Advertisers and marketers alike are aware that with or without them, the ways in which consumers will experience products and develop brand loyalty are changing. In order to embrace this change effectively, industry hopefuls as well as veterans must understand why the old way of doing things is no longer as effective.
Let’s start with our baseline: How does the American Marketing Association (AMA) currently define advertising?
“The placement of announcements and persuasive messages in time or space purchased in any of the mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and individuals who seek to inform and/or persuade members of a particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations, or ideas.”
Do you see any flaws in this definition? Unless you’re brand new to the industry, there was probably a time not long ago when you could back up all the reasons this definition was accurate. But things are changing.
Advertising is no longer one-way communication.
The three flaws in this definition are as follows:
1. “The placement of announcements and persuasive messages… in any of the mass media….”
The traditional forms of media include television, magazines, newspaper, outdoor, and radio. Can you imagine an advertising campaign today that did not include the Internet as a means of communication? Furthermore, the unique benefit of the Internet for advertising is that it allows for communication with an infinite number of niche sites as well as a handful of sites (such as Google and Yahoo!) with mass reach.
2. “…messages in time or space purchased in any of the mass media…
While advertising has operated under this model since its conception, CGM (consumer-generated media), social-network advertising, and the viral spread of brand messages are giving brands the opportunity to expand their reach without necessarily digging deeper into their pockets.
3. “The placement of announcements and persuasive message…to inform and/or persuade a particular target market or audience…”
One-way communication delivered from the marketer to the target audience ignores the control, freedom, and dialogue consumers expect from Web 2.0. Consumer involvement and interactivity, which is fostered under this new model, enable for two-way (or multi-way) communication between brands and consumers.
For more information on “Changes in the Roles and Meaning of Advertising,” please explore pages 2–5 in Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World.
How do you think advertising will continue to evolve? Please share your comments below!
{facebook-share}
Has the word come full circle, or are we overextending it?
In the Oxford Universal Dictionary on my desk (first printed in 1933, revised in 1955), advertising is defined as “a bringing into notice.” I love when they keep it short and sweet. If we once again adopt that definition, we can lump together traditional advertising, social media, public relations, community relations, packaging, location, brand management, customer service, corporate culture, physical facility and architecture, etc.–all the elements of brand communication–under the big umbrella of “advertising.”
But, is “advertising” the word we should be using to describe all this communication? Or is advertising just an element of communication, not the sum of it? I think the AMA’s definition ably describes what we have lately been calling “traditional advertising.” But in 50 years, won’t social media (et al) be “traditional?” What will our understanding of traditional advertising be called then?
Sure there is some overlap, but advertising is as distinct from social media and internet marketing as it is from public relations or brand management. (As a matter of fact, I would argue that social media marketing is a closer relative to community relations, networking, and PR than to traditional advertising.) If we confine things like social media and mobile apps to being a part of advertising, where do we draw the line? If a power company restores a customer’s power after seeing a comment about an outage on social media, that’s more customer service than advertising. In fact, calling that example advertising would cheapen it.
Internet marketing is so diverse in its possible executions, it can’t be lumped into just one category, either. While purchasing a banner ad or conducting a PPC campaign could arguably qualify as traditional advertising, other incarnations of internet marketing could not: search engine optimization, blogging, local listing management, creating promotional websites, mobile apps and websites, live customer service chat, etc.
A lot of things get thrown into the catchall “advertising” category that probably shouldn’t. I think the AMA definition differentiates advertising from the other elements of a holistic system that communicates the brand message.
Ian, you make some wonderful points!
I would agree that the AMA’s definition more greatly parallels what we often refer to as “traditional advertising.” Given all the elements of brand communication that you list above, adopting the Oxford Universal Dictionary’s definition of advertising as “a bringing into notice” is definitely worth considering.
Perhaps our goal should not be to accurately define advertising, but instead to exceptionally execute use of the tools that the catchall “advertising” category provides us with.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments!