Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The Differences Between Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing


Traditional marketing consists of print media such as magazines, newspaper and the like. Traditional marketing also consists of broadcast media, direct mail, and telephone marketing. However, as technology evolves so does the ways in which we practice marketing.  There has been a huge shift in marketing from the traditional ways mentioned above to now a new way of marketing known as digital marketing. This sift only seems natural considering so many other things have and will continue to switch to digital. 
So how is this new form of digital marketing different from traditional marketing? Well, digital marketing usually consists of websites, social media, emails, content marketing, banner ads, Google ads, and video marketing. Besides the medium through which marketing materials are dispersed being different so is the content of the marketing materials. Digital marketing is much more interactive. Digital marketing often encourages the consumers to engage and participate with the advertisement. Also, digital marketing tends to be more personalized to each person. Because of cookies and the various ways our digital devises know things about us such as our likes and interests, we often are exposed to ads that are for the things or companies we like. Before digital marketing, traditional marketing didn’t have this luxury and men sat through tampon commercials and women sat through Old Spice commercials. However, we still do just not as often.  Digital marketing is more cost effective and successful than the traditional way of marketing. Also, digital marketing can take advantage of viral advertising and through sharing on social media the audience that marketers can reach are endless.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Transformative Use & Fair Use Law as they Apply to Girl Talk














Girl Talk is a mash up artist that samples hundreds of songs using small fragments of each. He combines all these song fragments and creates an original piece of music through it. Some argue that Girl Talk is breaking copyright laws. However, I would argue that Girl Talk's music is legal because of fair use laws. Fair use states that one can use copywriter material as long as it is for transformative purposes. I think Girl Talk's work is transformative enough to classify as fair use. However, many would disagree with me and argue that is music has not altered the original music sufficiently enough for it to be consider Fair Use.

Fair use is extremely subjective, however to determine between copyright infringement and fair use a judge and a jury look at an array of factors such as the length of use or how much of the copyrighted content they using, why they are using it, and the subjective part of did they sufficiently transform the content into something new. Personally, I think Girl Talk did however like I said it really all comes down to a matter of opinion. There is no right or wrong. However, considering Girl Talk has not been sued or charged with any form of copyright infringement leads me to believe lawyer must think he has a strong argument using fair use and that is why no one is taking him to court. 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Interactivity

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.wncln.wncln.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=101743237&site=eds-live

The article, "How Do Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants Respond Differently to Interactivity Online? A Model for Predicting Consumer Attitudes and Intentions to Use Digital Information Product"  provides a fascinating look at internet interactivity, its rise and impact on advertising, and how digital natives and digital immigrants interact differently with technology. 

Interactivity is becoming increasing more prevalent. People like when technology is interactive, thus it generally leads to more positive responses. Advertisers try utilize this by making their ads more interactive in hopes of increasing the likelihood of positive responses (i.e. buy their product). This article cites various studies that shed light on the process by which interactivity impacts attitudes and adoption intentions and the differences in the influence of interactivity across digital native and digital immigrant. 

This article contends that  interactivity generally is conceptualized to include three distinct dimensions: active control, two-way communication, and synchronicity (or responsiveness). This article elaborates extensively on each dimension and its role and importance in interactivity. Also, this article states that interactivity can be measured simply by whether the user views it as so or not. However, interactivity in web design can also be measured using the dimensions listed above by analyzing the quality and degree at which a web site executes each. Does it provide customers greater control over the information search process? Does it give the ability to communicate with a system and have it respond back? Does it provide quick responses? If the answer is yes to all of these questions then a website is designed well and has an excellent amount of interactivity. 

This theory for testing interactivity does not work the same for all people. Digital natives have different level responses to interactive stimuli. In particular, perceptions of active control and two-way communication have a positive impact on digital natives, but less so with older digital immigrants.

Internet interactivity is a complex and robust topic with several varying understandings and theories. However, I think this article provides an interesting and comprehensive look at interactivity and it nature. 

Thursday, October 1, 2015



Networks & Information

1) I think all the network laws, in different yet equally valuable ways, offer good advice for quantifying the value of a network. Which one do I agree with the most? Well, I would have to say I agree with all of them as they apply to different types of networks. When trying to decipher the value of a television network, I would agree the most with Sarnoff’s law. Considering his law states "the value of a broadcast network is directly proportional to the number of viewers" and television makes money off advertising and advertisers pay more money for more viewers. Therefore, it makes sense that the value of a television network is proportional to the size of its viewership. When it comes to digital networks and social media I agree equally with Reed’s and Metcalf’s law because both of their laws account for interconnectivity between users when calculating the value of a network.

