The Mere Exposure Effect and Advertising

While it is the objective with pervasive advertising for the technology to disappear unnoticed into the background there is a theory called the exposure effect which states repeated exposure to an object makes an individual more predisposed towards it. The subject doesn’t need to be consciously paying attention to an object in order to be influenced by it. This is of particular interest to advertisers as the majority of advertisements take place as a secondary event and are often not consciously focused on. 

The Journal of Consumer Research published a study which examined reactions to banner advertising on web pages by showing approximately 200 college students a five page online document featuring a target banner ad for a digital camera and five filler ads. After reading each page for a minimum of 45 seconds the students were tested on their response to the ads. It was found that after repeated viewing of a banner ad there was an increased ease in the way that the information in the target ad had been processed, which in turn led to a more positive evaluation. (An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect, 2007)

According to marketing expert Martin Lindstrom these effects are so strong that even the warning on a tobacco packet can, after prolonged exposure, make a smoker reach for a packet of cigarettes because of the association of the image with the process of having a cigarette. He tested this theory in 2006 with thirty-two test subjects who were all smokers. The test involved the subject lying in an MRI Scanner for about one hour while being shown images of cigarette packages containing warning labels and graphics. Instead of blood flow to the part of the brain that signifies alarm when faced with these warnings they actually stimulated the part of the brain that signifies a craving for something. Hence just the association of the image stimulated the smoker's desire for the product. (Branding Expert Martin Lindstrom - Author, Speaker & Fan of the Consumer, 2008)

References

Image: FreeImages.com/Miranda Knox

An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect. (2007). Journal of Consumer Research, Inc., 34 doi:0093-5301/2007/3401-0010

Branding Expert Martin Lindstrom - Author, Speaker & Fan of the Consumer. (2014). New York Times: Inhaling Fear. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.martinlindstrom.com/new-york-times-inhaling-fear-2/ 

Marketing and the Birth of Advertising

To those of us not involved in the world of marketing it can be quite confusing to differentiate between marketing, selling, advertising and branding; and with technology the distinction is becoming ever more blurred. 

Marketing is the science of identifying and meeting the needs of consumers. It involves analysing various markets, including keeping up with the changes caused by technology, politics, the economy and even the weather, and then seeing how you can utilise these changes in order to satisfy your customer's needs. 

Selling is the art of showing the customer how your product meets their needs and convincing them that you are offering them a better solution than your competitors and then getting them to part with their money in exchange for your product.

Advertising is the way of bringing your product to the attention of the market, this can be via print media, digital media, broadcast media or any combination of these. Advertising is generally paid for although sometimes, especially in print media, it can mimic an article or even in the case of television it can mimic programming which is why it is necessary to mark it as advertising or an 'info-mercial'.

And branding is about your product as a whole, how it looks and also how it is perceived. Advertising/Branding is part of a promotional strategy and a promotional strategy is part of marketing.

The Birth of Modern Advertising

Louis Daguerre created the first commercially viable process for fixing and printing an image, which became known as the daguerreotype, and in 1838 he made history by taking the first ever photograph of a human. 

This breakthrough heralded the beginning of photography and seriously impacted on the ability of portrait artists to make a living. The previous year Godefroy Engelmann had devised a method of four colour printing based on lithography which he called chromolithographic. These two events signified the birth of modern advertising by enabling the economical reproduction of full colour imagery.

In the mid 1860's an enterprising Parisian printer paid artists to produce paintings which he could then turn into advertisements. Hence you have a plethora of Art based advertising posters that are still collectable today. 

Coincidentally Thomas Barrett who had in 1865 become his father-in-laws partner at the Pears Soap factory bought a painting entitled 'Bubbles' by John Everett Millais. Barrett had the Pears logo added to the painting and started a long tradition of Pears advertising incorporating well known paintings with slogans. 

Subsequently Barrett went on to be considered "the father of modern advertising" this wasn't due to any particular business models he applied but was in regard to his methods of coming up with new ideas to keep his product firmly in the focus of the marketplace. In particular he employed testimonials on his packaging thus creating the celebrity endorsement.

Images

"Special"
 FreeImages.com/Jamie Harris

PearsSoap 
http://theevolutionofdesign.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/bubbles-pears-soap1.jpg


Daguerreotype
http://benbeck.co.uk/firsts/2_The_Human_Subject/photo1h.htm

Television Idents

Some might perceive them as an interruption or an excuse to put the kettle on, go to the loo or indulge in a little bit of daydreaming but I love idents, here's a text I wrote a couple of years ago as part of a wider marketing module at uni......

