What do ads in new media look like?

Banner ads and pop-up ads

If you've ever surfed the Internet, it's likely that you've been greeted by banner ads or pop-ups. New, "rich-media" technology gives advertisers more flexibility to incorporate better graphics, move ads around our screens and flash up ads for a few seconds only.

Mobile

Ads on mobile phones are currently sent using standard SMS text messaging but things are likely to change soon with the introduction of 3rd Generation (3G) technology. This will allow graphics to be incorporated into ads sent to mobiles. The 3G medium is attractive to many advertisers because the technology can reveal the location of the user, allowing messages to be sent when a user is in the vicinity of a particular shop. Advertisers could soon be sending you messages to try to persuade you to visit their shop as you pass it!

Viral E-mails

Has a friend ever sent you an e-mail with an amusing video clip attached? If you've received one of these, it's highly likely that the e-mail was initially distributed by an advertiser looking to boost the profile of a particular brand or service. This form of "viral" marketing is attractive to advertisers because word can spread extremely fast - friends send it to a group of their friends and so on. Also, the fact that the message has been sent by someone the recipient knows means it carries some degree of credibility. Personal recommendations have traditionally been seen as one of the most powerful methods of marketing; new media marketing is no different in this respect. If planned correctly these relatively cheap branded messages can reach millions of people within a few days.

Search Engines

Almost all of us use search engines to find what we are looking for on the Internet. Most of us expect to receive a set of independent search results ranked by their relevance to the search keywords. Increasingly, however, this process is not quite so simple. Search engines need to make money so now most search engine providers give companies the option of paying to appear on results pages. In essence, this is a form of advertising appearing in paid-for space.

The range of new media advertisements is growing all the time as technology continues to develop.