Beginning of Research - Technology

I began to look into the 4 topics within 'Flux' and researched various different ideas relating to them. To begin with I looked at technology as I felt this would be the area which had the most relevance to advertising and how the approaches to advertising have changed in the last 60 years.


I began by thinking of different opportunities that have opened to the consumer due to technological advances.


- Social networking sites such as FaceBook (which has 800 million members, 50% of which log on daily.) Sites such as this mean that due to such a high amount of audience advertisers would be missing a huge opportunity if they didn't have adverts present here. It is probably one of the most viewed websites there is and by advertising here a company would have a huge cross section of the population being exposed to their advertisements. It means that designers are no longer designing for paper, they are designing for the screen which could mean animation, higher quality, smaller images (compare a huge poster to a home computer screen?)
- Twitter (similar to above) People can also follower designers etc.
- The world of e-mail enables viral emails, sending adverts to a vast amount of accumulated web addresses, which can often be bought. It also enables designs and ideas to be easily past from designers to clients for fast feedback in many different formats compared to posting prints and waiting weeks for feedback.
- The internet can now use web browsing history to know what people have been looking at and then for relevant adverts to come up on other web pages relevant to something they have just looked at, does this interfere with peoples privacy? The is where metadata may become relevant as the websites are collecting data about data.
- The largest recent change in technology is the use of smart/android phones and the creation of apps. These can be used by designers in advertising to help create multi platform campaigns, where apps could be used to enhance the campaign through games, quizzes etc. One I came across was the Cadburys Creme Egg Campaign, where although they still used television campaigns and posters they have also introduced a simple app. The app involves a full creme egg then as the used shakes the screen the creme egg will crack/explode. Although this is only a novelty item and will be short lived it means consumers can interact with the campaign, have it in their pocket and so on.





Apps are usually user friendly/centred and mean they can get involved with a campaign. Smart technology allows interaction especially through touch screens etc.
- Television has advanced from black/white screens which were low quality and often small in size to colour, HDTV and now even to 3D films. This has changed how the designers of films, programmes and the adverts to be viewed on them are created, the software needed to do so and the skills of the creatives needed. It has changed how the audience view these too, currently using 3D glasses which can be purchased to a cost of up to £100.
- Design Suites have changed the way designers can actually design, from doing everything on paper/print it can now all be accessed via a computer; images, type etc. Also hand drawn images can be scanned in, edited and still applied to modern technology such as advertisements on the internet.
- Websites such as YouTube, although amazing in creation can promote problems for designers. Open source means that designers can see other designers work very easily so what does influence and inspiration become plagiarism? (Read this in an old Campaign Magazine)
- Music is now seen as well as/rather than listened to?