With the ever-growing use of shared media and virtual advertising, the adoption of new promotional strategies has become the priority of many companies as a way to adapt to the dynamic nature of the consumers. Unlike the top-down model where every promotional decision lies with the marketer, better and more flexible approaches have developed that relies on customers for ideas to improve the overall promotional tactics. Hence, this paper seeks to argue that companies have adjusted their advertisement strategies to match the needs of the social media and online platform users who constitute a better proportion of the consumers for their products. This adaptation aims at expediting conformance to the ever-changing needs and preferences of the target consumers worldwide. Integrated communication and conversational advertising, sharing of information with the shared media as well as the diversified mass media advertising strategies are some of the vital support points for the argument in this paper.
The first adaptation of advertising methods relates to the Spurgeon idea which associates new methods that view consumers as key innovative participants in the publicity, broadcasting and selling activities. The ‘Coke-Mentos’ trial is affirmative evidence that viewers play an active, positive role in the control and running of media behaviour (Spurgeon, 2007, p.18). According to Arvidsson, as cited by the Spurgeon’s paper, the method employed by Coca-Cola where audiences are invited to help in the prescribing of new types of atmospheres, processes, and objectives for consumer-based interactions enhances involvement and throughput.
The Coca-Cola Company as an international leader in the beverage and soft drink industry depicts several aspects of the shift from mass media to conversation based advertising through its most substantial Facebook following making its brand one of the most successful trademarks on social media with about ninety-nine million likes. Astonishingly, the Coca-Cola page on Facebook was not a creation of Facebook; it was built by the two coke enthusiasts from Los Angeles namely Michael Andrzejewski and Dusty Sorg. The duo invented the idea after browsing through the Facebook pages that were initially used by Coke and realised that the pages did not satisfy their desires. Coca-Cola accepted the ideas and went further to discuss with the pair about the future of the page and eventually shared the benefits as well as the rights to operate the site (Ahmed and Raziq, 2018).
Similarly, the ‘share the coke’ promotion aimed at increasing sales of Coca-Cola products in Australia and Britain in 2012 and to engage consumers more with the Coke activities proved instrumental in aiding the adaptation of traditional advertisement approaches to modern media. By allowing the clients to SMS the names of their best friends to be used as an icon Coca-Cola symbol, the advertising process became up-front to accomplish. The promotion extended beyond Facebook and became public on newspapers and television but attracted a huge following on Facebook due to the ability offered of sharing photos with the hashtag, ‘share a coke’ on Facebook. Several other media contents were also created and availed to boost participation while also making it easier to promote the sharing of memorable moments. From this case, therefore, it becomes right to argue that incorporation of social media platforms in advertising made it possible for the companies to connect directly with the consumers of their products on an individual level (De Mooij, 2010).
Another significant part of this adjustment according to Toro and Draper (2012) is trusting media agencies with data unlike the previous case with the traditional publishing techniques. The social media platforms such as google obtain belief from major companies like Coca-Cola, whose product sales relies heavily on advertising. With this high level of faith, more information and data relating to the details of the advertisement is shared seamlessly between the advertising company and the promotional agency (Moriarty et al. 2014, p.4). The allocation of data occurs in such a way that the inferred trust allows companies like Google to determine the following causes of action in the publicity process.
Schmidt, as cited by Turow and Draper (2012) equally agrees that trusting advertising agencies with business information is a significant step towards improved online based publicising. He further states that a firm would win a higher level of trust if the original intention relates to using the data to assess the future interests of a company’s friendship as well as activities. By so doing, most advertising agencies like Google would have the chance to transform the profiles of businesses into a profitable reputation for both the marketers and promoters. Ultimately, decisions relating to changes in demographics, relationships, routines and personality marketing that portrays certain individuals as more valuable than others while associating weakness and inferiority with other individuals and useless targets for particular products are revealed and accordingly remedied (Turow and Draper 2012, p.138).
Additionally, Spurgeon (2007) reasons that the fine-tuning of advertisement techniques to stay relevant to the intended customers is a constant and continuous process and usually conforms to the communication concept along with practice. Over the last few years, the broader developments in advertisement co-adjustment have offered significant accounts of the reorganisation of publicity as a renowned promotional field. As one of the tools in communication marketing, advertising comprises of public dealings, direct sales, and management of client dealings together with other publicity techniques (Spurgeon, 2007, p.17).
Equally, with this cohesive promotion based communication, both the internal and external communication approaches unify in a manner that promotes a constant image of the promoter’s business and enhances the market distinctiveness (Spurgeon, 2007, p.18). As is the case with Coca-Cola’s advertising method, under standard practice, the primary concern of an integrated communication practice relates to identifying means to single out consumers who exhibit indifference or resilience to advertising techniques employed. ‘IMC’ is, therefore, a suitable response to the globalisation of markets and the changes in technology (Sinclair, 2002, p.25; Cunningham, 2010; Cunningham and Turnbull, 2014).
