Why Emerging Media?
Technology has changed the way that I meander through my day. It’s how I receive news, collaborate with colleagues, find restaurants to try, and track my physical activity. I’ve become absent-minded to the role that it has because it’s hard to imagine a time where my iPhone wasn’t with me and information wasn’t a click away.
Traditional media is and still very much part of my life. It’s interesting to see survey results showing that consumers tend to trust newspapers, television, and radio sources more than social platforms and I can’t say that I disagree. While it’s not time to rule this not yet archaic media out, it’s definitely time for the digital age. Emerging media has brought a new world of connectivity where users have vast amount of choices, interactivity, and convenience like they’ve never experienced before.
Personally, I like when the two forms of media work together in harmony. On America’s Got Talent, the audience is encouraged to save a contestant by voting within the mobile app, texting, or doing a quick Google search during the live television broadcast. In only thirty minutes, the results are in and two lucky (talented) people remain in the competition. With the help from the sponsors at Dunkin’ Donuts, of course. #DunkinSave
How do you identify emerging media with all of the platforms that exist? Find anything that’s possible while on-the-go such as GPS directions, text messages, online price comparisons, live video-streaming, even playing music through Pandora or Spotify. Users from around the world are utilizing the Internet to stay connected, entertained, and informed.
This digital landscape can be overwhelming especially when deciding on where to allocate marketing dollars. It’s important to understand an audience to receive the most effective return on investment. However, the audience is helping each brand through their activity alone. Marketers are finding detailed information about their consumers that aids them in starting the right conversation with them. Every tweet, purchase, download, and post is tracked and contributes to a consumer profile. Some may find this convenient as the advertisements that they see on their social media accounts are relevant to them. Right now, my Facebook feed is showing me a pair of boots I considered buying before heading to Nashville for a weekend. It's a gentle push to purchase with, “Oops! You left something in your bag!” While others find this type of big brother tracking intrusive and unwanted.
This year’s political campaign has shone a bright light on the marketing era in which we live. It’s estimated that 9% of the politicians’ media budget is going toward social media. Why? That’s where they are finding the elusive millennials. What would we do without Donald Trump’s 140 character tweets or Hillary Clinton’s selfies? Politicians, they’re just like us!
It also shows the dangers of your digital footprint as some of his tweets from years ago have come back up to bite him.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a website that asked users to ‘Trump Yourself.’ With the click of a mouse their Facebook profile photos were given a Trump insult slapped across it. What’s impressive about this? The data in which they were able to collect. Users were required to grant access to their Facebook page before the image was generated therefore giving out all of their personal information at the drop of a hat. This was an excellent acquisition tool.
Emerging media is fascinating and the best part is the technology we are using today may simply be the foundation for what’s to come.