Future Trends in Online Advertising

Throughout the course of this semester, we’ve presented online advertising through many different perspectives. We’d like to wrap up our blog by giving our readers some ideas as to the direction online advertising will take in the future. We can certainly expect that online ads will not present themselves in the way they have in the past. While researching future marketing trends, I noticed that a lot of ads are presenting themselves in a more subtle manner.

 According to Business Insider, ads are now taking the approach of standing out by blending in with user content. Take Facebook for example. Have you noticed that ads are starting to blend in with your Facebook news feed?  They no longer show up only on the side bars of your screen. There have been several times that I am scrolling through my news feed and have seen an interesting video, I scroll back up, and then I realize that it’s an advertisement. Companies do this so that we don’t ignore the post simply because it’s an obnoxious ad. As you’re scrolling through your friends’ Facebook posts, your eyes are wandering from one thing to another and you’ve been advertised to without even realizing it.

Mobile ads are also becoming a hot new trend among advertisers. Today’s era is all about having smart phones and mobile access anywhere we go.  In 2013, Business insider stated that one out of every five people in the world have a smart phone and one out of every seventeen  have some sort of tablet. In America alone, 50% of adults have a smartphone. As you can see, this makes the job of advertising easy for people who are constantly in contact with the world around us. The majority of people that have a smartphone have gaming apps. These apps are usually free because the creators of the app are paid by advertisers to promote their company and or product through display ads around the parameter of the screen.

A popular advocate of mobile advertising is Amazon with their line of Kindle products. Amazon is able to make the Kindle more cost-friendly by allowing advertisers to place ads on the Kindle that cannot be removed. The consumer has the option to remove these ads by paying a $20 upcharge for an ad-free product. This is a very effective way of advertising to the consumer who values price over inconvenience. The Kindle displays these ads in two prominent locations; the lock screen and the bottom of the home screen.

In conclusion, advertisers are becoming very innovative and interactive when it comes to selling their products. What sorts of advertising trends are you noticing in the online world? Do you think ads are showing up too often and taking away from our experience while using a product or service? Do you feel like it is worth the lower price to have ads on our electronics? What do you expect to see regarding online ads in the future? Feel free to comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

Sources: http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-advertising-trends-2011-7#now-learn-what-todays-ad-buzzwords-mean-7

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_special_subscribe?nodeId=200671290​

Online Advertisments Through Video Views

Online advertisement is prevalent almost everywhere you look.  If you go on your phone it shows up when you play games or use other apps.  If you go on your laptop then it pops up as soon as you log onto the internet.  And if you have a pop up blocker then website have become creative enough to include ads on their web pages to get around this so people are still exposed to advertisements.  Earlier in our blog posts we have talked about websites targeting certain ads to people based upon their interests but what about when you watch a TV show or YouTube video what makes those ads pop up on your screen?  I’ve seen commercials when waiting for a TV show to load about a product that I don’t even care about.  How do these TV shows and YouTube videos pick the ads that are run prior to viewing the show?  Also, when viewing a video online the ads that come in between breaks tend to be the same one on repeat? Why not mix up the commercial ads for viewers?  Why keep these ads the same?

Well as most know from online research, online ads are posted on websites by third parties.  These third party sites typically pay to have their ads posted on websites, such as YouTube, because there are many viewers.  On average there are roughly 2 billion people view videos on YouTube over a one year period, and 160 million views of videos on YouTube by mobile devices daily.  YouTube brings in roughly $450 million in revenue in a year. Similar to Google, YouTube has banners that display ads on the sides of the screen which can vary some of the ads that are viewed by people.  So the money that they make comes from their third party advertisers.

Another larger company that heavily uses online advertisement is NBC.  Particularly during the Winter Olympics it raised roughly $50 million in online ads.  Again, similar to YouTube when commercials are played before viewing the show that a viewer is trying to watch online the commercials tend to repeat themselves.  Why?  The main reason is because companies such as NBC and YouTube have sponsorship rules that they adhere to; if a third party pays enough money they can have their ad run multiple times. 

When these ads are run before viewing a video they typically are the same ads being repeated throughout the breaks of the show but they are also sometimes irrelevant to your interests.  For example, there may be a guy viewing a music video so he may not care for a Venus commercial because he has no use for a woman’s razor.   The reason why ads like this pop up is because it is difficult to judge the audience that is viewing that particular show/video without the proper tools.  These ads are used to fill the buffer space while a video is loading and it also helps generate a profit for the website. 

Do you think that websites such as YouTube and NBC should create cookies for your video views to help target the ads that you see when waiting on videos to load towards your interests?  What are your thoughts about these current dilemmas of repeated ads being displayed when running a show?  Should websites change their requirements to make it more appealing to the audience or should they leave it alone to attract more third party revenue?

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/technology/03youtube.html?_r=0 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-12/watching-olympics-online-heres-why-you-see-the-same-ads-over-and-over

Online Ads Can be Found Anywhere

Now that we have explained how online advertisements are used by end user, the next topic to cover is how and where companies keep their ads displayed on a website.

