Extending it in digital communication and advertising has relied heavily on what social media has unprecedented. The ability to interact with the target audience. The dissemination of the message by the recipient rather than the traditional one-sided retransmission process.
But when the dust settled down what he revealed was that the advertiser must now escape the canvas if he wants to gain consumer interest.
In the last 50 years, since the beginning of the "Creative Revolution" at the end of the 1950s, advertising has made strides, changed and actually acquired an important role in pop culture, but slowly it was trapped in the canvas defined by the "dimensions" of the media. A TV spot had to be 30" or 15", within this time frame the advertiser had to manage to fit his creativity and pass the message which would boost its sales. Print Ads on the other hand provided more opportunities for creative exercises but were still limited by the dimensions of the media and the absence of opportunities to expand the idea.
At the same time, the evolution of the profession of media buyers, that is to say buyers of space and time to display the messages, removed budget and also greatly the creativity of the creative promoters. Logically, if you had the opportunity to buy enough television and radio time and ample space in print media, you could repeat your USP monotonously and transmit your message.
In digital, from the time the first banner appeared and until the very recent era, we were limited to banners usually at the top or right of the sites that ended up in a site that functioned in the same way as traditional media functioned. Unilateral propagation informations with minimal user intervention in the dissemination of the message. All this contributed to the formation of a strange status quo that defined how 10% of the budget went to the idea and its production and 90% to buy space and time to spread it.
Somewhere there came Social Media in our lives. Especially after 2008, their growth rate began to go well beyond anything else. Two-way communication capabilities soon provided a means of changing the culture of companies that wanted to advertise once the messages ceased to be unanswered while at the same time the user could become the same carrier of the messages if they were of value to him.
However, these changes did not lead to the better quality of advertising. Most people perceived the new reality somewhat awkward. Many have been using the media just like the paid space for entries or promotions. I advertised messages that may or may not interest the user. The next stage was the contests.
Το Like έγινε το ιερό δισκοπότηρο. Κάνε Like και κέρδισε ένα ταξίδι. Κάνε Like και βγες ραντεβού με τη τάδε μοντέλα. Κάνε Like και πάρε δύο κούτες καφέ. Ουσιαστικά έγιναν τα νέα κουπόνια χωρίς όμως αντίκρισμα την πώληση. Όλοι θέλανε αρκετούς fans στις σελίδες τους χωρίς κανένας να σκέφτεται τι ακριβώς θα κάνει με αυτούς. Όλοι αντέγραφαν με μανία τις πρακτικές που εισήγαγε ο Howard Luck Gossage τη δεκαετία του 1960 ξεχνώντας όμως την στρατηγική και τη λογική πίσω από τις ενέργειες.
Fortunately, the period of the battle for likes lasted a short time, slowly we began to understand the great truth. Why fight for likes and not fight for creating unique experiences that will lead to two-way communication with users. Additionally we have no reason to be trapped. The canvas is no longer defined and we are now able to think without limitations and expand our creative approach beyond what the available media has allowed us until recently. In practice we do not need to follow the 10-90 model.
The need to buy time was a need for nice ideas. Jaguar to launch the new F-Type instead of making an ad has turned a stunning short film starring Damien Lewis of Homeland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blT3IHPce20
With the removal of media budget anxiety, Lana Del Ray even came to write the soundtrack. More recently Honda went into the concept of interactivity at a later stage. To view the new Type R he created an interactive video on youtube in which every turn that you touch R changes video and visual:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ov6Zq_bp6c
The removal of the canvas from the equation suddenly led to the next revolution of creativity. Now advertising has become interesting again and now instead of transmitting messages, we create experiences. Advertising is now - again - a game of skill, ability and intelligence. A field that concerns more and highlights the -really- the best.
