Before the dawn of the internet, most companies would spend their advertising budgets on a presence in print publications and on television ads. Reaching potential customers and intended audiences was and still is the holy grail for all advertising agencies and their clients. 

Even today, the cost of securing a commercial on television during a prime-time spot or a coveted billboard in a place such as Times Square in New York City is high, based on the pure value of such a place and the huge audience it can reach in moments. One glance at any website allowing adverts as part of its revenue stream will tell you that anything and everything is being commercially touted these days. From tech products to hair restoration treatment, commercials tempting people with every food and drink imaginable to ads about trying out Superbowl betting, the advertising industry has nothing off limits. 

But as the commercial and technological landscape has evolved, how has this affected advertising strategies? With so many platforms jostling for people’s attention, so many sites, apps, television stations to consider, how can companies not maximize their commercial advertising budget and decide where their intended audience is likely to be? It is a complicated and labyrinthian question. 

Audience Attention: Massive Media Choice Making Advertising Complicated

In the age of the internet and global television networks and platforms, be they terrestrial or streaming services, the number of places companies have to consider when discussing advertising strategies is almost innumerable. Where the older audience may still be exposed to more traditional advertising such as print, mainstream television and radio, and billboards on the city streets, the younger audiences are becoming more widely spread, so to say. With this comes the complicated question about where to target audiences. 

With social media now ubiquitous and mobile devices in use by billions, it is fairly clear that advertising online is now a requirement rather than a decision to be made. What remains to be decided by companies and their advertising agencies, however, is which platform, website, or even device they should focus their attention on. Much of this comes down to knowing or anticipating their existing customer base and potential consumer pool. With so much entertainment available on demand, these choices can be limitless. 

Gaining audience attention with the saturation of platforms is difficult, meaning advertisers not only have to hone their content, but they also have to fine tune their placement. Many companies, especially those aiming squarely at the younger demographics, now focus much of their strategy on online ads or website-based offerings. While still maintaining their mainstream media presence, they know that younger people are using mobile devices and online platforms more and more, sometimes exclusively. Put simply, this is where the audience is, so this is where the adverts need to focus. 

Streamlined Strategies For Agile Advertising

Advertising is a fast-moving, ever-agile business. As anyone involved in advertising agencies will no doubt attest, a day does not go by where companies are not considering their next move in the quest for product sales, competitive market placement, and a greater share of the revenue than their competition. This has become an even more acute situation since the explosion of the internet and particularly social media. Given this, streamlined and agile strategies are almost essential for success. 

When you consider the billions of dollars generated by social media companies and the audience reach, and the concurrent decline in print advertising revenue, the focus on a social media and online advertising strategy makes sense. With the media landscape evolving on a daily basis, companies are becoming more agile by necessity. Spending an advertising budget is all about the return on that investment, and with online adverts now standard even for companies with mainstream adverts too, it would seem that this is now a primary place for commercial ads. 

It has been said that, especially online, companies have but a few seconds to get the attention of consumers and engage them with information on the ad and about the product, or the service. Knowing this fractional timescale, advertising agencies are focused on truly agile ads more and more. This is much easier, of course, online, where ads can be changed hour to hour, day to day, and made bespoke based on real time data and online sales, for example. Even so, it is still not easy to target audiences precisely sometimes, as the social media and online landscape itself changes with a similar rapidity. When it comes down to it, the evolving media has made advertising change, and that is something that, ironically, is not going to change now.