The future of marketing = Electronic marketing

As the end of the semester draws near, so too does the due date for this blog. Although I may continue on with this blog, I think I should address the opening quote to my blog which states;

"The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection, it is not easy to propose any improvements".

- Samuel Johnson (1759).

I love this quote as it was said way back in 1759, yet they thought advertising was at its peak and that it could not be improved. Oh how wrong they were.


My first blog post titled "What is electronic Marketing?" posed the question to readers what exactly is electronic marketing and what mediums are included in electronic marketing. At the beginning of the semester I did not know the answer to these two questions. However, after 11 weeks of extremely interesting lectures and tutorials I think I now know. As stated in that first blog post, electronic marketing is;

The use of information communication technologies to; understand, create, communicate and deliver value to customers and the organisation.

I believe these include mediums such as; the internet, email, social networking sites, mobile phones etc.


Electronic marketing is also used to facilitate other forms of marketing such as; flash mobs, controversial advertising, viral marketing, and ambient advertising. Electronic marketing is used by a wide range of organisations and people, from large global companies such as McDonalds to politicians to charities to everyday Australians simply posting a video on Youtube.


However, electronic marketing did not exist in 1759. Consequently, as we now know advertising was no where near perfection in 1759, and there were many improvements that could have, and have since been made, in fact T.V. commercials did not even exist back then.


Traditional media is continually loosing its effectiveness with consumers, as many people are now simply too busy or have no interest in traditional media. For example many consumers may not read an actual newspaper, but rather read it online instead. Many consumers may choose to download television programs and therefore bypass the T.V. commercials. Furthermore, many Australians no longer listen to the radio but rather their iPods. Consequently, more and more organisations will be forced to turn their marketing efforts towards electronic marketing in order to break through the clutter and reach consumers in an effective way. Thus electronic marketing is definitely where marketing will be heading in the future.


I think electronic marketing is just fascinating, it is unbelievable the ways in which marketers can reach consumers, I mean who would ever have thought of iPhone applications? I look forward to seeing the new ways in which marketers will reach consumers in the future.


P.S Wags I have really enjoyed your tutorials and lectures, they have been extremely interesting and I have learnt so much! This has definitely been my favourite subject in all my three years of Uni.

Ambient Advertising

So a couple of weeks ago myself and two others gave a pretty awesome group presentation on ambient advertising.

Kit Kat park bench

For those of you who don’t know exactly what ambient advertising is, it was best defined by Sandra Luxton in her article titled “What is this thing called ambient advertising?” where she defined it as “The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places often with unconventional methods and being the first or only ad execution to do so”.

Mc Fries pedestrian crossing

This presentation was accompanied with a report. The report covered everything from the beginning of ambient advertising, to its purpose, to its effectiveness etc. In writing the report and presenting our findings to the class, I found it extremely interesting that although ambient advertising is often associated with out of home mediums such as; roads, buildings, stairs, cars, buses etc, it relies heavily on e-marketing. This is due to the fact that ambient advertisements are seen only by a relatively small amount of people. The advertisement hopes to be creative and unique enough that those who do see the advertisement will generate buzz and word of mouth about the advertisements. This is done through blogs, Youtube and other social networking sites. In fact, the majority of ambient advertising examples used in our report were taken from Youtube and various blogs.

Mc coffee street light

Furthermore, ambient advertising is thought to be relatively cost effective. This again is due to the fact that individuals generally tend to share the advertisement with friends and family through their blogs, Youtube, Facebook etc.

A campaign for feed South Africa in which images of hungry children are placed in the bottom of shopping trolleys

Considering the above statements, it is easy to see why Ambient advertising only began in 1996 and has steadily increased in popularity, as Electronic Marketing is essential to the effectiveness of ambient advertising!




P.S Does anyone have any other super cool examples of ambient advertising?