Conventional advertising strategies considered a blend of above the line and below the line marketing techniques. Gaining traction in a mass market through broadcasts via tele, radio and papers to build brand recognition combined with focused tactics to target niche messages to particular audiences via a BTL approach. For many years this has stayed the first method for achieving brand name recognition, for generating prospects and opening a sales channel.

Then along came the online world, the new ground of email, Internet and now mobile devices that, though potentially classed as media, don’t quite fit the traditional molding of ATL and BTL techniques. All of a sudden the consumer audience were inundated by both mass market and tailored marketing campaigns overwhelming their inboxes, appearing on their work desktops, and pursuing them on their mobile devices.

But what are the ramifications of this inundation? What are the effects on traditional advertising mediums? Do the traditional types of marketing still hold tight? Is the new frontier of advertising online just a bubble? An ineffective method or a waste of your time?

With so many sorts of online advertising popping up, and increasingly brilliant minds working out ways to capture eyeballs via viral marketing campaigns posted on YouTube, it is hard to see a cessation of this new frontier. Still only in the early adoption phase, the Internet remains the wild west of faceless firms saying everything from a guaranteed viral campaign to top rank on major search engines only using SEO tactics.

Like any new industry, it is full of jargon such as backlinks, SEO, SEM, Pay per click, CPM … the list of acronyms just keeps growing. For the somewhat older audience among us, viewing a screen shot of the newest social media platform and understanding the Internet terminology is about as straightforward as deciphering hieroglyphics.

Though the pioneers have cleared a trail, continuously making a domesticated model that permits any Tom, Dick or Harry to generate a social media page, to form their own web presence, and to foray into the minefield of the web. Yet like any minefield there are mines, some will scare, some will maim, and some will kill businesses who have not spent time on the right preparation and advice.

So a note of advice – research, use common sense and temper your expectations of global domination just by adding a web presence!

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