Advertising is very much related to Consumer Behavior, as the message that are specifically targeted will alter their consideration set and ultimately form a purchase. (see the Consumer Decision-Making Model)
There are many forms of advertising format and medium, but today our focus is on Physical Advertising. Physical Advertising is essentially 'hard copy' of advertising format you see on the streets, in the shop, on your cloths (print), newspaper and all the tangible advertising materials.The 3 prominent ones that you will hardly miss out on will be:
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| Billboard Advertising |
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| Street Advertising |
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| In-store Advertising |
These form of advertising can be considered 'traditional' method of advertisements as they are the first form of advertising materials before the age of internet, or rather, the digital age. The advertisement works by finding the right spot where the intended target audience will frequent and put up something that will catch their attention and hope this will translate into action. It is hard to quantify the return of investment (ROI) and it is a one-way communication tool. But hey, no internet remember? The static physical advertisement can be seen from the picture in the 'billboard advertisement' and 'street' advertisement'.
The comes the present. in the late 20th century, the advent of Information Communication Technology (ICT) took off and looking forward into the 21th century now, the decreased cost of server space, the super internet speed and the ever increasing bandwidth allows for 'physical' advertisement material to 'come alive' and be digitalized to tap into the advantages of digital advertising. Look at the picture of the 'in-store advertising' now. The board can move, information can be disseminated in a flash, updated promotional efforts can be passed on to consumers. This mode of physical advertising allows for better interactivity, more catchy and can change information in a flash without having to print out a giant poster everytime something is changed. It has made physical advertising more effective, convenient and catchy. However, they still dont overcome the fundamental problems that traditional physical advertisement faced and we are STILL not maximizing the potential that we can harness from the internet and the powerful ICT.
IS IT TRUE THAT PHYSICAL ADVERTISING IS DECLINING AND LOSING RELEVANCE LIKE NEWSPAPER?
Wait, wait..Let's not be too pessimistic over things. The future is in our hands. We can extend life cycle for products, let alone a advertising medium. Hence......
THE FUTURE!
Digitalized 'physical' advertisements alone is not enough. We must tap into the power of the web and also use our imaginations to maximize the utilities for the medium.
First, lets talk about creativity. The current physical advertisements do not talk to you. Their function is information dissemination at best. There are no interactivity. Hence, we can tap into augmented realities platform like virtual world to get our inspirations. How about coming up with this latest Digitalized 'Augmented Reality' Physical Advertisements (its getting longer!) as follow from TopMan UK:
This augmented reality physical tool is not exactly an 'advertisement', but it can easily be one, you know, add some message into the tool (the potential for using it for marketing is limitless!!) or get people to sign up etc. The characteristics that are favorable for physical advertisement are dyadic communications, experiential co-creation/co-production of shopping decision making, engaging & immersive (characteristics that are derived from virtual world and interactive eMarketing tools). We can tap into the world of eMarketing into physical advertisement to give it an edge, as well as to stay relevant. Cool enough? not just yet.
Since we are talking about future, lets expand our horizon alittle more. You see, we use computers and internet everyday. It is almost like our food and water. We need it to survive. Our habits, consumption behaviors, usage patterns, social interactions, friends, your character, your families, extended bloodlines, your funny photos, your idrty little laundries etc etc are all transposed from real life to our second life, the internet. We can essentially find almost everything that is related or even ABOUT us online. As marketers, we know that, and we are tapping on all these information about you to qualify our potential consumers, target market/audience, market size, consumer behavior, PLC etc etc as part of our marketing strategy. Why do you think Facebook founder, Mark Zukerberg is worth Billions of dollars? Its nothing to do with the design of the website, its not about the size of the company. IT IS ALL ABOUT INFORMATION OF YOU AND ME. Information is knowledge, information is key. He who has information will reign (like Google and Facebook). Think Google Adsense and Facebook Marketing. They serve the relevant advertisement to you through information systems with information about you so that the advertisement is precise to your potential needs and expands the reach to the advertisement's relevant target audience.
So why not use these information we can find about you, linked it up with a digitalized billboard, have an advanced scanner to scan for the people's identity, and serve the advertisements that are most relevant to you like how Google and Facebook are doing using their Google Adwords/Adsense and Facebook Marketing respectively? The concept of eMarketing Marketspace is relevant here (using ICT to link up with equipments to information system as part of a system in its entirety)
This video will unlock our true potential for Physical Advertisement:
Physical Advertisements are now facing a process of renewal. Gone are the days where you just put up a billboard and expect a return. It is not only inefficient, but it is really a 'waste of physical space'. Why dont we use the concept of Google Adsense and Facebook Marketing by adding physical advertisement as an viable equipment with information system to form an eMarketing marketspace using similar concept to serve advertisement to people in the physical world? Think big. Its coming. You see it here first!!
