Advertising, Promotion, and New Media

Marla R. Stafford, Ronald J. Faber

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317477556
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Negocios y empresa
• Categoría: Negocios en general

Today, new media enter our lives faster than ever before. This volume provides a complete, state-of-the-art overview of the newest media technologies and how they can be used in marketing communications - essential information for any organization that wants to maintain an effective advertising program, as well as for experts and students in the fields of advertising and mass communications. Advertising, Promotion, and New Media offers crucial insights on the use of cutting-edge techniques including 3-D advertising, mobile advertising, advergames, interactivity, and netvertising images, as well as more familiar Internet advertising formats such as banner ads and pop-ups. It also discusses such important topics as how to select online affiliates, and how to assess the effectiveness of new media advertising and compare it with traditional formats. Throughout the book, the chapter authors offer up-to-date information and thought provoking ideas on emerging technology and how it can be used effectively for advertising and promotion in the future.

Part I

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Defining, Understanding, and
Measuring New Media Advertising

1

The Interaction of Traditional and New Media

John D. Leckenby

The development of new types of media such as the Internet and the World Wide Web is a process often surrounded and enveloped by exciting events that go far beyond the new medium itself. Radio is an outstanding example of this phenomenon; while the building of this new medium would have provided enough excitement in and of itself, the accompanying social and economic times ensured it would be a time to remember throughout history. At the pinnacle of the evolution of radio as a new medium, the Great Depression occurred in the United States. This history shows that the development of radio was not disconnected from the social, political, and economic events; radio became part of the system that soon allowed millions to become involved in stock market trading with up-to-the-minute reports on stock movements. It is often thought the crash of the stock market led to the succeeding depression in the economy.

Radio is but one example of the great spike that new media types inject into the world, both causing and caused by great events in history. It is this composite of historical events, not just the advent of the new medium and its technical wonderments, that makes “new media” such an important and noteworthy point of immense interest. While today this interest is almost exclusively centered on the Internet, comparable levels of interest could be uncovered in previous historical epochs, for example, with the introduction of television, radio, telephony, magazines, and newspapers.

It is desirable, therefore, to put any new media development into proper historical perspective by comparing and contrasting the “new” one with the “old” ones. Further, there are indications that the development of a new medium does not occur in a vacuum unrelated to the old media developments that have already taken place. It is tempting to accept the proposition that because they are “old,” the old media have been developed by some point in time and do not change thereafter. Of course, this is untrue. Each of these old media is constantly evolving over time. For example, party lines in telephony give way to private lines as technology continually evolves. And the fact that old media change over time leads to the proposition that the old media “interact” with the new media during the process of the new media’s development to make the new medium something other than it might have been in the absence of the old media types. For example, Standage (1998) mentioned that the telegraph was a precursor to the Internet in terms of its two-way wired communication. Parallels between the development of the radio and the Internet have also been identified, based on cultural history (Douglas 1987; Lappin 1995).

It is the purpose of this discussion to explore primarily the idea of the interaction between media types as they develop over time. How has the fact that the Internet has been developed after television and radio, for example, affected its development? How has the development of the Internet affected the evolutionary change of television and radio? Are there identifiable phases in the development of media types along these lines?

Each of the above questions, as well as further comparisons and contrasts, will be addressed in this discussion. In addition, implications and connections with the field of media planning will be considered. This exposition is motivated, of course, by the introduction of a new medium in the 1990s, the Internet and its associated components.

What Is “Old” and What Is “New” in Media?

It is worthwhile at the onset to note the definitions used by media planners in the field of advertising with respect to media issues. Kelly and Juggenheimer (2003, 104) offer the following:

Media Unit:	A specific physical size or time unit for the placement of an advertisement such as “full-page, four-color, bleed in Better Homes & Gardens magazine for the December 2003 issue.”
Media Vehicle:	A particular “named carrier” for the placement of an advertisement, such as Better Homes & Gardens magazine.
Media Type:	A category of named carriers such as magazines.

When advertising media planners refer to “media types,” they are concerned with the broadest categories of media, such as magazines, television, radio, and the Internet. This is the broadest level of discussion. When the term “media” is used in this discussion, it will refer to “media type” by default and not to vehicles or to units, unless noted. So, an “old” medium might be radio and a “new” medium might be the Internet.

