Week 13 Part A: Online Advertising - Analysis of the Marketplace

 I decided to scroll through Instagram and see what kind of advertisements/sponsorship posts show up. First one that showed up on my feed was for Pfizer INC. The thing about this ad that drew my attention is how there are still ads going on about Covid and the vaccinations. Not to get super "political" but the covid talk has been over for a long time now so I'm surprised there are still advertisements about it. Their call to action is trying to get as many people to use their vaccine as possible. The imagery is some what effective but only because of the color scheme in my opinion. The post has navy blue and orange colors. The orange is what makes it stand out. They also have a picture of a thermometer which isn't very eye catching but I do see why it fits in. I clicked on the link and it brought me to the CDC website where they describe treatment and symptoms for Covid 19. 

The second advertisement that I saw on Instagram was for Goldfish. Kinda funny because I LOVE Goldfish. It drew my attention in a couple of ways. Firstly because I love Goldfish and secondly because they have a collaboration with Marvel Studios, specifically for the new Black Panther Wakanda Forever movie. I love Marvel as well so it really did do a great job of grasping my attention. Their call to action is to try and sell their collaboration food product with one of the most trending movies at the moment which is a great idea. The imagery is very creative as well especially for me since I can tell exactly what they're going for. The ad is kinda like a GIF where it starts off with a big Goldfish in the middle shaped like the Black Panther mask, below are regular shaped Goldfish that are placed to make it look like the nanotechnology necklace that forms the Black Panther suit. Genius idea because this grabs Marvel fans attention. It then shows the Goldfish spinning in a circle then falling into the Goldfish container which shows Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia who are all main characters in the Wakanda Forever movie. The bag is also purple which I feel like is a hint towards the "Heart Shaped Herb" which is a thing associated with Black Panther. When I clicked on the link, it took me to a page where I could buy the Goldfish from Target, Instacart, or Kroger. Very simple and easy link to follow.

I think advertising through social media is far more effective nowadays than the traditional newspaper, billboard, radio, etc.. I think this for multiple different reasons but the main one being that there are so many people that just scroll through social media the majority of the day so you're bound to at least get your ad noticed through social media. Most new generation people don't even look at a newspaper so I think thats ineffective unless you're targeting an older audience. I also think that radio advertisements aren't as popular anymore because people tend to just listen to Bluetooth in their cars and not really listen to the radio. There definitely is still an audience out there that prefers to listen to the radio so it is still effective but not as effective as social media advertising. 

It's funny how you can talk about the most random thing and somehow it'll pop up as an advertisement through Instagram. I remember there were a ton of memes talking about that a couple years ago. It's actually pretty weird in my opinion but it is smart because it for sure grabs your attention when you see the ad and you’re appalled because you literally just talked about it. I'd say that it can feel intrusive at times but I'd more say that it's just weird because what other conversations is our phones picking up. Definitely an invasion of privacy but I'd imagine it's somewhere written in the terms and conditions that you have to agree to so it's not illegal. But it can be helpful because you may be talking about something then forget about it and boom, it pops up right in your feed. Definitely still weird but yes, it can be very helpful at times.