Online advertisements are basically seen everywhere on the web, whether it is e-commerce or content website (such as: eBay, Google). Due to the fact that they are everywhere, advertisements on the web are now becoming competitive and most companies are investing a lot of money to them. Online advertisements expense has been growing over the past years, and it is expected to grow about $17.9 billion over the next four years. Most online websites gain these profits by selling ad spaces on their webpages. But how can online website value their ads spaces on their websites?

The value of the ad display can depend on where the advertisement is located on the website and also how many times the ad was viewed. Usually websites have a standard display for advertisements. Most websites have ads banners that are shown across the top of the webpage and side bar links that display advertisements. The top ads banners tend to cost more than the bottom page ads because they are most likely to be seen by end users.

Another way that websites determine the cost of an ad is cost per click. The way this method works is by the advertiser paying a website, by how many times an end user clicks on the ad and browses the advertiser’s website. With the help of cookies, websites can keep track of user that have been on the advertisers ads. An example of a company that uses this method is Google ads, which charge more for top rank websites, because they have a higher chance to be clicked on. Having these online advertisements provides revenue for some websites, so they are able to maintain their content on the web.

As we know ads are everywhere on the web, even on piracy websites. There has been a recent controversy whether online advertiser should be penalized if they have an advertisement on a piracy website.

But why does this matter? The contents on piracy websites generally provide links use file sharing.  These links allow users to download unlicensed and illegal copyright materials such as movies and music. These piracy website are benefiting from the profits that are generated by online advertiser, which essentially means that the advertisers are contributing to this crime. The revenue produced from ads on these sites is estimated to be $227 million annually.

In most cases brands that purchase online ads are not aware that their ads are displayed on a piracy website. The reason is that the advertised brand hires a third party to send their ads to different websites, some of which are piracy sites. Should these companies be penalized even if they are not aware that their ads are on a piracy website? 

The United Kingdom is now trying to stop piracy websites from profiting from these ads. The article “Attempt to Cut Off Illegal Websites’ Advertising Revenue” explains how the United Kingdom are blocking piracy websites in hopes to cut revenues from these sites. Many argue that having the theses ads on piracy sites is hurting the credibility of the brand and companies will take their ads off these sites eventually. Then other says that if there is money to be made from these web sites, advertiser will continue to display their ads. Should these advertisers be held responsible for posting their ads on piracy websites?  Is it fair that piracy websites are gaining revenue from these advertisements? Should the United States take actions and block theses websites as well?

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26788800

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/1283125/online-ads-how-they-make-money-how-cookies-work-and-how-they-affect-your-privacy

http://musically.com/2014/02/19/study-claims-that-online-piracy-sites-made-227m-from-ads-last-year/

Developing Trends in Online Advertisements

            We have touched base on what cookies are and how they are connected to you, the end user. Browser cookies track what websites you visit on your personal computer. Once you leave a current website and visit another website, advertisements from the previous website will continue to pop up. So these cookies are embedded into browsers that haunt your every move after visiting a certain website, but is that an invasion of privacy? Some think so, some could care less. Right now these cookies are not accessible in mobile devices, but that will change over time. There are many future trends in the online marketing field that will change the way that we see and react to advertisements.

            On the Forbes website, author Jayson Demers discusses what he believes to be the seven new and growing trends in online advertising.  Ad retargeting effectiveness and cookies is one of the trends that Jayson discusses. Reminding customers of recent searches in ads psychologically can lead to a build in trust with the company through repetition and familiarity. Do you even realize how many ads you come into contact every day? No one really does because it is  becoming second nature to us. To increase the amount of ads you see, more companies are becoming more mobile. It is projected by Forbes that 87% of all sales will be connected through tablets and smartphones. There is no escaping it!

            Another trend that Jayson really picks up on is the appearance of the advertisements. Everyone wants his or her lives to be simpler with less stress. Our society today has no concept of relaxation or taking time to do leisure activities. Companies have picked up on this lifestyle quickly, so they know that when you go to Google to look up something, they need to catch your attention fast and get their point across.  This is why another trend that is growing is the fact that “less is more”.  Forbes did state it in the best way saying:  “there is a sense that from the hyper-connectivity of our highly-digitized lives to the bright, flashy, complicated sensory input we’re fed everyday, there is no way to continue at this pace. As a result, 2013 is likely to be a year where the most successful marketing strategies will be ones that are not only simple in nature, but promote goods and services that serve to simplify the consumer’s life, or even just their customer experience.”

            Along with this simplicity, you can see that these advertisements are using more images rather than words to get their messages across. Showing a wendy's burger rather than telling you about it has a greater sensory appeal to it. This method gets their brand and value across to the end user, which leads to more and more content being used. Companies need to be more witty and entertaining to grab people’s attention. I know when I am looking on twitter or Facebook, I immediately scroll past the ads with a bunch of information that I don’t want to read and go onto the ads that pop up that show me something that I want. That aesthetic appeal is growing more and more as it becomes more accessible. That being said companies are trying to grab their target market’s attention on any level of social media that it can. The more people are sharing and creating talk about your company, the more change in your pocket.