Therefore, to integrate accordingly with the social and online platforms, recent publicity reveals a dichotomised arrangement. With the new advertising configuration, a few internationally recognised companies like Coca-Cola have expanded laterally into alternative promotion based communication techniques. Correspondingly, many other companies have also gained restrained speciality. This expansion has split along media purchasing and innovative concentration (Turow and Draper (2012), which are owned by international network agencies or in some cases privately run businesses. With the shift towards international integration and merging of vendors and markets along with the selling based communication methods, new counter tendencies have emerged. Furthermore, the slow reaction of the global media based organisations has also seen the emergence of fast moving small broadcasts which are neutral and enjoys fresh media understanding (Turow and Draper 2012, p.139).
A common problem associated with the conventional top-down strategy is the necessity to “break through” the confused and inundated media environment to allow advertisers to command the attention of their target customers. The Coke Mentos approach reveals that using the conversational broadcast method makes it easier to reach the intended audience using the bottom-up strategy as opposed to the traditional method. For example, the virtual chats relating to the trials of the Coke-Mentos together with the initial visual based demos appeared to have circulated among the knowledge internet-based communities as well as the function based broadcasts. As a result, the dedication to the popularisation of science-based learning gained a boost. Through this approach, the Eepybird group gained the attention of renowned brands and the broadcast media which further fuelled a broader conversation relating to professional selling as well as communication networks concerning the role of customer produced brand messaging in selling approaches such as YouTube, and other audio-visual sharing platforms (Spurgeon 2007, p.19; Kaplan and Haenlein 2011, p.253).
Online sites, such as Revver, make it possible for consumer-created endorsements to flow throughout the network via the internet. Similarly, further to allowing consumers rate the content uploaded, the site also allows for the generation of an automatic code which users can freely copy and use in their blogs and websites as well as emails and hence distributing the advert widely (Spurgeon, 2007, p.19). The active and innovative involvement of consumers in the bottom up advertising approach associated with conversational broadcasts is a clear sign of the realisation of the customer self-adjustment about online promotional strategies (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011, p.253; Berthon et al., 2008, p.17).
Fetisova (2015) contends in their paper that, the importance of any medium of publicity depend mainly on the circumstances affecting a specific make at a definite time. For instance, the behaviours of customers, the objective that the advertising method intends to achieve, the likely audience that will promote the realisation of the advertisement objective, as well as the financial plan available (Fetisova, 2015, p.9). The above claim by Shimp and Andrews reveals the multidimensional nature of the dynamics; the Coca-Cola Company had to consider in selecting an appropriate advertisement media for its product brands. Television, print media, broadcast, and internet represent the most common Media for advertising available to any organisation regardless of the sector of the business (Fetisova, 2015, p.10).
Another adjustment in advertising is the use of reward as an incentive to increase consumer commitment to online based boards besides accelerating their innermost yearning to earn future rewards. The reward could be a result of a cherished commercial incentive that includes money awards, lottery, challenges, and prizes. Wang " Fesenmaier (2003) as cited by Spurgeon, recognised a motivational concept associated with expectancy as having a meaningful impact on the contribution an individual would have towards a community online through future reciprocation.it is therefore right to conclude that rewards in the form of money contribute to the active participation of consumers. The Coca-Cola Company commonly employs this approach to increasing customer engagement on social media pages (Spurgeon 2007, p.20).
The nature of use of the print media has also transformed with the latest development allowing for immediate updates, reviews, and distribution of ads. As opposed to local newspapers which could deliver information a limited number of times in a day with radios and television airing updated information at specified intervals, the internet version has made it possible for breaking down of stories such that they are readily available upon need (Havens and Lotz, 2012, p.46; Belch and Belch and Kerr and Powell, 2014).
Various challenges have emerged with the digitisation of the advertising business. Roland Rust and Oliver in their journal paper consider advertising as a concept to be on the verge of dying. As such, most agencies involved in advertising have resolved to reorganise in order to accommodate and promotional environment that is harsh. Wiley (2007) as cited by Albarran, (2016) reveals that with the changes digitisation of advertising, the income for agencies has declined while the employees attached to the agency faces layoffs. This challenges according to Wiley relates to the loss of business caused by the emergence of direct selling and huge sales promotion accelerated by integrated market-based communications. The digital production skills have also hampered concentration in certain sectors of media based creation with the anticipation that workers possess a broad range of expertise. In some cases, students have received discouragements against pursuing certain careers and advised to acquire specific skills in digital media (Albarran, 2016).
