Interactive Advertising.

Interactive Advertising: You cannot afford it. Well that isn't strictly true... you can afford distributing leaflets on a rainy day, annoying people in the street. But you can't afford one of those boards where Timon and Pumba tell you a story and make you feel like a child again. Not even if it was your dying wish would somebody give you one of those boards you see in the Disney Store for free, or even for a reasonable price.

But... it's a good thing to know about when it comes to advertising a media product. Not only does it show you understand how important interactivity is when it comes to customers, but it shows you have a certain technological literacy if you take the time to study how the boards actually work. It also shows you are looking

He knew his interactive advertising.

at how other companies advertise. Even if you hate business, it is a sometimes unavoidable place to land in when working in media.

A fairly new advertising technique in many forms of industry, interactive advertising is regularly utilized using online and offline interactive media to sell products, promote companies and target audiences effectively. The media industry is familiar with this, and when used it is in effect "the media advertising media" - a quip that might make your lecturer, or boss laugh if they're having a deliriously good day.

The Media....advertising...MEDIA...

Technology and research company, Forrester, states that by 2016, online advertising spend will be equivalent to television spend currently. However, Interactive advertising takes many forms and should not be mistaken to be exclusive to the internet, although it is common to find this advertising technique in cyberspace.

"Pop-up disappearo!!!"

As a matter of fact, you have probably shouted at a lot of these adverts when trying to watch the latest Harry Potter film, and suddenly a target appears over Hermoine's face, with a voice claiming that you will win an iPod if you hit the target. THAT is a form of interactive advertising.

  

Offline interactive advertising methods are much less annoying and can be rather fun. They include direct sales calls to telephones, visits to a person's home (performed by a "door to door salesperson") but here is the REALLY fun part -  interactive kiosks with touch screen monitors, interactive television, etc! 

Telephone calls however, are the oldest form of interactive advertising, but do not start badgering innocent strangers by telephone just yet - firstly, not being licensed or trained to do this is a crime, secondly, it's ill advised to harass or annoy potential customers by telephoning them in the middle of dinner. I've been a telemarketer, believe me, it annoys people to the point of them cursing you and all that you hold dear. 

Online interactive advertising takes many forms, including blogging, email marketing, key word optimization and social networking. Because of the rise in both internet technology and usage, online interactive advertisements have become a popular form of marketing. As I have already mentioned, do not resort to pop ups - this can be - hell, this IS annoying and you do not want to become accused of being a computer hacker because your advert distressed the once potential customer out so much they mistook it for an elaborate computer virus.

..."WHHHY?!"

Creating a blog is free, and effective - some bloggers even get paid for their services by companies wishing to advertise via them, proving the efficiency of this method of marketing. Almost everyone, including my luddite, technologically illiterate great-great uncle understands what a blog is, and while you may not be able to advertise on blogs due to your budget, you can certainly set up your own blog promoting your product, and advertise this blog via social networking and email marketing - both of which are free services to those with an internet service provider.

Email marketing refers to the advertising method of sending promotional emails to many internet users. Emails could include information regarding the company, offers and discounts on products, or a website URL. This is a tactic you could use, as with email and the amount of people who use it, you are very capable of reaching a wide variety of people who may in turn forward your emails to others, further promoting your product.

 It also will unlikely exceed your estimated expenses or exhaust your resources. Another advantage of email marketing is that this method is considerably faster than printing out and distributing leaflets, due to time needed when producing the artwork for the leaflets and handing them out which can also be time consuming. It will also save you walking around busy shopping centers receiving a whirlwind of abuse that only telemarketers and those distributing leaflets to the busy and grouchy public will understand. And I have done both of those jobs. Waiting for my application for sainthood to go through as we speak....  anyway, do not abandon the idea of producing leaflets to advertise your product because although response rates are often very low with leaflets, it is not terrifyingly expensive to have them produced. However, in regards to email marketing you should seriously take into account that a fair percentage of internet users simply ignore or delete emails that are simply advertising (referred to many if not every single email user out there as "spam") so although it is possible to use this method, do not rely solely on email marketing to promote your production and find your niche.

So...what are you saying exactly Internet?

Interactive advertising has the advantage of being able to target the intended audience more carefully. Badly coordinated advertising results in poor sale of the product it is trying sell, possibly a reason why more and more companies are including the interactive approach in their advertising plans. In other words, they got fed up with all the abuse they were receiving from disgruntled customers who only wanted to mind their own business while telemarketers and leaflet distributors hung around them like a bad smell.  Interactive advertising allows a company communicate directly with both existing and potential customers. It is also usually a very effective way of holding a potential customer's attention. 

....*ping*

   

Social networking is a recent and one of the most significant methods of online interactive advertising. The social networking site facebook (like you're not wasting time on it now...) as of September 2012, has over one billion active users - a good place to search for potential customers due to the vast number of people viewing the network regularly. It is free, easy to maintain and facebook groups are known within the world of advertising to quickly grow in volume, something to take into account. The advertising companies know that people frankly never leave that site alone, and decided to declare it their hunting ground before the World figures out how to log off facebook.

Facebook addiction...serious business.

Interactive advertising gives companies an opportunity to become very creative with their promotions. For example, Disney implemented interactive advertising in many of their stores worldwide by placing inside the stores interactive mirrors, which upon first inspection appear to be normal mirrors but then suddenly a computer generated image of a Disney character appears with audio to tell the customer a story. This particular form of interactive advertising is aimed at children to reinforce their interest in Disney characters, and thereby the products. It is also aimed at adults who will be drawn to the products of this particular kind of advertising because they can see how the mere advert itself has pleased their child. It is impressive, how direct this form of marketing is and although you probably have limited means of producing adverts like this, it is good to study creative and direct marketing - that is usually the marketing that works.

Admit it. It looks fun.

Other examples of offline interactive advertising include interactive billboards that many prestigious companies have released as part of their advertising campaign. Interactive billboards are advertisements that act as television screens, some which recognizes movement in the viewer and imitates this, as fashion company Diesel's design did. Other companies such as Adobe Systems Incorporated, Chanel S.A, Foot Locker Inc, etc have made use of interactive billboards.

It is good to appreciate once again, that you probably do not have the means to produce adverts as expensive and technologically advanced as this, but these adverts all show extensive creativity – something I have learned is highly beneficial to creating an effective advert. A good thing to bring up in conversation with your lecturer or boss, to show ambition, creativity, technological prowess, etc. Nobody is demanding that you make one of these, but trust me, this is an all around good thing to know about in the media industry.

As more company's focus their efforts online, it is becoming critical to the success of a product to advertise it online. Thankfully that a lot of online interactive advertising methods are free and easily accessible, and nobody is demanding that you pull Disney Store like adverts out of thin air. The use of the internet is growing consistently, and you as media promoters must take advantage of this fact if you wish to reach your target audience. 

While technology and an unlimited spending budget is certainly useful in advertising: Creativity is still essential.