At the outset of  television broadcasts a 'test signal' was transmitted which was thought to enable televisions to pick up the signal that was being broadcast; however the real purpose behind the signal was that while the television sets were 'warming up' the viewers could sit in anticipation waiting for the picture to appear. These test signals, which usually consisted of an image with the broadcasters name and some lines or other technology inspired symbols, are an early form of television ident.

Some examples of early test signals can be seen on this YouTube video by "Identchannel"

According to author Steve Curran the true birth of the television ident came about in the early 1980s with the creation of MTV.

"Before the advent of cable television in the 1980s, on air graphics of the Big Three networks had grown cold, corporate, and unimaginative. Flying metallic logos and staid solutions defined on-air graphics; they were products of technology and corporate culture more than of creativity and talent. Because the networks were battling for the eyeballs of the lowest common denominator, they had developed department store personalities - all things to all people." (Curran, 2000)

The increase in television channels, due to cable and satellite subscription services, meant that there were now a lot of specialised channels available. In particular younger audiences were targeted with an abundance of music channels. As the main content of the music channels consisted of videos, which were also undergoing a complete regeneration, the broadcasters had to 'up their game' and produce corporate idents that were at least equal to the creativity and quality of the material they were broadcasting.

The ident is now taken very seriously as not only a marketing opportunity but also as a way of expressing the content and policies of the broadcasters.  A circle has been used in the idents for BBC One for a number of years, with the O being displayed in numerous formats. This is used to not only represent the 'O' in the word one but also to show "the sense that we come together in circles to do things" (Red Bee, 2006) In a similar fashion BBC 2 and Chanel 4 idents also use the environment to symbolize the numbers 2 and 4.

Although a lot of idents seem to be quite whimsical at first glance, upon further investigation the methodology adheres to strict protocol. The importance that a channel places on its corporate identity can be understood when reading through the Channel 4 Identity Style Guide. This document stipulates exactly how the company is to be portrayed both on and off line. Although the circumstances, images, information and location of the advertising vary there must be strict adherence to the formula. The guidance given covers not only the logo but also the colours, typography, imagery and even the tone of voice that is to be used. The logo must always have a designated isolation area so that it does not compete with other information given. All of this must happen with the viewer remaining unaware of the underlying foundations.

The importance of an ident is that it is not perceived as a piece of marketing. In a consumer led visual society marketing is important for even the most mundane product or service. It is of particular importance that a service that is primarily visual not only reflects the latest trends but is also seen as an innovator for the visual community.

References

Curran, S. (2000). Motion graphics. Gloucester, Mass.: Rockport.

Eyemagazine.com (2013). Eye Magazine | Feature | TV in the age of eye candy. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/tv-in-the-age-of-eye-candy[Accessed: 5 Nov 2013].

Meldrum.co.uk. 2013. BBC Tuning Signals. [online] Available at: http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/bbc_tune.html [Accessed: 5 Nov 2013].

Red Bee. (2006). BBC One embraces the circle. Televisual, (October).

Tvtropes.org (2013). Main/Station Ident - Television Tropes & Idioms. [online] Retrieved from: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StationIdent [Accessed: 5 Nov 2013].

Wikipedia. 2013. Television. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television [Accessed: 5 Nov 2013].

YouTube

YouTube. 2013. BBC 1 1936 - 2006. [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZaEeI_yKNI [Accessed: 5 Nov 2013].

Images:

BBC One Hippo: http://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/bbc-one-29489/

BBC One Circle: http://idents.tv/blog/category/uk-bbc-one/

BBC Two Tent:   http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbctwo/2007_idents.html

Channel 4:  http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/channel4/2004.html

Civic Journalism - how things have progressed!

I've recently been browsing through some of my old notes and texts and I am amazed at how things have changed in just 5 years. When this text was written civic journalism was still quite new and professional writers were not entirely in favour of the 'average' citizen being able to publish their thoughts so easily. Now everyone has social media accounts and the ability to be their own broadcaster, rather than threatening traditional journalism it seems to be enhanced by the immediacy of instant news.

How does new technology impact upon areas of news blogging and civic journalism?

Online journaling originated in 1994, initially only a small minority mainly academics, used them as a means of sharing resources and ideas. The internet was still in its infancy and the software was not yet available that would make online journaling appealing to the masses. 

In April 1999 Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal.com as a college project, it became a huge success and as of 17 February 2011 there are over 29 million users worldwide; the majority of which belong to online communities with a common area of interest.   

