Has Internet Shopping Killed Advertising?

TV channels are able to screen up to 12 minutes of adverts per hour but this is traditionally the best opportunity to make a cuppa. Why then are companies paying more than £60,000 annually for prime TV spots?

The answer lies in the fact that they want to stand out from their competitors. Businesses will make elaborate and costly video adverts to gain a competitive edge, with the aim of increasing profit and market share. However, with many people now streaming TV shows and movies online, combined with the ability to skip adverts as an incentive to keep you paying subscription fees, the ad clutter that pays for the creation of some of our favourite shows is easy to dodge.

Despite this, some methods of advertising are proving to be highly successful. Search engines collect data constantly on what products you’ve viewed, enabling companies to more successfully target you. They can advertise sales and deals that they know you’ll struggle to refuse based on your browsing history.

Do adverts influence your shopping decisions? 📺💸 #Poll #Advertising

— OpinionPanel (@OpinionPanelEd) November 1, 2018

Indeed, the rise in internet shopping has led to a significant increase in online marketing which has surpassed more traditional methods such as newspaper advertisements. This current method of advertising may be having great success at present, yet the future could see online marketing suffer the same downfall as other once popular methods. As people find ways of avoiding the annoying adverts that pop up at the side of the page through ad blocking technologies, companies will need to think of new marketing techniques.

Other methods of advertising seem to have recently lost their purpose too. One example is the billboard advertisements found in busy locations such as Piccadilly Circus in London. The initial desired effect of these, was for the companies to boost sales with interactive and colourful visual displays in this popular part of London. Instead, these billboards have become an attraction, with tourists taking photos, rather than acting upon the messages of the adverts being broadcast to them.

With the introduction of new regulations such as GDPR preventing the abuse and sale of personal information between companies, the programmatic advertising prevalent today is losing its value. Without the right information, it is impossible for companies to manage their ad placements to better target the right users.

Recently, there has been an increase in articles suggesting that ‘Advertising is Dead’. In fact, some surveys have suggested that the personalisation and targeting of adverts frustrates consumers, who feel that their choices have been limited. Could this be reducing the effectiveness that they have on consumers today?

If this is the case, companies will need to come up with new ideas for advertising to the masses, or decide that advertising is, in fact, no longer relevant.