“The only constant in life is change.”
This quote by Greek philosopher Heraclitus perfectly fits in the advertising industry. The rate of change in the industry has been phenomenal.
The technologies and social platforms that have emerged in the past ten years like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etcetera have revolutionised the way brands communicate with their potential customers. From Ad agencies to soap operas to brand building to branded content, the evolution of the advertising space is worth mentioning.
The Pre-Internet Advertising
Let us look back at the pre-internet days when advertisements were carried out via old-school infomercials, television channels, and billboards. This was the golden era when the whole movement of advertising was considered as part of the society, almost taking the cultural status. The first advertising agency in India was B. Dattaram founded in 1905, and the first ever advertisement that appeared on state television was in the year 1976.
But in recent years, traditional advertising has faced a slow death, with the advent of the internet. Although this gradual extinction of conventional advertising cannot be justified in absolute numbers, we can better understand this elimination with the following example.
There is no denying that VHS tapes have more or less disappeared. However, there are still a handful of people who purchase VHS tapes. Therefore, to pick out a definitive timeline when these tapes disappeared is difficult. One can say that the invention of CDs and DVDs put an end to these tapes, with the digital landscape knocking the doors of the advertising agencies.
The growing market for advertisements in the modern world
In the contemporary times, it is unimaginable to expect people, construction firm especially in urban areas, to spend their money buying products about which they haven’t heard of. The dynamics of shopping have changed rampantly over the years solely due to Advertisements.
And so the act of marketing majorly depends upon the art of advertising. Marketers run through their imagination, feel the pulse of people, tickle their senses by marrying their imagination and use-case scenarios, to market products/services. All of us have seen and admired the Flipkart advertisement which has little kids enacting adults. Each of those ads has a lot of views on YouTube. The visuals are something that hit the right chord with the consumers and ends up increasing the sales.
The modern-day advertisements have given the power back in the hands of consumers, bringing in an era of renaissance in the marketplace.
The Transition from Traditional to Digital Advertisement
In today’s time, there are approximately 900 private television channels and 250+ radio stations, which make traditional advertising rather costly and confusing, amounting to the in-built vacillations. Nonetheless, in the present day, digitalisation of Ads is one of the most guaranteed methods of promotion. It is one of the most favoured space for advertising communications and relevant interactions. With the birth of digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google, the scope of advertising and marketing has undergone a sea of change. Google AdWords, which was born in the year 2000, allowed brands to market their product and reach the targeted audience with the help of keywords they search for, and the websites they visit. Online advertising is not only limited to the search engines and sites anymore; adverts can be found on:
- Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.)
- Mobile applications
- Music streaming services like Spotify
- On devices like Amazon’s Kindle which shows adverts on the lock screen, unless you pay to remove them.
The brands can now target and re-target their audience with adverts based on their demographics, websites they have visited, their online search queries and more. In short, digital marketing has empowered businesses to reach out to their customers on every possible platform in a reasonable manner.
Social Networking and Advertising
Social networking platforms undergo continuous growth; they have tremendous abilities to channelise advertising campaigns in innovative and productive ways. Social networking moderately adapts to new technology and gradually embeds it, keeping in mind the future tendencies of advertisements. One of the most dominant social networking innovations of 2018 is going to be the evolution of Snapchat. It will be interesting to see how brands will market their products through this application.
Another aspect which is gradually changing the situation of social networking campaigns is ‘Live Video Streaming.’ This kind of campaign is here to stay for a more extended period. Most of the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are mixing up the live video feature which in turn will help them to become a prime choice for brands – existing and new.
What the future holds?
To survive in the hyper-competitive times, it is a must for Indian businesses to have a well-integrated online advertising strategy. Without a substantial presence in the digital space, brands stand to lose out from the visibility and hence on the awareness, which in turn will hamper the business growth.
The presence of digital landscape is an added advantage for brands to highlight their name at a higher level. It is going to be a rewarding time to climb onto the electronic bandwagon once the time is correct, both from a career perspective and for your business.
The advertising industry has created an ocean of opportunities for the young generation. An educational degree in advertising and marketing provides you with a strategic bent of mind. You can learn how creative thinking can help in delivering the marketing strategies. Following are the profiles that are open to an advertising and marketing student:
- Media Planning :- This department is responsible for researching and reaching out to the best possible media through which they can attain customers.
- Creative Director :- Herein your task will be to harness appropriate words and create the most arresting visuals.
- Art Director :- The creative and art director work closely with each other. The art director has to keep a stern eye on the overall ‘look of the campaign’.
- Market researcher :- The research team tries to analyse and work upon the reach of the ad campaign.
The industry requires well- grounded people with the ability to create innovative ideas. The field is a culmination of art, science and social science. It is the ocean of capabilities for those who have a passion for creating exceptional things.
