Advertising in the age of convergence

This week I've been looking into writing a report on how digital convergence has transformed the lives of everyone living in the UK. This got me thinking about role of new, convergent technologies in shaping the marketing industry, and in particular advertising.

Advertising, like any other communication method dependent on the media, has been subject to massive disruption by the arrival of digital convergence.

At one time the advertising model was relatively straightforward: find a big audience and speak to them, insistently and disruptively if need be, but ensure that your message is put across. However, new technologies have facilitated the fragmentation of mass audiences to such a degree that advertisers - mega-media events such as X-factor or the FA Cup final apart - can no longer identify a mass audience, grazing like a herd of buffalo on the plain. The audience are hiding now, elusive and difficult to reach, on the internet watching Youtube, fast forwarding through adverts on their digital video recorders, listening to their iPod’s and oblivious to billboards. How will businesses and advertisers respond to this huge shift in audience behaviour? Could technology, the initial cause of the disruption, also provide the solution?

What about the opportunity that audience migration to a variety of digital technology offers to advertisers? For some, the compression of time between the delivery of the message and the potential fulfilment of purchase that digital convergence affords, either on the internet or on mobile phones, is more than capable of compensating for the loss of mass demographics. For instance, big spikes in music downloads were being seen on mobile phones after targeted delivery of adverts to small groups.

Others see opportunities in a blurring of the distinction between content and advertising - already seen in advertorials and product placements - as being the surest and most effective method of reaching and influencing consumers. Yet others still see location coming back into play, as a key method of reaching the audience: micro-sites, and sponsorships of specific places, times and days would provide the targeted experience that was the most successful method of selling. And there is the argument that the mass-media model still eventually works.

The data that would truly transform the market, and show the where the greatest opportunities really are, by revealing audience behaviour is already out there stored on Sky boxes, mobile phones, Oyster cards and loyalty cards, ready and waiting to be interrogated. So what are advertisers waiting for?

While convergence has opened up many new opportunities for the advertising industry, it has also created new threats. Brands can be broken by one misjudged or overtly intrusive campaign. What would consumer reaction be to the exploitation of personal data by a large retailer? Or to stealth advertising on social networking sites that sent targeted ads after monitoring user content? While the prospect of losing influence and trust remains, aggressive use of this data is unlikely.

By Sam Ingleby, programme manager at Intellect