how has web 2.0 changed the face of advertising

 To understand how advertising has changed and been developed by web 2.0, we must first understand what these two concepts are. Advertising is a means of communication with the users of a product or service, which can come in different formats (eg tv advert). Before our modern internet was around, there was another version of the web (web 1.0) where people were limited to viewing content in a passive manner. However as the technology developed, web 2.0 appeared which changed to focus onto the user, and  began a new era of personalised advertising.

Social media is a direct result of Web 2.0, as the users are now able to interact not only with the site that they are on, but with each other as well. An example of this is instagram, where if it was around in the web 1.0 era, people would only be able to view the site, but now there are many ways to interact with the website. A few examples of these would be liking pictures, commenting on posts, posting on stories, and following other users. This has led rise for a new way of advertising on these sites, as the format of the sites allows for interaction with adverts. This id not use to be possible before web 2.0, but now there are countless ways to interact with ads. Using the example of instagram again, users are now able to like the ad, comment on it, save it, and ask for less ads like this. This is useful not only for advertising companies because it gives them a clear idea of wha should be advertised to each person, but also helps the set as they get advertised products that are specific to them.

Leading on from this, web 2.0 has also greatly improved and advanced audience targeting. Before the days of web 2.0, advertisements were mostly done using traditional media (eg. TV, radio, newspapers). This worked well, however there was not really a way for the adverts to be targeted for specific people. They could do things like playing different adverts at different time depending on who they thought would be watching (eg adverts for toys in the mornings when kids would be getting ready for school, and adverts for kitchen appliances in the middle of the day when adults here at home) but other than that it wasn’t very targeted. However, with the interaction on websites that web 2.0 allows, it is very easy to collect stat on each individual that uses a site. This is very useful because for example if someone had shown interest in oranges (google oranges, liking pictures of oranges, watching videos of oranges) this data can be gathered and adverts for different varieties of oranges can be shown to the specific device that has shown interest in that product. This contrasts with previous advertising where the ad ad to be shown to everyone who was watching/listening/reading.

The modern age of web 2.0 has led to advertising strategies that only a few decades ago would not have been conceivable. These strategies have spread into every corner of the internet and BTL marketing has changed immensely. Web 2.0 allows for people to become famous on social media platforms, as people can interact with content, and subscribe / follow their favourite creators. This has lead to anew wave of BTL marketing, where content creators will partner up with brands to promote a product (eg by giving people 50% off for using a specific code). This has brought down the cost of paid promotions and made it easier for new companies to promote their product, as before hand companies would have to partner with celebrities or big companies which would have been very expensive. This, along with content specific to a niche audience, well-targeted advertising, lead generation campaigns are example of BTL on the new web 2.0

As well as innovation BTL strategies, web 2.0 has also allowed for a shift in ATL strategies to adapt for the modern era of technology, and we can look to popular websites and platforms such as facebook and google as examples. We know that these websites look at there personal information of each person and advertise accordingly, but there are still several examples generic promotions of brands which are not very specific to a set of an audience. This can be seen in the way facebook has generic brand postings, and google still uses mass mailing campaigns. Although these methods may not be as affective as personalised ads, they still would not be possible without web 2.0, and now ATL marketing is much cheaper as you don’t have to hire huge huge billboards. This has lead to it being more efficient as it perhaps used to be, because it still reaches a huge amount of potential new customers, but for a lower price meaning more and more business are able to do it.