Not All Bad (Final Thoughts)

Advertising has taken many years to reach the point it has. Print ads have been around since the advent of the news paper in France, radio since the device went public, television even more so. Now these mediums have all been around for, at the very least 60+ years. That being said, even after sixty years of television and hundreds of years of print advertisers still have yet to truly understand how to properly target their audience. That being said, it would be improper to simply judge the internet as it is.

The internet has not had the vast and pervasive history that accompanies its predecessors. One could say that it is a mere newborn, or maybe a angry rebellious teen, in comparison to its well established parents. Thus, for me to simply say that advertisers have no idea what they are doing with the internet, though partially true, would not be the whole picture. It would be more accurate to say that, advertising on the internet is around the same stage of mastery as television ads were, in the mid 50’s. That is to say, experimental.

The internet may have many elements similar to other mediums; however it is also very different. Like television the internet allows for watching of video, and selection of channels, it can do the same with radio. But, unlike the other two formats in which the viewer is trapped into the program should they desire to see the end; the internet is vastly more accessible. It is, much like a print medium in the fact that the user has total control over what order, and which pages he sees.

This element of interactivity has advertisers somewhat flummoxed, simply airing long spots, which work on television and radio has no effect on viewers when the medium becomes interactive. All they have to do is close / mute / look at something else until the ad is over. As such, at least at first, advertisers were forced to treat the net as similar to a print source. This has brought about many interesting turns in advertising over the years.

At the birth of the net including video advertisements with catchy audio and fascinating visuals simply wasn’t an option, which made their choices more limited. Initial net ads took the form of banners and pop-ups. These two methods actually remain highly prevalent even today, and have rather mixed opinions. Banner ads can be easily equated to print advertisements, they quietly sit at one section of the screen, waiting for you to become interested and inspect.

Pop-ups might also be considered print like, after all they have text and pictures. However, there is one defining element that sets them apart; print ads don’t leap out at you in an attempt to prevent you from reading a desired article. A pop-up would actually be better equated to an extremely persistent door to door salesman, something browsers do not particularly like. So why do they do it?

Pop-ups, and other similar invasive ads, are a result of an unfortunate mentality that advertisers have adopted over the years (and have only begun to work away from); the idea that people must watch their ads. Years of television and radio ads had put advertisers into an omnipotent mindset that they were a necessity of entertainment, a practice that worked well on television, but failed when the medium became interactive. So it is quite accurate to say that advertisers approached the internet with entirely the wrong idea. In the end all they succeeded in doing was being exceptionally annoying, the reverse effect of their desire.

So, rounding the turn of the millennia, with the internet becoming faster and more permissive of high powered content advertisers were in effect totally inexperienced. The result was pure chaos, not in the sense of destruction and death, but random confusion and wild experimentation. Since old methods did not work new ones had to be tried, and since the internet is comparatively, to television, dirt cheap lots of ideas could be flung around. Some good, some bad, some successful and other vanishing into obscurity.

The word that describes internet ads today would probably be…schizophrenic. Ads are everywhere, even if it is not intended. To find a trend or pattern would be at the very least difficult. Never before has there been a medium so that has changed so incredibly quickly. Innovations in computer technology happen daily, perhaps even bi-daily, making it hard for companies to keep up. However, I feel that though the industry is confused, its overall progression is positive.

Advertisers are realizing that people cannot be forced into watching their ad, and as a result they have begun to do something amazing, actually make their advertisements interesting. Online video is an absolutely spectacular medium, the Will It Blend People being a perfect example. Successfully taking what was probably, maybe, a $100 - $200 commercial and turning it into an almost instant internet fad (or meme as they are called). Any medium capable of providing that much exposure for such a small inexpensive ad has to have a bright future.

Of course there have been promotions that were not so effective. The field of internet ethics is, to put it kindly, developing, allowing many loopholes for businesses to follow some unethical roots. But, even when the ads are underhanded there is still one trend that stay the same, the internet is viral. Without a doubt the future of internet advertising lies in viral marketing, all trends point in that direction. From snazzy websites, to fake MySpace pages, to kooky e-mail gimmicks and streaming video, Every major successful ad campaign online has succeeded through word of mouth.

At the beginning of this semester I was exceedingly pessimistic, there were and are still plenty of invasive persistent boring ads clogging the pipes of the internet (if you will forgive the analogy). However, even in the course of this single semester, I have seen numerous viral memes come and go, and been hooked (that’s right hooked) on some viral ads my self.

So now I can say that without a doubt in my mind, the future of internet advertising is bright. Advertisers are changing their ways daily, looking for new ways to become genuinely appealing to their audience, and although their may be some cloudy days and bad ideas the medium has the elasticity and freedom to survive. That is unless the net neutrality act is passed, then all bets are off. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen and try to keep a more optimistic view of the future from now on.