Role Of Technology In Media And Marketing
Media has been the stronghold for marketing, bridging the gaps between creators and consumers. Through media, companies are able to reach a huge mass of people interested into such advertisements, to know more of the product or service in details. Media itself being a technology has its parasol over the major sectors of an economy, unveiling the potential usage of more advanced technologies to bring forth destined and focused reach.
Media is a term which refers to all printed, digital and electronic modes of communication. With induced change in technologies, media and marketing has evolved to a new level, never has been imagined even a decade ago. Social media was just a start even back in 2004 at times of Orkut, later when Google announced its shutdown on 2014 - Facebook took over the majority of the social networking market. Many other digital media platforms as YouTube became popular and since then the online market has seen a major leap forth the Fourth Industrial Revolution, wherein digitalization of services turned to be the most preferred mode of economic growth.
Alone in 2013, the web usage has grown by more than one-third from 630 Million to 850 Million by December, 2013 - marking a significant increase to the role of internet in such digitalization. With such advancements to technology and digitization, social media is the most preferred mode in building a recognizable brand and followers. As quoted by the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg,
Think about what people are doing on Facebook today. They're keeping up with their friends and family, but they're also building an image and identity for themselves, which in a sense is their brand. They're connecting with the audience that they want to connect to. It's almost a disadvantage if you're not on it now.
TRENDS IN MEDIA AND MARKETING
Video Advertising
It is through creativity that digital media improves viewer/ consumer experience while they are engaged into internet surfing. In discord to the conventional modes of advertisements, video advertisings are most engaged and preferred as creative contents in a video leads to better user experience, targetted to provide contextual clarity as per the preferences. As the online engagement continues to flourish its connection, people spend more hours in watching online videos. As per a research report by Zenith Media,
...advertising expenditure on online video will rise from US$45bn this year to US$61bn by 2021, at an average rate of 18% a year, compared to 10% a year for internet advertising as a whole.
However, similar advertisements shown to viewers also shows declined delight as the motive to instill engagement to such by clicking or knowing more of a product by visiting their website, diminishes. Strategic approaches and fairly woven creative effectiveness of Video Advertising can prove beneficial on using such technology at common perusal. As per researches and benchmark reports, an average video length of around 4 minutes from the earlier of 13 minutes in 2016 has contributed to better retention rates "creating more concise content with the aim of getting more views to stick with them to the end"
AR and VR in Advertising
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) has evolved into re-modelling industries with advancements set to priortize better experience in learning and increasing efficiency of accuracy. As per the global data on digital advertising,
The source estimated the spending to amount to 283 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and that it would further grow to 517 billion by the end of 2023.
Creating an experience virtually, enhances the interactive moment of the common people, marking a long lasting impact in their minds. Interactions become so real that there emerges an emotional connection as they get much moved with those ads which may end to a successsful purchase deal. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality has unveiled its transition from being a gaming technology to being used in various sectors, mainly healthcare.
Such campaigns has already been implemented by many companies as consumers can try on many items before purchasing those even from their own comfort at home. Applications has in-built AR technology which allows customers to use their mobile camera to take a photo and try the jewellery, spectacles, shoes and many other items as they wish to buy. A 360 degree imaging allows people to experience virtually visiting and know more about various places, exciting further to explore those places physically. As per projections by a report,
...we project AR advertising to grow from $167 million in 2017 to $2.6 billion in 2022.
Chatbots
Chatbots are now-a-days the mostly used intelligent technology used by applications or websites to inform consumers with the FAQs or even communicating efficiently with them. Self-serving marketing technology induces fast services and solutions provided, better than the conventional ways of filling up forms to get replied later. Such artificial intelligence can communicate with customers more efficiently, addressing to their issues or queries in helping them realise the importance of a service or a product. Not only does this technology enhances consumer experience, however also includes cost effectiveness as the requirement of a separate personnel to address such issues is not required leading to a shift of resource utilization. Volvo Marketing Manager, Tobias Wamser, has acknowledged the use of such technology, stating that,
We were able to increase lead generation on our website by about 300%. We are also able to prioritize high-quality leads and offer them an even more personalized experience.
Visual Search
Visual Searching technology has a potential advantage as it allows customers to search for a certain specific product as per their preferences. Only by taking an image of the product and uploading does the job of searching as various options related to that product gets suggested to choose from. Google Lens is one of the commonly known application for android or iphone & ipads that allows users to search for products by clicking a photo of the same, scan barcodes, and even learn more about various landmarks, plants or animals, books. A potentially innovating tech - Google Glass has taken such visual technology to a new level unfurled to be explored further. Not much of scanning the whole environment as a human bot, however such allows various service facilities keeping in mind the privacy and let the users to take pictures, send messages, have an audio-visual experience and many such with the glasses put on.
Allowing moments to be cherished with, technology opens the door to explore further with innovations and utilize such in enhancing experiences. Role of technology in media and marketing can never be overlooked as advancements modernizes the ways to influence more people with inducive indulgence into such campaigns leading to more effective business deal.