The first thing to note about “new” media is that they are not completely new. They have, in many instances, been growing out of the old media over time, so that there is a need for historical perspective in the discussion of new media. Marvin (1988, 3) wrote: “New technology is a historically relative term. We are not the first generation to wonder at the rapid and extraordinary shifts in the dimensions of the world and the human relationships it contains as a result of new forms of communication.”

Historical linkages between new and old media have been consciously attempted by some researchers. As an example, Leonhirth, Mindich, and Straumanis (1997) compared the mailing list with the telegraph, the round table, and the bonfire. Moreover, Murray (1997, 67) indicated that the newly emerging medium of the Internet is still relying on formats derived not from exploiting its own extensive power but from earlier technologies. Thus, the Internet is still in its early stages.

McMillan (2001, 164) provides an excellent overview of the new and old media question. She notes that “many observers tend to write about ‘new media’ such as networked commuting and telecommunications as if they had been recently discovered in their fully developed state.” Williams, Strover, and Grant (1994) defined new media as those that offered new services or enhancement to old services and included such applications as microelectronics, computers, and telecommunications. Negroponte (1995) suggested that new and old media differ, based upon the transmission of digital rather than physical atoms. Choice and control have been pointed out as features of new media (Pavlik 1998). As noted earlier, “interactivity” has often been construed to be the primary differentiating factor between the Internet and other media.

Stern (1995, 127) indicated that “television is a linear, passive, time-constrained medium. The television is time-constrained, unless your viewer has carefully videotaped your commercials for playback at a more convenient time. Accessing the World Wide Web can be done at any time.”

Interaction also indicates that users can get information instead of its being given to them (Stern 1995). Williams and colleagues noted, in addition to interactivity, demassification and asynchronicity as factors critical to new media. Demassification means that “a certain degree of the control of mass communication systems moves from the message producer to the media consumer” (Williams, Rice and Rogers 1988, 13).

“Asynchronicity allows for the sending and receiving of messages at a time convenient for the individual user rather than requiring all participants to use the system at the same time” (Williams, Rice, and Rogers 1988, 13). For instance, people can receive electronic messages in their offices or homes whenever they log onto a host computer.

According to Rice and Williams (1984), new media tend to form a link between mass media and interpersonal media to a greater extent than did their forerunners. Cathcart and Gumpert (1983) indicated that “mediated interpersonal communication” has been facilitated by new technologies.

The term “old” holds some pejorative meaning for many cultures. And, clearly, “old” and “new” are not mutually exclusive categories but rather represent a continuum. The “old” does not disappear but melds into the “new.” For example, data from Nielsen NetRatings indicate that use of the Internet does not eliminate television exposure but rather complements it (Nielsen NetRatings 2003). The American Internet User Survey (FIND/SVP 1997) found that some Internet users report a decrease in television viewing, but a large number of Internet users report no change in their television habits. According to Coffey and Stipp (1997), the study conducted by Statistical Research, Inc. in 1996 indicated that over 40 percent of computer owners have both a television and a computer in the same room, allowing them to use both media at the same time, or to go back and forth between a television and a computer easily. Coffey and Stipp (1997, 61) noted: “Radio did not replace newspapers; TV did not replace the movies or radio; satellites and cable did not replace broadcast TV.”

“The new medium did not wipe out the old. People who listened to news broadcasts on the radio would still buy a newspaper” (Winston 1998, 86). The “old” media have kept on prospering because of unique attributes that satisfy different audience needs (Coffey and Stipp 1997).

It might be more appropriate to refer to “traditional” media rather than old media. This term, “traditional,” implies that the media in reference have been in existence for some time. In the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com), “tradition” is defined as “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom).” In the context of this discussion, “established” is the critical part of the above definition of the meaning of “traditional.” An “old” medium is an established medium and is, therefore, an entity that has become traditional. Television, for example, is an established medium. But just as with religious and social practices and customs, television and other “traditional” media change and evolve over time.

It is worthwhile to note in passing that “old” media typically do not disappear over time. They may become less important or changed but usually do not disappear from the scene.

“New” media, on the other hand, are those that, according to the above definition of “traditional,” are not yet fully established as customary institutions in a society. They are not yet considered to be mature in their development. New and traditional are points on the time continuum with respect to development and the evolutionary change of that development. However, new media are required to suggest some significant improvements over existing media if they are to reform relationships between audience and content-maker and thus prove the value of their own individual existence as media to be used in addition to the traditional media (Fredin 1989).

It is worthwhile to examine the development of some traditional media first to understand how they developed in the context of “old” media at the time of their inception. This will p...