Interactive
Advertising is the use of interactive media to promote
and/or influence the buying decisions of the consumer
in an online and offline environment. Interactive
advertising can utilise media such as the Internet,
interactive television, mobile devices (WAP and SMS),
as well as kiosk-based terminals.
Interactive
advertising affords the marketer the ability to engage
the consumer in a direct and personal way, enabling
a sophisticated and dimensional dialogue, which can
affect a potential customer's buying decisions particularly
in an e-commerce environment.
Perhaps
one of the most effective implementations of interactive
advertising is so-called Viral marketing. This technique
uses images, texts, web links, Flash animations, audio/video
clips etc., passed from user to user chain letter-style,
via email. A notable example of this is the Subservient
Chicken, a campaign by Burger King to promote their
new line of chicken sandwiches and the "Have
It Your Way" campaign.
Interactive
advertising is also assuming other avatars, such as
online directories for brands. These directories presently
perform a complementary role to conventional advertising,
helping viewers recall and compare brands primarily
seen on television. Response is mediated usually through
forms and click-to-call technologies. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