However the biggest success story in social networking history so far, belongs to Mark Zuckerberg who in 2003 founded Facebook whilst a student at Harvard University. Although initially only available to the University network, by September 2006 anyone with a registered email address could open a Facebook account. There are now over 500 million registered users. Also in 2003 WordPress started with the objective of making it easy for anyone to maintain a blog and publish their own documents online. 

The introduction of broadband in 2000 had a huge impact on blogging and social networking. The increased speed of connection enabled various media such as photographs, video and audio to be incorporated into a blog, with the added bonus that it didn’t tie up your telephone line.  Within a year the Blackberry phone was introduced in America which made it possible to send emails by mobile phone. A Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was developed specifically for mobile Internet services and the mobile internet phenomenon was underway.

According to Socialnomics.net the number of years it took for the radio to reach 50 million users was 38, for television it was 13, the Internet took 4, and Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months.

As more and more people have access to the internet not only twenty-four hours a day but also wherever they happen to be during those twenty four hours so the traditional methods of communicating news stories has had to adapt. These days by the time a story has made it into a newspaper it is no longer news. So the majority of newspapers and magazines now have online or downloadable versions, you can even download your favourite magazines through iTunes. Letters to the Editor are being relegated to history as now you just need to leave a comment on the newspapers blog or even email the journalist direct with your comments on their story.

Whatever is happening in the world you can virtually guarantee that somebody with a smartphone is there to capture it; these items, quite often including video, are even broadcast on the mainstream television news programmes. There is a television channel called “Current TV”, co-founded by former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, that specialises in “viewer created content” which they refer to as “vc2”. The station actively encourages viewers to make mini documentaries on a wide range of subjects but especially art and social issues. Anyone with access to a way of capturing video and uploading it to the internet can get involved. This means that communities or individuals who traditionally do not have a voice can demolish barriers and make themselves heard. 

Freedom like this just wasn’t possible before the internet. Brian Clarke writing about “… this brave new social media world” for copyblogger.com stated that “…anyone willing to put in the work can become a media producer/personality without speaking a word to anyone in the existing media power centres of Los Angeles, New York, et al” (CLARKE, 2009). 

This is the modern equivalent of Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame theory, anyone can achieve some level of fame by posting on YouTube, or contributing to a blog or even just by amassing a large quantity of ‘friends’ on Facebook. 

There are however some members of the British media who do not approve of the proliferation of bloggers considering them not worthy of their online presence. At the 2010 Cheltenham Literary Festival journalist Andrew Marr stated that bloggers are “… socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting”. He also dismissed “so-called citizen journalism” which is “the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night” (PLUNKETT, 2010). These comments created quite a stir especially due to the fact that the majority of newspapers, television and radio stations require their journalists and presenters to maintain some sort of online dialogue. 

In my opinion Kevin Arscott writing under the pseudonym ‘Uponnothing’ in his ‘Angry Mob’ blog summed the situation up best by stating that “… we need to accept that all journalists and bloggers are writers and we should attempt to judge them purely in terms of how accomplished they are as writers – the label they writer under is irrelevant” (ARSCOTT, 2010).

Channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy defending bloggers in his own blog also raised an issue that illustrates a major difference between amateur or freelance bloggers and their counterparts in the established media. By using Channel 4 as an example of how a large media group encourages interaction between its correspondents and the public he wrote   “… we tweet away all day and blog whenever we have something to say.” “Obviously we can’t give opinion in the way bloggers who aren’t also public service broadcasters can…” He also alleges that journalists at the BBC are “restricted from tweeting or blogging unless approved and many have to be checked by an editor before being published online” (GURU-MURTHY, 2010).  

This hesitancy though is something that should probably be practised more frequently. Because the internet is thought of as anonymous it can be easy to forget that what you write can go global in minutes and not everyone might agree or approve of your opinions. There is a blog written on WordPress about people who have been sued for what they have written online “how I got my money back from you know who wealth. wordpress.com”, but probably one of the most discussed cases is that of Bruce Everiss who writes a blog called “Bruce on Games” and who was sued by games company Evony because of statements he made in his blog. 

The thing that garnered the most discussion though was the fact that Evony is an US registered company and Everiss is a UK resident but the libel case was issued in Australia; this was justified by Evony due to the fact that Everiss has readers in Australia. Jonathan Bailey who blogs about legal issues involving the internet defined the situation as “…since works published to the Internet are distributed all over the world, you can defame the reputation of a company and/or a person in any country or jurisdiction. That, in turn, means you can be brought into almost any court in the world for a defamation suit” (BAILEY, 2010). 

The Electronic Frontiers Foundation comprising professionals from the legal and technological worlds have launched a campaign backing freedom of speech and consumer rights for the digital age. Although based in the US and taking actions through the American legal system they report on international actions and laws that my affect bloggers rights.

