After watching the “Marketing” documentary in class, I began to reflect on how we, as teens, are marketed towards today. With the new age of social media, countless companies are beginning to advertise through these platforms.
Even just scrolling through my Instagram or going on Snapchat, I get so many ads that are definitely catered towards me, and actually catch my attention. Because I’m commonly on these platforms, I pay attention to these ads. They are also placed in my feed or between stories where they get noticed, which is different from when I’m on a website on my computer and my eye skips over the ads. I also find myself looking up something online, and then the same or similar products are directly advertised on my Instagram. I've had a few friends who purchased products directly from Instagram ads, especially because it's so fast and easy now to buy something. From the viewpoints of a company, this is really useful to target teens since these are platforms commonly used.
Another fairly new method of marketing, that can be compared to the “Cool Hunting” to find influential people to target teens is the use of social media "influencers.” These are people who have large audiences on media like Youtube or Instagram. In the past, Youtube has been a common application used by teens, as they watch a variety of Youtubers, specifically lifestyle Youtubers. With these figures, teens admire them as they tend to relate; and if someone you look up to or try to relate with is promoting something that benefits them, you may assume it will benefit you. Even in my experience, I have friends who have used promotion codes from these influencers. Similar to how the documentary talked about companies paying people to advertise to their peers, this concept involves someone influential promoting a company. With the new age of “influencers,” companies can greatly benefit from these figures, and it works with promotion codes, giveaways, and ads.
This is a really interesting take. I also think a key cornerstone of marketing in the internet age is the use of cookies. Add are chose based off our internet habits and searches. As soon as I start looking for dresses for homecoming the adds for the sites I looked on were everywhere. This would remind me to find a dress but also expose me to new dresses I had not seen.
ReplyDeleteI share the same fascination as you in regards to the use of influencers, and how kids our age are being paid to post on social media to market to other teenagers. It is definitely a genius decision made on the marketers knowing the impact social media has on this generation. It'll be very interesting to see how technology and social media will continue to advance marketing techniques.
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