August 2012.
Spurgeon, C. (2008) “From the ‘Long Tail’ to ‘Madison
and Vine: Trends in advertising and new media” Advertising and New Media, Routledge, pp. 24-45.
No comments:
Post a Comment