Some Are Clearly Beginning To See and Use Online Advertising Trends

As much as the advertising profession touts itself for being bold and different, it seems as an industry itself, it is slow to change. It is encouraging to see companies (and their marketing partners) trying new things that reflect fundamental changes in the communications environment.

Fosters, the Australian beer company, is switching to an all online strategy for the U.S. market. The campaign will involve online advertising and a “Because TV Sucks” website for the brand. This is probably a good move for the company. Its target is young men—a demographic group that has become more difficult to reach on TV. Also, the size of Foster’s U.S. ad budget makes it difficult to be a player against the big beer brands who still rely on television. Eh mate, better to be a big fish in a lake than a minnow in the ocean. More here from JaffeJuice, too.

We’ve seen a wealth of consumer-generated ads that have received millions of page views on sites such as YouTube and CurrentTV. Some of these ads are really good. If you can’t fight ‘em, you might as well join them…or at least work with them. That is the gist of this story at the New York Times. Smart companies and marketing firms are learning to use consumer generated content and Web 2.0 to extend the reach and success of brands online. The attributes of interactive media permit messages to engage the consumer rather than just tell them.

The most attention I’ve seen in years for Diet Coke did not come from their professional advertising. It came from millions of people watching videos of the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment on the Web. So far it has earned the amateur producers about $30,000. Mentos got smart and used it to their advantage by placing ads beside the now famous video.