Additionally, changes in technology have posed difficulties and challenges amongst advertisers as they are needed to employ different techniques in both planning and management of advertisement shifts. Technological shifts in advertisements need the development of a plan to assist in the transition of new structures of promoting products and services. In the recent era, the universal advertising has changed the focus to acknowledge cross-cultural complexities (Sinclair, 2002, p.24). As a result, multinational companies face difficulty remaining intact given that they comprise numerous organizations of varying sizes, different culture as well as varying personalities (Havens and Lotz, 2012, p.46). Also, the technological changes have fostered specialization and fragmentation and demand a higher level of creativity generating agency wars whereby, ambitions vary leading to dire consequences.
Over the recent past, advertising has significantly changed from the mainstream to a more creative industry due to the integration of social media advertisement. Digitalization of advertisement poses different multidimensional effects that have shaped the development of media products. Digital technologies have provided avenues through which media platforms can get to their audience thus acquiring responses that help in enhancing their creativity in regard to product development and service improvement. Fragmentation of media has led to the broadening of advertisement from the mainstream media to social media platforms (Arvidsson 2006, p.74). Coca-Cola has engaged in creative advertisement through the development of social media advertisements that depicts adherence to social and cultural variation amongst its target customers. Today, most companies have shifted their focus to segment-making media to address their population cross-sections to engage with each other efficiently.
According to Edward and Wajcman (2005), the change in advertisements from the traditional media does not necessarily imply a loss of careers for the workers. Rather, it implies the positions may reduce and further apart. The change in advertising technology is a critical motivation for the professionals to separate from the holding firms to get their freedom to pursue different advertisement forms and to enhance their creative skills. The integration of technologies ion advertising industry including desktop publishing is likely to downsize human labor forcing practitioners to be more creative and productive.
The commercialization of the advertisement process has weakened the creative energy that it entailed in traditional advertising. Currently, companies focus on the creation of advertisement that will get global recognition using interesting topics or events. Creativity in advertisement had been affected by the development of a media platform with the ability to tailor an advertisement to specific consumers without the need to cause traction. Previously, advertisement entailed the creation of content that would cause an artistic attraction using cartoons, funny imagery, and impressive content (Sinclair, 2002). In the contemporary society, advertisements focus on product promotion by laying down of information about such and detailing its advantages over other brands. For example, the advertisement for coca cola Fanta brand entails the creation of details that detail the product information and shows people using such. The creative process has been affected because the Internet enables the constantly specified adverts that focus on the frequency of the advertisement rather than attraction due to the creative aspects of such a product.
Top-down communication is a paradigm that entails the flow of information from a high level of leadership in a company or organisation to the staff or employees. The top-down communication was used in the traditional advertisement as such organizations employed editors and content managers who suggested the content to be created and the approved which would air. Traditional advertisement procedures involved the editing processes, and editor decided the kind of information that would be released. On the contrary, the development of online advertisement has created a shift in the communication system where it has become a down up and horizon communication. The online advertisement creates a situation where top-down communication system derail the procedures of advertisement as the Internet generates information on the profound basis. The down-up communication approach entails employees creating an advertisement as per the current situation and presenting such ideas to their content managers for approval (Albarran, 2016). The situation is because of the constant change in trends and social perspective towards products and situation. Such a scenario entails the advertisement team to scrutinize the social media and online platform for activities and trends that would go in line with the advertisement goals of a product. For example, celebrities influence the social media stories and trends, therefore, creating an advert that associates a brand like Coca cola to such people. It will be hard for a content manager to keep up with the current trends therefore social media and online advertising has contributed significantly to the change in top-down communication.
Social media has revolutionized advertisement through the creation of a platform that allows companies to reach profound numbers of consumers. The social media has broadened the marketing capabilities as people are using such online application in masses thereby creating a one-stop shop for customers. Previously, advertisement entailed the creation of different adverts that would focus on the specific environment, but the social media enables the creation of one advertisement that can be made available to people across different countries and cultures. The online technologies maximize the adverts created by reaching different audiences thereby making the process cost-effective.
Conclusively, the new modifications on advertising methods such as the use of friendly broadcasting methods, integration of communication networks and the involvement of consumers in developing advertisement strategies, based on our arguments above is a clear sign that the conventional top-down promotional methods no longer hold. The vibrant and ever-varying nature of customer needs and the advancement in information technology requires new promotional strategies similar to the ones adopted by major international companies like Coca-Cola. Therefore, to realise success in the modern online and web-based advertising, user-friendly techniques, as well as customer involvement, is necessary.
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