Advertising 2.0 – How Micromedia Effects Advertising

What’s the effect of an advertising campaign, in a world where every consumer has instant access to all hard data about any given product? How can we even reach these consumers in a media landscape that consists of millions of personal blogs, podcasts and time shifted television? What is the role of marketing when consumers are directly connected to almost anybody within the companies they buy from?

Advertising has long been based partially on something called information-asymmetry. The company knows more than the consumer, and uses this information to seduce a target group or to correct a common perception by manipulating a market.

We’ve already seen that consumers are talking about brands and products. The least a company can do is listen to these conversations, treating them as a large, free focus group. In this process, advertising agencies should be a partner to their clients. Monitoring the blogosphere is a new discipline, and right now some Public Relations agencies are adding it to their services. Not only because these conversations will end up affecting advertising effectiveness and content, but also because more and more companies will want to start incorporating micro media in their marketing plans, advertising agencies will have to enter the field of blogs, podcasts and videocasts.