Digital Media Convergence In Relation to Advertising & New Media

Valerie Stephanie

There has been an explicit assumption that digital media convergence is soon replacing the ‘old passive media’ and becoming a new instrument for advertisers to conduct marketing approach more effectively and efficiently (Spurgeon, 2008). The point is agreed by Dwyer (2010, p.1), noting that “Readers and advertisers are migrating online, where competition on eyeballs and ad dollars is fierce. Almost 16,000 jobs were lost at U.S. newspapers last year”. Such claim is supported with the fact that advertisement expenditure on ‘new interactive media’ known as digital media convergence, such as online advertisement, rose up to 28% in a year, while advertisement expenditure on ‘old passive media’, such as newspaper and magazine, gradually decrease in average up to 7% each year (iabaustralia, 2012).

The reason of such claim is simply that advertisers are not satisfied with the uncertain performance of ‘old media’ and as a result, digital media convergence is established as a solution to the ‘old media’ limitations (Spurgeon, 2008). Digital media convergence enables media producers, advertisers, and consumers to “create, borrow, share, and even steal” media content from various media platforms on a single device (Dwyer, 2010 p.11). It means that all parties have the ability to participate in the media environment at any time and anywhere (Jenkins, 2006). Whereas in the past, only certain individuals with specific skills could produce media content, the technology to distribute media content was also expensive and scare, and access on media content was limited since it was under analogue system (Dwyer, 2010). Analogue system is a system where media content could only be accessed through certain media platform, while in most cases different media platform requires different technology (Dwyer, 2010).  In advertisers sense, ‘old passive media’ could only reach consumers who seek for media content and left that "distracted, distrustful, and disinterest" consumers behind; while digital media convergence enables to meet those certain type of consumers (Spurgeon, 2008 p.27).

Digital media convergence is also showing an unexpectedly remarkable result, as advertisers apply marketing approach through ‘the new interactive media’ (Wortham, 2009). One of the most relevant evident on such argument is viral marketing approach, whereby marketing message related to a brand or product is transmitted electronically, on Burger King Whopper Sacrifice Campaign** in December 2008 (Kaplan&Haenlein, 2011). The campaign was basically encouraged Facebook users to ‘de-friend’ their 10 friends to earn a free whopper voucher (Kaplan&Haenlein, 2011). Despite the fact that Facebook disabled the application of the campaign known as Whopper Sacrifice, The campaign was success to illustrate the value of its product that “Americans love the whopper more than they love their friends!” (Wortham, 2009). Kaplan and Haenlein (2011, p.4) mentions that “More than 82,000 Facebook users downloaded the software and subsequently sacrificed 233,906 of their friends, generating over 20,000 free Whopper coupons. As featured in The National Post and The New York Times, advertising agency CP+B—which was in charge of the project—estimated that the Whopper Sacrifice campaign generated about 35 million media impressions.”

Moreover, successful marketing campaign due to media convergence is also followed with economic benefit (Spurgeon, 2008). Advertisers’ message could spread in incredible speed with a minimum budget and the same level of awareness as a ‘prime-time television’ audience (Spurgeon, 2008). An example on such claim is the Old Spice advertisement video that went worldwide and hit 2,000,000 YouTube viewers in 2010 and 40,456,654 YouTube viewers in 2012 (Youtube, 2012). Obviously, most of the advertisement budget went to the production of the advertisement instead of distribution medium of the advertisement because uploading a single video does not cost any cent. This means that media convergence allows advertisers to deliver their message more efficiently (Spurgeon, 2008).

Yet, it is important for advertisers to aware that Old Spice and Burger King Whopper Sacrifice Campaign** phenomenon do not happen all the time, and most of the cases there is actually a slim chance to hit the same amount of luck (Mumbrella, 2011). The reason is because there is another very important element need to be considered: engagement (Mumbrella, 2011). Jenkins (2006) suggests that in a convergence culture, where participants are actively seek and share media content, the media flow is dependent on consumer active participation. This means that advertisers could potentially hit the same amount of luck as the Old Spice and Burger King Whopper Sacrifice Campaign**, if consumers are constantly seek for media content (Jenkins, 2006). The big question is: How long could ‘we’ maintain the participatory culture, where consumers actively seek for media content? (Jenkins, 2006).

As it is mentioned earlier, digital media convergence allows message to spread in incredible speed; as much as digital media convergence could create a ‘great’ reputation on the brand or the product or the company, it could also potentially creating a ‘really bad’ reputation on the brand or the product or the company (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). This means that digital media convergence is unpredictable, and in the client perspective, using digital media convergence would be risky (Mumbrella, 2011). One of the companies who once experienced such tragedy and create a realization within advertisers that digital media convergence is unpredictable, would be JetBlue (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). The nightmare started on Valentine’s day 2007, when there was a 9hours delay flight from New York to Cancun due to a strong ice storm (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). Then JetBlue operation system went down, which resulting thousands of flight got cancelled (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). Obviously, consumers were outraged and unhappy with the JetBlue performance, which they convey it through blogs*** and social networks (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). Moreover, before the incident happened, Business Week nominated JetBlue as one of the best companies in terms of customer service; yet the magazine replace JetBlue with Nordstorm due to “the worst operational week in JetBlue’s seven year history” noted by Kaplan and Haenlein (2011, p.4).

In conclusion, in the advertisers perspective, there has been a big expectation on digital media convergence performance since it is designed as a solution to the ‘old media’ limitation and it has shown it’s mighty capability in meeting the ‘distracted, distrusted, and disinterested’ consumers efficiently and effectively. However, it is necessary to be aware that digital media convergence has a strong influence of creating the image of the brand or the product or the company, which might be risky for advertisers. Companies such JetBlue who had been building its company’s image over the last few years, simply destroyed within few days as the result of digital media convergence. Another important issue need to be discussed furthermore before being involved in digital media convergence environment is how long will consumers actively seek for media content through digital media convergence. This means both arguments suggest that digital media convergence is still considered unstable and risky for advertisers.

References:

Business Week (2007) Customer Service Champs, retrieved on 29 March 2012, http://jetbluehostage.blogspot.com.au/2007/02/business-week-one-extraordinary-stumble.html

*Dwyer, T. (2010) Media Convergence, McGrawHill, Berkshire, pp.1-23

Iab.australia (2012) IAB NZ: Online Advertising Spend Increase by 28% in 2011, retrieved on 29 March 2012, http://www.iabaustralia.com.au/index.php?/news/story/iab_nz_online_advertising_spend_increased_by_28_in_2011

In Sarah’s Mind (2010) Whopper Sacrifice, retrieved on 29 March 2012, http://insarahsmind.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/whopper-sacrifice-and-worlds-best-job/

*Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, NY University Press

Kaplan, A. M, Haenlein, M. (2012) Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social media/viral marketing dance, Business horizons, vol. 54,no. 3, pp.1-253

Mumbrella (2011) Why Social Media is Like Door-to-Door Selling, retrieved on 29 March 2012, http://mumbrella.com.au/why-social-media-is-like-door-to-door-selling-61311#more-61311

Old Spice (2010) Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, retrieved on 29 March 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

*Spurgeon, C. (2008) Advertising and New Media, Ozon Routledge, pp.24-45

Wortham, J. (2009) ‘Whopper Sacrifice’ De-friend on Facebook, The New York Times, retrieved on 29 March 2012, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/whopper-sacrifice-de-friended-on-facebook/


*Unit Reader and Recommended Reading List
** Further information regarding the event

***An example is provided through the link