How Atlanta Interactive Marketing Has Changed Advertising

By Benjamin W. Luffkin


Consumers take part in interactive marketing every time they check their email or use social media. With every click of your mouse and every phrase you type into your search engine, you as a consumer are communicating with companies that are attempting to sell you something. This is interactive marketing. Atlanta is a major force in this new way of selling, and it is the home of Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, also known as the AIMA.

Run by volunteers, the AIMA is a membership organization. It creates a forum where professionals and meet can exchange ideas. Professionals in this industry appreciate the importance of staying current. They join the AIMA to stay at the top of their chosen profession.

Within the AIMA there are groups called SIGs, which stands for special interest groups. The groups meet over the course of the year and focus on their specific area of interest. These groups include the special interests of advertising through email, ecommerce, digital media, social media and more. The organization also hold educational seminars for its members.

Marketing companies act as agents of the company trying influence consumer behavior. In this regard, the two function as one unit. Sometimes known, sometimes unknown to consumers, interactive advertising establishes two way communication where sellers learn about consumer tastes and behavior. The next email or ad that pops up on your Facebook page will be reflective of your preferences.

This conversational way of advertising is facilitated primarily by the Internet and secondarily by social media. Before the Internet age, the only way companies could get feedback from their customers and potential customers was with surveys, a very expensive and often non productive process. Interactive advertising will continue to evolve, becoming more sophisticated with time.

Other than the Internet, there are other ways to get feedback from the consumer that are low tech and arguably less effective. When a customer reaches out to a company with a request or comment, the company representative will attempt to get some information from the consumer and provide some information about new services. Toll free phone numbers given through broadcasts are another way to establish dialogue. Neither one of these ways works as seamlessly as the Internet.

In the past advertising could reach consumers with television and radio ads and with magazine and print ads. Now people often have pay TV or pay radio, which has cut down drastically on the amount of advertising time. Magazines and newspapers are struggling to stay alive since many people rely on the Internet for their news source. Resourceful ad men and ad women have changed the way they market to compliment the way consumers behave. The old methods no longer had the same impact, so they invented new interactive methods.




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