            Online advertisements are a huge growing industry that is evolving every second of everyday. When is the last time you went to the “Penny Saver” to see what great deals are coming your way? Will the Newspaper totally become paperless in the next few decades? Once every business starts adapting these current and future trends, what is going to have to happen next to get people’s attention? With this new innovation, it just makes up for new unanswered questions that the world is waiting to answer.

You can read more about these trends at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2013/09/17/the-top-7-online-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2014/

How Much Is Too Much?

Constantly people are being targeted by other advertising companies when they are online.  There are multiple ads that pop up on one's computer screen after clicking simply one link.  For example, if you go onto Google and then type in anything whatever you type in will show ads related to that search on the side bars.  To better clarify this, take a look at the picture below:

How is Google able to even do this?  What type of technologies have they created to do this? Or did they even create this?  To answer these questions we must first go over some of the basics.  Online advertisers have developed cookies, or little codes that marketers have attached to their web pages so that they can track what websites you have been on and what kind of things you have typed into your search bars.  This explains how not Google, but other online advertisers are able to know so much about you and put ads on your screen based off of your previous activity online.  Currently cookies have access to your computer activities but do not have access to your smart phones and tablets.  So this issue is only relevant to devices with access to the internet except smart phones and tablets.

Well online ads have been around since the internet, so what’s the big deal right?  Some people feel as if this is an invasion of their privacy because online advertisers are able to access information about you.  This may seem simple but the reality of it is online advertisers are developing stereotypes of you based on your online activity and sending ads your way towards what they think you may be interested in.  There are both pros and cons to this.  Pros, you can find what you want much easier.  Cons, sometimes you can have too many ads and it can be overwhelming.

Some companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft say that they are developing technologies to regulate more of the access online advertisers have to cookies.  This will be hurting the 120 billion dollar online advertising industry and limiting their ability to advertise to target markets but it will be protecting the consumers’ online activity.   At the same time these same companies are still allowing online advertisers access to your information.  Recently Microsoft posted in a blog that they would soon be giving online advertisers access to cookie usage over their Windows 8 and 8.1 operating systems (which has access to tablets and PCs).

When is enough, enough?  How can we regulate the number of ads that show up on your screen and who should be in charge of the regulation?  Should we regulate the online advertisers putting cookies on your searches?  If we do, then this will drastically hurt the advertisers because they will not be able to have a set target market, or will they be able to have an online target market at all if we restrict their access to cookie usage?  What are your thoughts on the use of cookies by online advertisers?

Sources: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304682504579157780178992984
               http://www.wordstream.com/advertise-on-google

A New Way of Information Communication

     When the iPhone 5s came out in the fall last year, where’s the first place you could look to find specs on the hot, new Apple product? Online, right? Any time we want to find new information, the first place we go is to Google or even Youtube. When we go online, we get the information we need instantaneously. For this reason, more people have started using the Internet on a daily basis which provides a means of communication between a company and the consumer.

     A driving force to organizational success is advertising. According to dictionary.com, advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, or need. Online advertising is thus done by other means such as through websites and e-mails. By advertising through web-based sources, companies are able to gather information about us in a way like no other. Online advertising has also been more efficient for companies in the sense that they can produce fewer advertisements and reach more people.

     According to news.yahoo.com, the average person spends approximately 23 hours online every week. During that time online, we are exposed to approximately 1700 display ads and promotions in a month. With all of this information coming at us, how are we supposed to remember all of it? We are more likely to remember the ads that cater to us and our needs. 

     The ability to go online has taken advertising to a whole new level. Companies can now gather information about our needs and desires, create a product that will satisfy our needs, and market it to us all while we’re sitting at home. They do this through targeted advertising, which is the process of gathering information about us as the consumer in order to segment the market into groups based on our traits and interests. Also known as behavioral targeting, this strategy has proven to be very effective.

     According to a survey conducted by ChoiceStream.com, 38% of respondents say that they are more likely to pay attention to an ad that is targeted towards them.  For example, while I was apartment shopping this year, I was researching student apartments in the University area. After searching, I logged onto Facebook and began seeing banner advertisements for apartments in Charlotte. I thought it was just a coincidence! Little did I know that the apartment ads were tailored to me specifically. I was introduced to several new apartment complexes that I did not know about previously, which had a huge impact on my decision.

     Some would argue that there are privacy concerns regarding online advertising and the information that companies are allowed to gather about us. As of right now, companies are using a self-regulated approach on privacy guidelines.Congress is anticipating establishing a more uniform privacy law in the future. How do you as the consumer feel about this? Do you feel that self regulation is enough? 

     Traditional advertising seems to be a thing of the past as the concept of online advertising emerges. Companies are able to use the information they gather about us online to their advantage to provide us with a more personal marketing experience. As you can see, when we go online, not only are we looking for information about companies, they’re looking for information about us too.What are your thoughts? Should companies be able to gather information about us? How far should companies go to figure out our needs as a market?

Please feel free to comment,subscribe, or follow to see more information about recent developments in Online Advertising and how it is changing our future as consumers.

Sources:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/advertising

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/online-advertising

http://news.yahoo.com/americans-spend-23-hours-per-week-online-texting-092010569.html

http://www.itvdictionary.com/targeted_advertising.html