Convergence and Media Consumption

Convergence is becoming more important to companies as it begins to become more popular, it is essential for advertising for companie to be able to distribute their products around the globe.

Originially and still today, adverts were played on the television, on most channels excluding BBC channels, this was the biggest way that viewers were shown different types of products to buy, however as times have changed and the internet has grown, television is no longer the biggest way to promote a product though it is still one of the biggest.

There are many different ways that the audience can now be exposed to advertising as well as television and radio, these include;


Internet;

The internet has many different ways to advertise different types of products, it gives direct links to websites to buy the products and provides pop-ups of products that may interest some viewers. However, its biggest advertiser on the net is most likely to be YouTube.

Youtube is described as a video-sharing website, where any individual is able to upload any type of appropriate video content to the site. As YouTube's popularity has risen, other major corporations have also made a channel in order for themselves to be able to upload their own content as another way to advertise. As some videos on the site gain millions of viewers, companies see it as a positive way to advertise to other audiences across the world.

These companies include BBC, Channel4 and can upload anything between News Programmes to Movie Trailers. YouTube also has many adverts uploaded to its sites that go many years back, adverts from the 90s, 80s etc. Including adverts that are no longer shown on television.

Social Networking;

There are many different websites that involve social networking that have cropped up on the internet over the years, some of these include; MySpace, Friends Reunited and Bebo. The most popular social networking websites on the net are most definitely Facebook and Twitter. 

Facebook launched in 2004, it has over 800 million active users, users are able to create a personal profile and add personal details about them if they choose to, add other users as friends, upload pictures and exchange messages between one another. Also, users are also able to link other users to videos, this is one way of successful advertising as it means the advert has made some kind of impact on the viewer. Other ways of advertising on the website is through people's comments about a certain product they may have bought or wish to buy, websites that they have visited and sharing links to products they want to buy or share an interest in.

Twitter is similar to Facebook in the sense that a user is able to create an online profile and the main use of the website is by having conversations with others or making comments. However, instead of adding friends the option is to 'follow' other users who may then wish to follow you back. Also instead of uploading a status like Facebook, you can upload a 'tweet' using a limit of 140 characters on Twitter. Users are also able to share links between others and upload pictures. The website was created in 2006 and since then has had over 300 million users and over 300 million tweets. Many websites are now making their own twitters with the option for consumers to follow them which gives them updates or even sneak peeks as a marketing concept to new products to gain more publicity.

Using social networking sites to advertise is a great way to get more advertising out there since people are constantly sharing links with one another, allowing adverts to travel from consumer to consumer much faster then any advert on the televsion would be able to. 

Phones;

People are now able to carry around small devices such as phones where they are able to get in touch with people all around the world. Phones like Smart Phones or Blackberrys or iPhones offer an option to access the internet, here they are able to access websites like YouTube, Twitter or Facebook at any given time. Within minutes, you are able to download or watch an advert on your phone with excellent quality.

This research gives good ideas as to how to advertise our own advert and what would be the best way to gain viewers. It also tells us which better ways there are to upload a certain advert, for example, our 1-2 minute advert might do better being uploaded to YouTube whilst our shortened, 30 second advert might do better being able to be downloaded through a Smart Phone.