Yes, I’ve been spotted and fallen prey, as many of you, to this type of advertising strategy simply because I take a break from my work once in a while and wonder throughout interesting sites that capture my attention. I never fill out questionnaires of sites I’m not familiar with and never reveal things that I would not want the rest of the world to know, yet …they still find me?
I realize that we’re all ideal targets in this new age for this mode of advertising, aka ‘new media advertising’, which has a wide reach and is cost effective at the same time - a mode of targeting a huge online audience. A simple, basic definition of new media, however difficult since the possibility for communication, innovation, and education are limitless as defined, would be “all that is related to the internet and the interplay between technology, images and sound” in my terms. In many ways, traditional media now relies on new media sources for all sorts of data and information.
Ads on such media naturally reach us based on our traits as demographics, psycho-graphical activities and behavioral attributes. Online companies and sites can track the content of our personal e-mails and site visits in order to target advertisements on sidebars and preferences. There are in fact, websites now whose sole purpose is to compile and share personal data with web surfers. Customers intrigued on the internet usually probe areas of a site that captivate their interest, which in turn, mark the traits for their identification and are used as the basis for selecting and serving these ads. And as we all know, a simple peek into these fascinating areas on sites, offers hundreds of new advertisers a new range of opportunities.
The initial step is an accessible website for a business online. Capturing interests of clients, as providing a link to products to attract potential customers’ interests for the sale is the simple rule for this game. Of course key words are vital in projecting how these customers will find the product in order to meet that probability. Web site creators have to remember that strangers seek their site through a search engine, so it is important to try to think like prospective clients. It’s further important not to forget to update such sites in order to make them appealing for new customers as well as the old ones over time.
This technique is further used by almost all advertisers online, in print and even on television to target a selected audience interested in their product. Newspaper ads with graphics and a charming line or two, can draw customers to an establishment consistently. A sale on one or two items used as advertising meanwhile, proves to be a good example of targeted audience advertising in papers. Likewise, magazine ads reach an audience that the publication is geared for, so by finding a magazine whose audience matches the customers’ expectations, the advertiser creates more opportunity for themselves. And of course, television spots prove to be examples of the best targeted advertising techniques with the presenter speaking directly to the audience; it reaches the largest number of people and has the highest impact perhaps since it appeals to more senses.
New media and new media communications continually evolve and have a strong impact on every aspect of our daily lives. Trying to get around the definition, or aggravation over their quantity in ads, in spite of their value at times, is somewhat impractical since they all change and advance along with the progress on our digital front keeping us absorbed in life.
