The 30-second television spot, once the mainstay of mass marketing, is waning in influence as new technology, including the Internet, cable television and TiVo, fractures the viewing audience. Consequently, advertisers are turning to alternative forms of promotion to reach consumers, according to Wharton faculty and advertising executives.
Direct advertising on the Internet and through the mail, in-store merchandising programs, product placement in entertainment programs, and sponsorships of sports and cultural events are just some of the ways marketers are now telling their story. "The trend is away from mass advertising - television advertising in particular - and toward what I call more non-traditional or alternate forms of advertising, some of which are quite old-fashioned," says Wharton marketing professor Patricia Williams.
Oprah Winfrey's Pontiac give-away - a reference to Winfrey's decision on Sept. 13 to bestow a free car on all 276 members of her studio audience - and an episode of The Apprentice that revolved around creating an advertisement for Pepsi Edge are just two examples, she notes.
Williams says the lines between advertising and entertainment are blurring as marketers attempt to build an emotional bond with consumers. "If I can get you to engage with my product - in content you find compelling, humorous, interesting or relevant - in a way that I can't with a 30-second ad, then I as a marketer can sponge off that relevance, insert myself into that relationship and hopefully forge my own relationship with you on a deeper level."
One way to do that is with product placement in entertainment, which Williams says can be effective as long as it is not overdone. "Increasingly you see movie studios and video game manufacturers going directly to marketers and ad agencies saying, 'Let us be a part of your communications strategy.
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