Emerging Media . . . is what?

Welcome to the first post to my “Emerging Media in an IMC World” blog.  I’m glad you’ve joined me, and hope you will return for an exciting nine weeks of discussion about emerging media, and its effects in Integrated Marketing Communications or IMC.

What is IMC? An IMC campaign will take that one voice (message) and spread it across a variety of media (i.e. print, television, radio, direct mail, and digital media).  Throughout this blog, I will focus on how emerging media, or digital media, plays an important role in the IMC process.  I am a grad student at West Virginia University, and the course I am currently taking (for which this blog is being created) is entitled Emerging Media. I prefer to use the term ‘digital’ media, because that is one of the factors that make this medium so different from the more traditional forms of media.  I think that another component that differentiates digital media is its two-way, interactive usage.

So, what is digital media?  How do we interact with it?  How is it influencing our world today, and why does it matter?

Digital media are, well . . . digital.  Websites, blogs, social media, banner ads, video ads, in-game advertising, chat rooms . . . to name just a few.  You will notice that digital marketing is not always contingent on the Internet or World Wide Web.  Have you ever played a video game and noticed a Nike’s ad in the background?  Have you signed up for the latest app for your iPhone or Blackberry? 

What makes it so different from traditional forms of media is that the customer can interact with digital media.  We become members on Amazon.com and Walmart.com. We have friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. We take online surveys, play games on websites, add widgets to our blogs, and discuss videos we’ve seen on YouTube.  It is a two-way form of advertising.  When was the last time you were able to do that with a billboard? A print ad in a newspaper? A radio or TV commercial?  Those forms of media may encourage an action on the part of the customer (i.e. buy that, call this number, cut out and use this coupon); however, there’s not the continuous interaction that digital media allows. 

How do digital media influence the world today? In 2007, Reuters reported that nearly 80% of people use the internet (that’s two years ago).  Facebook has over 300 million active users.  Amazon.com released their third quarter financial results just last week, and reports a 28% increase in net sales year over year.  What’s their secret?  Their amazing, technologically advanced website that assists members with their shopping by making recommendations founded on the members’ search and purchasing history.  It allows the member to rate and review books, make recommendations of their own, join the affiliate program, become involved with the Askville community, download the Amazon App for their mobile devise, and more.  It also improves Amazon.com’s ability to better serve their customers by gathering demographic and psychographic information on every visitor and member.

It’s easy to see how digital media, emerging from bits and bytes and bandwidth, are influencing the world.  Ask Amazon.com if digital media matters and they will say, “Absolutely!”  Without it, businesses like Amazon.com and EBay wouldn’t even exist.  Businesses like Wal-Mart wouldn’t be able to expand outside their bricks-and-mortar stores.  It’s influential . . . it matters . . . it’s emerging . . . it’s digital.  I hope you visit often throughout the next couple of months to walk with me as I explore this new and exciting media before it’s no longer new.  Although, I feel certain that it will always be exciting.