New media - The Fourth Pillar

What is new media? What is the difference between "New" and "Traditional" media and how is it used effectively?

To better understand this we have to go back in history to the 80's. Marketing initiatives relied primarily on the three pillars of traditional media, including Print, TV and Radio until the mid 80's. The introduction of new technologies utilizing computers or digital delivery mechanisms such DVD's, CD's and the Internet gradually revolutionized  how we communicate with each other and ultimately created a new marketing medium, New Media. The primary benefit of this "New Media"  is that it has the potential to be interactive and to narrowcast rather than broadcast, resulting in delivering a unique, targeted message directly to potential clients who can interact with that message.

New Technologies & Great Creative

Creative innovation and utilizing new and effective mediums to their best advantage in communicating with your clients is what New Media is all about in advertising. The new Media or even the Next Media are in a constant state of change as new technologies are introduced at a dizzying pace. Traditional marketing agencies have not handled New Media particularly well as they continue to rely on traditional media and do not seek to research or invest in this medium that demands, not only great creative but an in-depth understanding of the technology behind delivering that great creative idea.

Ycommunicate.com is committed to researching and developing unique custom communications designed specifically for New Media. We also seek to complement that technology research with great creative and a more comprehensive understanding of the demographic and psychographic profile of your customers. This allows us to create communications and marketing messages that are delivered to customers in their most effective form.  

Our Process & the Tools of the Trade

First - we work with our clients to understand the demographic profile of our target market, next we research those customers or decisions makers' knowledge assessment and retention practices, and then we develop a great creative that takes advantage of the new media in a way that can speak to your customers when and how they are most responsive to your message. Some of the tools we utilize in this segment include:

Viral marketing - we use viral marketing techniques to reach your customers, using pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.  Viral marketing encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of funny video clips, interactive Flash games, images, or even text messages. On average a satisfied customer tells three other people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like.

Guerrilla Marketing: Ycommunicate.com uses this unconventional approach on a relatively low budget; relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets. Such programs tend to be targeted to a hard to reach audiences in a unique settings.

Social Networking: this is a fast growing segment, as innovators and early adopters seek more engaging and responsive alternatives to existing new media. Currently the Internet is one of the primary conduits of social networking using personal blogs, social sites such as Facebook.com  and/or micro sites such as Twitter.com, which is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Virtual Realities: these are a Internet based, virtual world, imagined and created by its residents. The Marketplace contained within such virtual worlds currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, unique to each virtual world you visit. An example of this is Secondlife.com.

DVD's/CD ROM/Kiosk: Each of these mediums is gradually being phased out as network alternatives rise in effectiveness and popularity, however, there continues to be a number of specific applications that can make these mediums very effective. Such instances may include Tradeshow, Point of Sale and Training applications.