Search Engine Marketing And The Media

If you have tuned in to radio four lately you may have heard a debate or two about the latest form of marketing called viral advertising. This is not a new phenomenon, but as with any new trend, it takes a fair few years to seep into the everyday lives of the average Joe. Viral advertising started life as part of search engine marketing by using the power of the internet, email and social networking to subversively promote certain brands. Now it has taken on a life of its own, and is living up to its name permeating every facet of our lives without us even knowing it, but is it leading us or are we leading it?

Search engine marketing has become more popular as an increasing number of businesses have turned to the internet to promote services and products and gain more customers. It is the change in consumer behaviour that has led to the change in marketing tactics. It is widely accepted that online shopping is easier and more cost effective than shopping on the high street, and as such the consumer is more likely to search for a brand or store online.

The social interaction via the internet is another reason why search engine marketing has become so popular. While people are networking on the likes of Facebook, Myspace and Bebo, they can shop and chat with friends all over the world at the same time. It is this symbiotic interaction that has allowed viral advertising to be so successful. Just imagine how many times you have received an email of a funny clip off you tube or a humorous series of photos, the kind of emails that circulate around the office and you forward to your friends. These are part of a viral network of marketing, and the wider the distribution, the more successful the associated product can become.

This method of advertising has begun to reflect in mainstream media and advertising. The Cadbury's advert of children with dancing eyebrows and the T Mobile advert of a bunch of people dancing in Liverpool Street station are fine examples of viral advertising methods. Neither advert holds any information about the product it is associated with apart from a flash of branding but it is deemed good enough for one person who has seen it to want another to see it, and therefore it gets shared, usually via email, you tube or social networking sites.

Most of the time, the recipient has no idea that they are watching a viral advertisement as the emphasis is on the entertainment factor. As far as search engine marketing goes, this interaction with the media to promote a brand name is only part of the way to increase a company's visibility, but it is the fact that the mainstream media have picked up on viral marketing tactics and are now emulating the internet that is interesting.

The internet as an entity has grown organically through the way that people use it, and rather than being dictated to by the marketing and media professionals, the people are influencing them. The way people interact on new technologies has been picked up by savvy advertisers, and they know that the only way forward to capture the required market is through search engine marketing. Even the media have had to adopt a different way of presenting news, programmes, magazines and advertising in a bid to keep the attention of a no longer captive audience. With the freedom to choose, search engine marketing and the media have to follow the people.

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