Superbowl 2013 ads and remediation

With Super Bowl XLVII just around the corner, it will be interesting to see how this year the brands that are advertising will use remediation.

In the past, ads have been one-way communication like a speakerphone, just blaring out content. As new media technologies emerge, more and more brands are creating ads that produce two-way communication, interactivity, and the combining of traditional and new media.

Less and less ads include phone numbers to call but rather, URLs, QR codes, social media icons, twitter hashtags, and other forms of metadata tags have worked their way into ads. Now it is hard to find a print or television ad without one of these. The ad itself has become a medium in consumer advertising. The advertising encourages action by directing the consumer to go to their website, to check out their social media pages, to contribute to a trend, and even to provide feedback. All in all, the ads aim to engage the consumer and to interact with their brand or message they are sending.

Ad Age’s article, ‘See More Super Bowl Ads Early: Axe, Volkswagen, Century 21, and Audi’ (Ives, 2013), shares with us a little taste of some of the commercials that have been released early.

In the Axe Apollo-Lifeguard TV commercial, viewers are directed to the website axeapollo.com to join for a chance to go to space.   

Volkswagen’s Get Happy commercial, ‘#GetHappy’ encourages viewers to get onto Twitter and to start using their hashtag.

For Audi, not only are they using the hashtag ‘#BraveryWins, but they are also using remediation in a different way: they are letting the public decide the outcome of the commercial. This allows viewers yet another chance to interact with the brand.

We will see on game day how other brands are using remediation. Hashtags and URLs seem to be the popular interactive element, still. Any guesses/ideas on what will be used in the future with new media technology? Or do you think hashtags and URLs are effective and are here to stay for a while?

Ives, N. (2013, January 28). See more super bowl ads early: Axe, volkswagen, century 21 and audi who needs to wait until game day?. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/super-bowl-ads-early-axe-volkswagen-century-21-audi/239438/

  

Digital advertising strategy and ongoing optimization

In last week’s class, Dr. Seung Yoo, Assistant Professor of Digital Advertising, spoke to us about digital advertising strategy. The easiest way to define that term is by breaking it down, and that is what Yoo did.

What is strategy? A plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.

What is digital advertising? It aims to create demand using the power of digital media.

So what is digital advertising strategy? It builds on traditional advertising strategy, using the benefits and challenges within the digital media technologies.

Bosses are always interested in results. How will we know if our strategy will work? The great thing about digital advertising is that it is measurable. “It gives brands opportunity to build tailored, optimized brand experiences,” presented Yoo.

There is ongoing optimization. “You can monitor, measure, experiment, learn, and be proactive!” mentioned Yoo.  Some of these tools are free and can help you optimize brand experience: Google Insights; Flickr; Delicious; Spyfu; Quirk SearchStatus; SEO Book’s Rank Checker; Change Detection; Google Alerts; BrandsEye; Google Patent Search; Google Adwords External Keywords Tool; Google Trends; YouTube Selection Tool, and much more.

Google Analytics is also another powerful free tool that can help your digital advertising strategy work wonders. You can learn about the behavior of visitors to your website, run online campaigns, etc. You can learn about what is working/not working for your website, tailor it to your customers, build relationships, etc. You can tailor it to your audience so they get the experience and content they are looking for, and so they want to keep returning to your website.

Not using an analytics tool as part of your digital advertising strategy will prove to be damaging to your brand. How will you know if your strategy is successful or if it needs to be tweaked if you do not measure it?