Now that there is no stopping the spread of social media and blogging what can we look forward to? American department store JC Penney have now launched a Facebook page with a shopping section so that you can purchase and review items without leaving Facebook, which is fine so long as you don’t mind everyone knowing what you are buying. Tweeting is also on the rise with The Lord Chief Justice making it easier for the media to use Twitter during some court proceedings, but only where it can’t influence witnesses and only if prior permission is given.

Ford are among the car manufacturers also utilizing technology by introducing ‘My Ford Touch’ which has a touchscreen and voice control, which will amongst other things convert text messages and incoming tweets into spoken words and then enable you to reply without taking your hands off the steering wheel. 

But all this freedom comes with a price and the biggest issue is going to be security, as we manage more and more of our lives through wireless technology we are leaving ourselves more open to attack and unlike physical attacks a virtual attack can originate from anywhere at any time and the perpetrators are almost impossible to find. Personally I love the internet and what it stands for but I fully intend to keep one foot in the physical world.

REFERENCES

Typrewriter Image: FreeImages.com/llh Snap

ARSCOTT, Kevin
Some poorly constructed thoughts on blogging and journalism
The Angry Mob
26 October 2010
Accessed [9 February 2011]
www.butireaditinthepaper.co.uk/2010/10/26/some-poorly-constructed-thoughts-on-blogging-and-journalism/ 

BAILEY, Jonathan 
Defamation, Libel and the Internet
The Blog Herald
1 September 2009
Accessed [9 February 2011]
www.blogherald.com/2009/09/01/defamation-libel-and-the-internet/ 

CLARKE, Brian    
Since when are blogs not social media?
Copyblogger
10 July 2009
Accessed [9 February 2011]
http://www.copyblogger.com/blogs-social-media/

DUNNE, Helen
Brand creates Facebook shop
CorpComms
15 December 2010
Accessed [9 February 2011]
www.corpcommsmagazine.co.uk/features/1251-brand-creates-facebook-shop 

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Bloggers’ Legal Guide
11 February 2009
Accessed [12 February 2011]
www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal 

EVERISS, Bruce
Evony vs Bruce Everiss
Bruce on Games
31 March 2010
Accessed [2 February 2011]
http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/31/evony-vs-bruce-everiss-the-result/

Facebook
Press Room
Statistics
Accessed [17 February 2011]
www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics 

Ford Motor Company
Innovation and Technology
Accessed [9 February 2011]
www.ford.co.uk/FordInnovation/Technology

GURU-MURTHY, Krishnan
In defence of bloggers
Channel 4 News
12 October 2010
Accessed [9 February 2011]
blogs.channel4.com/gurublog/in-defence-of-bloggers/321  

JWC
Some stories about people who got sued for what they wrote online
Wordpress.com
17 October 2019
Accessed [9 February 2011]
howigotmymoneybackfromyouknowwhowealth.wordpress.com/some-stories-about-people-who-got-sued-for-what-they-wrote-online/    

Live Journal Inc
Our Company
2009
Accessed [27 December 2010]
www.livejournalinc.com/aboutus.php#ourheritage

Live Journal Inc
Statistics
Updated daily
Accessed [17 February 2011]
www.livejournal.com/stats.bml 

MARTIN, James P.
A short history of the smartphone
Articlesbase
17 March 2009
Accessed [31 December 2010]
www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/a-short-history-of-the-smartphone 820376.html  

MEIKLE, James
Lord chief justice approves use of Twitter for court reporting
Guardian.co.uk
20 December 2010
Accessed [9 February 2011]
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/dec/20/twitter-court-lord-chief-justice  

PHILLIPS, Sarah
A Brief History of Facebook
Guardian.co.uk
25 July 2007
Accessed [27 December 2010]
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia 

PLUNKETT, John
Andrew Marr says bloggers are ‘inadequate, pimpled and single’
Guardian.co.uk
11 October 2010
Accessed [9 February 2011]
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/11/andrew-marr-bloggers   

Socialnomics.net
Accessed [9 February 2011]
socialnomics.net/    

WhichVoIP.com
What is the history of broadband?
Accessed [31 December 2010]
www.whichvoip.com/what-is-history-of-broadband.htm

Wikipedia
History of the Internet
Accessed [31 December 2010]
wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet#Mobile_phones_and_the_Internet 

Wikipedia
Nirvana Phone
Accessed [17 February 2011]
wikipedia.org/wiki/NirvanaPhone   

Wordpress.org
About Wordpress
Accessed [31 December 2010]
wordpress.org/about/