Week 13 Part A: Online Advertising - Analysis of the Marketplace

    I looked through some social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I found that advertisements that used imagery in ways I haven't seen before really drew my attention. For example, I got an ad for Tinder and it showed the cycle people would go through when they used the app using emojis. I showed how people kept on downloading it and deleting it, just to redownload it again. It made a joke about themselves, which is new, and used emojis which I usually never see. Since it made a joke I felt it could fit in well with many people's feeds because oftentimes, people have jokes in their feeds. Ads that fit in my feed also captured my attention more because it shows something I was already interested in. An example of this is Levi's. They had a video of people showcasing pants with certain outfits, and since my feed is already full of fashion stuff it didn't look out of place. Many companies' call to action is usually something like "Get (product/service) now!" or "Share (promotion) now!" or even "Get started today!". I think this can help get people to buy something beacuse it encourages people to buy something. The imagery used in the advertisements are usually effective and grab people's attention, but I feel that many people don't buy the product/service because they realize it's an ad and refuse to buy it because they don't trust the ad or they don't trust the quality of the business just from an ad. 

    Many different business's advertisements show up in my feed, but they are for products or services that are meant for different audiences. I usually don't like ads because they often get in the way, but some ads I find most annoying are confusing ads with just a picture or video and advertisements that are meant for a different audience. Some examples of confusing ads are ads that show just a jacket, just a shoe, or just a picture of someone performing a task. I feel that sometimes it is better to have a product in an environment that fits the brand image (such as nature or a formal setting) to show what it is used for. If it's a service they could have some words clarifying what the service is so the potential customer isn't confused. These ads annoy me because I'm not sure what the advertised product or service is for and I would rather see something else. Ads for different audiences such as ads clearly meant for women or ads in different languages annoy me because oftentimes, something that I don't need or want to buy is being advertised and sometimes I don't even know what is being advertised in ads in different languages.

    Traditional advertisements had a huge impact on businesses because they could advertise things to people many people. They were also able to target specific groups of people, although the ads didn't target specific people as well as now. Advertisements on social media still had a huge impact because businesses were able to target specific people or groups of people much better and get them to buy something while they were already engaged. In my opinion, social media advertising is better than traditional advertising. I believe this because it has the ability to target people much better than traditional advertising. This allows companies to spend their money on ads that would target the people who would buy the product instead of showing it to the audience of a newspaper, magazine, TV channel, or radio station which might be more broad, so many people seeing the ad won't be interested in what you are selling unless you can find a newspaper, magazine, TV channel, or radio station that targets that specific/smaller group of people you are also targeting that is willing to advertise your product/service which is harder to do than just targeting them using social media. Social media advertising also makes it easier to buy something. Say you saw an ad in a magazine, you could say "I want to buy this", but you would need to actively go look for the product, but social media advertising can allow you to click on the ad and it can take you directly to the product. This removes a barrier that can potentially stop a potential customer from buying something.

    Some online advertising such as advertisements that you get on websites or on YouTube aren't as targeted as other ads such as social media ads. Sometimes ads on websites are targeted depending on searches but I have found that many times it is based on the website that you are in. This reminds me more of ads that you would see in magazines or even on TV. YouTube ads often show you any ad that the people in your area would like to see (they show ads in your language and ads for local businesses) and it often feels as if they aren't targeting their ads depending on what the people seeing the ads are interested in. There are some ads like the other times that you go on a website and it has very targeted ads. They show you products that you have looked for, have looked at, and generally things that you like. This feels intrusive at times and can be very creepy. However, this can also be helpful because it can show you products with discounts that you were thinking of buying, so sometimes it saves you money. Overall, I still think it's creepy, but I do think it can work because it shows people exactly what they want.