From humble beginnings, the internet has now become an important tool in everyday life. The ever-changing landscape of the web has allowed mankind limitless potential online, from leisure, communication, entertainment, shopping, the list being endless. However with the leaps comes the falls, and with every change another aspect of the internet becomes non relevant. Online marketing has molded itself to fit the changing environment, allowing itself to promote products in the most effective way possible, whilst other elements fall to the wayside to internet obscurity.
With a more technological minded generation browsing, marketers have had to reimagine previous strategies from past years. Gone are the days of spamming emails with promotional advertisements, with clever bots identifying modern day email advertising promotions as “junk” and being whisked away into a folder of the same name. No longer the curiosity and excitement of opening an email, now can be seen as a near chore to the masses. And in the modern day where we emerged from the Web 2.0 and stepped bravely into the era of Web 3.0, it is hard to pinpoint where and when the next online marketing strategy will emerge.
In the land of the web, social media is king, with millions sharing information about themselves online for everyone to see, a marketers dream. Facebook itself has revolutionized marketing strategies for companies, thus allowing businesses to promote their own personal product for a fee, which in turn can be broadcasted to masses with those of the same taste. Releasing personal information to companies in order to sell or view their wares can be seen as “evil”, however has resulted in targeted strategic marketing, catering for that specific audience. This in turn has also seen the change the perspective of many companies to adopt a fresher and newer outlook on their marketing campaigns in order to maintain or target newer markets.
An example of this can be the emergence of viral video via video marketing. Clever advertisements that are embraced globally or nationally and shared from one to another. A prime example of this done well can be seen via Old Spice’s ‘The Man Your Man Could smell like’ ad campaign. The past ideology of that being the brand that your father would use, now elevated into a cult like status. This stroke of marketing genius saw the rise of 300% traffic to the old spice web page, an 800% increase of fan interaction on Facebook since the initial airing (P & G, 2015), and has now been viewed over 53 million times to this day on YouTube.
Courtesy Of Old Spice/ YouTube
But when will this somewhat golden era of online marketing die out? Is the popular web 2.0 service of data exchange and information sharing becoming outdated? I personally believe so. The emergence of online streaming, where data can be accessed from different online services and the syndication of websites and marketers working collaboratively together (Chaffey, 2016) are now abundant throughout the web. Companies can now market, promote and make use their own products through the use of foreign company’s webpages. Apple and Microsoft are two frontrunners in this new age marketing ploy with consistent use of external products relying heavily on their own product. The Apple app stores and promotes other developers products with over 2 million apps as of June 2016 (Costello, 2016), and rides heavily on the constant purchase and marketing of many these applications. Microsoft on the other hand lends itself to numerous online sites in order to advance the functions or smoothness of operations. This is exemplified by the use of Microsoft products such Word and Excel in numerous online sites.
Typical marketing strategies of yester year and present day can still be viewed as applicable, where information reaches its targeted audience. Though the time will come when revision will be needed in order to create the best means to sell or display products. Online advertising will continually develop to a point where subconsciously recognizable traits will be sketched into our minds and we will no longer see them it as marketing, but rather a small necessary of what is the vast wilderness of the online experience.
References
Chaffey, E. C. (2016). Introducing Digital Marketing. Digital Marketing, sixth edition , 30-39.
Costello, S. (2016, June 14). How many apps are in the app Store? Retrieved from About Tech: http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonesoftwareterms/qt/apps-in-app-store.htm
P & G. (2015). Latest Innovations, Old Spice. Retrieved from P & G: https://www.pg.com/en_US/downloads/innovation/factsheet_OldSpice.pdf
willgooch 
I would rather receive targeted marketing material based on my likes and dislikes, than generic mass marketing. I agree with you that marketing will become so targeted to the individual that we will actually start to see it as a service rather than noise.
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I agree with you Beth. However I personally believe that the generic mass marketing that can generate enough noise to become viral is an incredible market strategy that cannot be overlooked in this day and age.
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Social media platforms such as Facebook are really a double-edged sword. The fact that social media users are clearly monitored very closely raises issues of privacy, although being exposed to advertisements attuned to one’s personal interests and needs is of great convenience. Fantastic read!
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I get so annoyed with the amount of emails that I receive that have no relevance to me. Yes it was exciting years ago receiving mail. However now all I seem to do is delete and unsubscribe and they still keep coming! I have been known to delete important documents in my frenzy to rid my mailbox of its clutter. Must admit that I do sometimes look at the sidebar when on Facebook a bit like impulse shopping in the supermarket. so I guess marketing works!
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I was once so excited to receive email! The thought of opening up my mailbox seeing those lovely items with attachments was a delight. I agree with you it is now a bothersome chore! I spend so much time deleting and unsubscribe get that it has become a nightmare! I don’t want or need all the emails that offer me a get rich quick scheme or that try and entice me to gamble or try for free some new product.REALLY am I that guiillable or what about the clairvoyant that knows my destiny………SORRY delete! By the way this is in my inbox not spam or junk. What really upsets me is that I actually miss important emails because in my frenzy to empty my cluttered inbox I actually get carried away and delete everything. Good luck trying to market using emails! However sometimes I am lured to the sidebar when using FB Can’t resist a bargain!
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Targeted marketing is the direction of all marketing activities. It delivers results at a cost effective level. You say that marketing will become so targeted to the point where it becomes the foundation of the online experience. Have you considered that by creating a bubble where the user cannot receive information outside of their tailored experience that you are limiting them to very few product ranges? Will the user have little room to explore new products and brands?
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Old Spice never gets old. Great example.
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It really doesn’t haha
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We are slowly coming to an era where the segmentation of markets will solely be directed to the individual and not the group. Until then, our emails will remain cluttered with emails that have no relevance to us.
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Agreed.
I look forward to the day I don’t get spam mail that has nothing to do with me
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