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

When scrolling through Instagram and watching YouTube videos I see a lot of sponsored posts. I'm not often drawn to them because they are sponsored. In terms of Instagram I am just casually scrolling and will stumble upon someone I follow who has posted a sponsorship. If I decide to pay attention to what they are promoting is dependent on the person that posted it. I typically only watch or look at the ones of very popular creators that I like. I won't spend much time on those of people I went to high school with or influencers/celebrities I don't love. On YouTube I just watch the creators that I am subscribed to and really like. I pretty much actively watch five YouTubers and have their post notifications on. If one of their videos happened to be sponsored, I still watch and end up learning more about that product. The YouTubers I watch post their sponsorships in a way I like, that keeps me watching the video. They incorporate it seamlessly into the video and make it apart of the content. I've seen some make it more of an ad that takes up 30seconds to minutes of the video that I end up just skipping over. This plays into why social influencers are so beneficial. They already have an established platform and relationship with their audience. There is a strong following where their audience will listen to or look at a sponsored post, even if it's something they might not want or need, and actually consider it. Simply because it is recommended by someone they really like.

Traditional advertising is similar to that I just mentioned that I do not enjoy. where is it just information given to you sometimes with a somewhat creative story on TV, magazines, the radio, etc. It's typically disrupting what you really want like reading gossip in the magazine, your TV show, or the music you're listening to. Because it is an unwanted interruption people already have negative feelings towards it and aren't likely to pay attention to what it is selling. Whereas advertising on Social Media is incorporated more seamlessly. All Social Media is different. On Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook everyone is posting something different. You don't always know what content you're going to see, therefore the advertisement is less of a disruption. It' s just another post you can spend time looking at or ignore. Being able to ignore it more easily rather than traditional advertisements is another reason why there are less negative sentiments towards it and people are more likely to consider the ad. In my opinion, advertising done on Social Media is much more effective.