2) I think the internet has proven itself to be the most dynamic and capable innovation of our time and five years from now that statement ring all the truer. Five years from now I think people will continue to get their information from the internet, and what will change is that the internet will make all other information sources (Television, Radio, Magazines, etc.) obsolete. Or not so much “obsolete” but the internet will replace the traditional way they are distributed (broadcasting, printed). A lot of information sources like the ones mentioned are online currently in some regards. For example, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Pandora, iHeart Radio, Spotify. Also, nearly all magazines have websites where they share similar, if not exactly the same, content as they do in their printed magazines. Ten years ago none of the companies mentioned above were around and five years ago half of them weren’t around. Five years from now I think all news, TV, movies, music, and the like will be stored and streamed online and there will no longer be any of the traditional broadcasting. When it comes to technology and the distribution of information things are constantly evolving. Five years from now we can only speculate how things will change, what we do know for sure is that they defiantly won’t stay the same. 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

“Generation Like” Discussion Questions:


1.  “Engagement” is observing or reading content on social media. You are not just passively scrolling through but you are engaging with it.
“Interaction” is the act of sharing, liking, or commenting on a piece of content on social media. It’s a step beyond “engagement” you are not just reading the content and being engaged you are interacting with it through commenting, liking, and sharing.
“Reach” is how many users were exposed to a certain piece of content. For example, if you post an Instagram it probably will "reach" a good number of your followers, if your friends liked it and other people looked at what they liked then it “reached” those people as well. If you also choose to post that Instagram on your Facebook and Twitter than your content will "reach" your followers on those sites as well. When it comes to advertising companies will pay more money for sites that have the best “reach”.
“Target” is who you want to see your content (what is the audience you are aiming for). For example, Taco Bell’s “target” audience is teens and young adults. That’s why they chose Tyler Oakley to advertise their company because the vast majority of his followers are teens.

2.  To me “Like”ing someone’s post on Facebook means I identify, enjoy, or admire the content they posted and I want them as well as others to know it.  

3.  Knowing others “like” what I “like” does defiantly influence me. It validates that what I like is important or worthy or “liking”. Also, it means I’m “friends” with people who share common interests, values, humor, and taste as me.

4.    An “influencer” is a person or brand that has a lot of followers or influence on social media and they encourage others to “like” something because they like it and they have a high status which validates their opinions and likes.

5.  When Oreos chose to activate for gay rights in their advertisements they did so strategically. Activating for a good cause makes Oreos look good while also shedding light on an important social issue. However, beyond that it also encourages consumers who support gay rights to also support Oreos by buy their product. Oreos is saying to consumers look we have this common ground join with us to fight the cause. The marketing is strategic, because by using their ads as a PSA of sorts they make themselves look charitable but in reality they are profiting from it greatly.

6.   Companies use social media to advertise by encouraging the consumer to also be the marketer/ advertisers. They want people, particularity teens, to talk about their product. They also use social media in the hopes of forming a brand loyalty with teens.

7.   Marketers are using social media to form brand trust by using celebrities, Youtubers such as Tyler, or other people who are rich in the currency of likes, to talk about their products and encourage their followers to buy their products.

8.   Celebrities use social media to advertise by sharing with their followers brands/products/companies that they think are cool or they like to use. They tell their followers why they like it or why it’s cool; this is a not so subtle way of saying “hey, go buy this product because then you will be cool like me.” Often times the celebrity is being paid by the company they are advertising for; so whether they actually like the product or have ever even used the product is questionable, some maybe have, and some maybe haven’t.

9.  Corporate Sponsorship is when companies support you (through money or goods) to promote them. People who are sponsored by corporations usually have the ear of a large audience, like Steven the skateboarder who is very popular on YouTube and is sponsored by several companies who want him to wear their clothes in his videos or talk about them in his videos.

10.  Marketers work very hard to look like they aren’t trying at all. The point of social media advertising is for it to not look like advertising at all. They want to disguise their advertising as genuine interest, like, or support for their product/company. They use people who have a lot of followers to express their “like” of a product/company in hopes it catches on.

11.  The plot in Hunger Games is similar to advertising using social media in that the Hunger Games is about teen, forced by adults, to battle each other in a fictional world as a form of entertainment. Advertising using social media is often done by encouraging the consumer (teens) to also be the marketer/ advertisers. They want teens to talk about their product in this made up world that is social media. Social media is supposed to be a form of entertainment or past time but it often turns into a place of validation and competition for the most likes, because for many teens their worth is wrapped up in the amount of “likes” they get.


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

First Blog



This is a video essay from a popular YouTube channel called "Every Frame a Painting". Enjoy!