The
above statement reiterates the irrefutable fact that traditional
advertising media is fast losing its sheen. The days when
mass mediaradio, television, print and outdoor mediaaccounted
for 100% of the advertising budget are over. During the last
decade, many new media have been deployed by media planners
in advertising agencies to reach out to the audience targeted
by their clients (marketers). These include SMS advertising,
MMS advertising, advergaming, ATMs, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) Marketing,
in-program advertising (TV), in-film advertising and the Internet.
Indisputably, the Internet accounts for a predominant chunk
of these new generation media. Its rapid acceptance and worldwide
spread sort of opened the floodgates for global advertisers.
Ever
since the first banner ads made their appearance on websites
in the mid-1990s, the flood of online advertisements has been
unstoppable. Advertisers in almost all global markets, across
several product categories (consumer/industrial products),
were quick to embrace the Internet for advertising purposes.
Be they general websites (providing news/e-mail services),
portals dedicated to a niche audience or B2B and B2C exchanges,
there is no dearth of websites thriving on advertising revenue
alone. In fact, many websites have their advertising space
sold out for many months. Some are even in an envious position
to choose advertisers on their websites, by quoting a minimum
fee or specifying a minimum duration to advertise.
Leveraging
real-time analytical software tools for online advertising
can further enhance customization. As the surfer browses through
a website, software programs can be activated to automatically
deliver advertisements of potential interest to him/her on
different web pages. This can be done by matching the content
of web pages with relevant advertisements on the web server.
Alternatively, customer data such as his/her age group, income
level, geographic location, occupation and hobbiescollected
through a mandatory online registrationcan trigger display
of appropriate advertisements. |
