Modern advertising has been significantly influenced by changes in technology

Discuss how advertising is influenced by technology.

Advertising is the activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services. This is an essential aspect of the media industry as it helps increase sales and helps get a certain messages out to a consumer. There are several significant advertising companies in New Zealand that have developed and changed as technology has advanced in our country; two of these are Spark PHD and Draft FCB. Technology has become the fastest growing form of advertising in society today; this is through the introduction of Internet and social media, television and the use of mobile phones, therefore I think that both of my chosen advertising companies must be largely influenced by the change in technology in New Zealand.

In 1989, when New Zealand was first exposed to the Internet, it was determined that change in the advertising industries was bound to happen extensively. Twenty years on, the Internet has become the third most spent on advertising in the world. In 2011, a total of thirty-two million dollars was spent on advertising per year, however this is expected to rise drastically over the next few years to a total of sixty-two million per year in 2016. A quote from Spark PHD says that, ‘Our industry is experiencing a period of amazing change, and the pace of this change is likely to increase dramatically over the next five years.’ This quote shows that they are aware of a rapid change in society and they must take influences from this change to suit what New Zealanders are doing. Since the introduction of world famous social networking website, Facebook, in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, the advertising industry has been heavily influenced by social media websites. For example, all advertising companies can now track the websites that a person goes onto while they are logged onto Facebook, this is used to find out a persons hobbies and personal interests and is called audience profiling. Things that they may be interested in will then display on their Facebook screen, to help the consumer potentially find something they want to purchase. To promote anti-speeding, Spark PHD invented a game that would show up on people’s home pages on Facebook. This fun car racing game began like any other, however, thirty seconds into the game; the car would collide into a wall and burst into smoke. Facebook would then retrieve photos from your profile and display them on screen; this created a ‘life flashing before your eyes’ effect, and shocked many people throughout New Zealand. This campaign has proven to be extremely effective, as road casualties have plummeted from 314 per year in 2009, to 223 in 2012.

Another well-known advertising company in New Zealand is Draft FCB which specifically states on their website that ‘Advertising is what we do on a daily basis but we’re always aware that the real reason we’re here is to create change. And while it’s helpful to change attitudes, the end goal must be to change behaviour.’ This is a good example of the company taking influences from the change in New Zealand’s technology. This agency assists many New Zealand companies by helping them advertise their brand or get a specific message to a consumer. A form of technology that has greatly influenced advertising is television. This is the most popular and has the most spent on for advertising by far in New Zealand. Nowadays, television advertising has such a high demand that T.V commercials can cost up to $50,000 dollars for just 30 seconds of television airtime. One example of Draft FCB taking influences from this particular form of technology was a three-week cross-promotion between mini and SPCA. During this campaign, Mini taught three SPCA dogs how to drive a mini vehicle, this was to promote New Zealand dog adoption and create a message that SPCA dogs were not dangerous or reckless animals. Draft FCB advertised this process at peak hour television (7pm) on Campbell live news and uploaded the videos’ onto YouTube for online users to keep up to date with the process. People could also follow the process on Facebook to keep up to date and chat with friends about it online. Spark used engagement marketing as it got consumers actively involved with the brand. This advertising technique worked very well as every dog was adopted from the SPCA after the campaign was complete. The websites views also went up 200% and the New Zealand adoption rate also rose an astounding 400%! This goes to show that advertising has been influenced by new technologies and has proven to be very successful.

Another modern form of technology that has influenced advertising has been the invention of the smart phone. This useful piece of technology works as a cell phone, computer, iPod, camera and much more. In 2011, Draft FCB worked with Vodafone to create links and apps that would help a consumer find things that they were interested in doing more easily. This was also a useful way to advertise hundreds of brands and products right from a consumers phone. Vodafone’s slogan would also be ‘do it better, your way’, which created brand value, such as them being reliable and helpful. Draft FCB also organised famous New Zealand actor from ‘Boy’, James Rollester to act in commercials, this celebrity endorsement helped give Vodafone a true Kiwi feel, instead of presenting it as an international brand.

Overall, advertising in New Zealand has been greatly influenced by technologies such as the Internet, social media, television and smartphones using links and apps. As our society is developing at a rapid pace and new technologies are being created, advertising companies such as Spark PHD and Draft FCB must change to fit in with what people are doing and what they want. If advertising companies did not take influences from this change, many companies would struggle to sell their products or get their message out to the consumer.

Ruby Stafford-Bush