What does the Future Hold for Advertising?

Advertising dates back to the time when owners used announcers to advertise about their products in towns. Advertising is as old as 4000 B.C. and the first advertisement which appeared in the newspaper was in June 1836 in the French newspaper called 'La Presse'. From then, advertising has changed by leaps and bounds. From simple announcements to growth of new avenues, the advertising model has challenged the advertiser to actually use the term 'think out of box'. An advertiser's job has become more and more demanding not just in terms of increasing the revenue of the product, but even understanding the mindset of customers and clients. Many companies are trying to carve out a niche for themselves by trying to create new avenues every time like Apple products do. The situation grows more complex as people have started hating advertisements and do not want to see it during their favorite shows. Here the advertiser really needs to balance such a situation by carefully exploring alternatives and delivering it to the customers in a form, which will attract their interest.

Future of Advertising Agencies

In many papers, you must have read a question which would compel you to think, what will be the future of advertising? One thing is almost certain - advertising cannot and will not be extinct. In fact, advertisers are going to employ more and more research methods in order to successfully understand the client and the crowd.

• With the ever-increasing explosion of forms of digital media, one thing is certainly not going to change - word of mouth advertising, where customers are the spokespersons of the company. Consumers are going to trust their group before making any purchases.
• It is necessary to make consumers the fans or followers of your product. Adding up of fans/followers is being achieved by brands making their presence felt in social networking sites.
• Also the agencies must be able to create catchy ads, which will encourage the consumer to go ahead and buy the product.
• Of course, it's equally important for the agency that the consumer is no longer viewed as a buyer but more as a partner and creator who is going to endorse your brand.
• Another aspect is using analytics for collecting, analyzing and quantifying the data so that the advertiser can understand the impact of the advertisement in the mind of consumer. So it is a necessity to not just form messages, but to create experience which will help in retaining the ad in the mind of the consumer.
• Also, exploring new technologies to advertise is better for long term growth. According to a study, people are bombarded with advertisements that are irrelevant. Thus, avoiding irrelevant ads by the agency must be done as they do not go into increasing revenues for the product.

Changing Times for Advertising

The future of advertising has greatly been dominated by integrated advertising. This modern form of advertising includes forms like digital billboard, social vending machines and online ads and 3-D images.

Digital Billboard: An amazing form of modern advertising is the digital billboard. In the billboard, a camera is installed which is linked to a computer. The images flashed on it change from time to time according to the gender.

Social Vending Machines and Online Ads: These new channels of communication have gained popularity with the people - for instance these social vending machines used by Pepsi were a huge hit among consumers. The advantage while using this machine is, you just have to operate a touch screen through which you can purchase as well as send virtual gifts to your friends by simply text messaging the code.

Three Dimensional Images: This innovative idea which uses a flat screen usually in malls, shops, etc., displays images which have real life effects. Another brilliant discovery made by a Japanese firm is to map out the profile of the customers through facial features. The 3-D images are a new way to convey the message to the consumer. This technology has been successfully incorporated in the movies and now is used by advertisers to display ads in the malls.

The future of advertising is very bright provided the advertiser and the manufacturer take reasonable precautions. Like being truthful to your consumers, though it's a far fetched idea but still it has become a norm. People don't want to trust brands, which are unreliable in delivering their promises. Staying away from excessive advertisements is another option which will guarantee that people will remember your ad more if the message is subtle and simple. Now is the time to change the old conceptions and start embracing the new models, which are the successful mantras in this new world. Concluding this discussion, it's essential to quote Robert C. Gallagher words that say - 'Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine'.