How Has Advertising Changed?

Choose a job role (or career path) with which you are familiar. In what ways has this role 1) already changed in the digital economy, and 2) be likely to change further in the future? 

In past decades there were only few mediums through which to market a product or service, but with the advance of technology and especially social media sites, the way in which consumers are exposed to advertisements has changed drastically. 

Prior to the internet, Television commercials, newspaper ads and radio broadcasts were some of the most common ways for companies to get their message across to their target markets. Long before the World Wide Web, the invention of home TV sets gave advertisers an entirely new opportunity to reach a large number of their target audience all at once. Initially, there were not many channels from which viewers could chose, meaning that a broadcasted television ad would be seen by the majority of the population. Nowadays, however, it is estimated that the average American household receives 206 channels, of which a mere 10% are actually watched (Markeing Charts, 2016). While in the 1950’s it was considered a luxury to own a home television set, in 2010 it was shown that 2.4 rooms in an average UK family home were equipped with television sets, estimated to rise to 3 rooms by 2020 (TV Licensing, 2011). The increase in both the number of channels and TV sets of an average household means that advertisers can no longer be certain that their advertisement will reach their target audience. Consumers are no longer forced to sit through TV ads, they can simple switch to a different channel on which no ads are currently being shown. However, the addition of more channels was only start of the challenges for advertisers. 

In 1999, the first commercial-skipping video recorder was introduced to the market, enabling TV viewers to record programmes they wished to watch and simply skip all of the TV ads once they were ready to view the recording (Wikipedia, 2019). 

The creation of the world wide web and popularity of mobile phones in the 21^st century brought about further challenges, but also new opportunities for advertisers. The constant use of mobile phones and tablets has caused consumers to have a shorter attention span than ever before (around 1.7 seconds for any Facebook content on a mobile phone and 2.5 seconds on a desktop), highlighting the importance of and encouraging the creativity of advertisers today (Saric, 2017). In 2015 it was estimated that people are exposed to 4.000 to 10.000 advertisements each day (Marshall, 2015). It is more essential now than ever that advertisers are reactive, relevant, entertaining and creative, and all of that in a few seconds, otherwise the target will have lost interest, switching to a different app, webpage or even device. 

Since companies are aware of this consumer behaviour, they have been using artificial intelligence to target their consumers more effectively and efficiently than previously possible. Pop up ads, Instagram and Facebook feeds use complex algorithms to create consumer profiles of each current and potential customer (Andersen, 2018). Have you been on any retail sites recently, looked at a potential water bottle, or clothing item you may like the look of? Well, if you have, be prepared to see that company bombard you with ads on every single social media site and each device you own. In just 70 years, advertisers have had to go from almost everyone seeing their ad to hoping that through the use of artificial intelligence, (which even just a few years ago would have never been almost unimaginable), their ad will reach a large enough number of consumers to create a buzz for their product. 

The way in which advertising has already changed throughout the decades has been astonishing; however, these changes are not expected to stop any time soon. New technologies and devices are constantly being invented, one more innovative than the next. Advertising has always taken advantage of new technologies and artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that whatever comes next will influence advertising again. The exact ways in which it will change is almost impossible to answer, as future technological advances, such as the ReplayTV, social media sites and AI, were unimaginable to consumers previous to their times. 

References

Andersen, D. (2018). How AI Helps Marketers Build Customer Profiles and Drive Revenue. Retrieved from https://www.dialogtech.com/blog/marketing-analytics/ai-customer-profiles

Marketing Charts. (2016). Who's Watching How Many TV Channels? - Marketing Charts. Retrieved from https://www.marketingcharts.com/television-71258

Marshall, R. (2015). How Many Ads Do You See in One Day?. Retrieved from https://www.redcrowmarketing.com/2015/09/10/many-ads-see-one-day/

Saric, M. (2017). How Brands Can Still Win Over Customers as Attention Spans Decrease on Social. Retrieved from https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/how-brands-can-still-win-over-customers-as-attention-spans-decrease-on-social/

TV Licensing. (2011). A focus on the nation's viewing habits from TV Licensing. TV Licensing. Retrieved from https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ss/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=content-type&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1370006458250&ssbinary=true

Wikipedia. (2019). ReplayTV. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayTV