What is cross platforming advertising?

During this essay, I will be explaining the true meaning of cross platform advertising and where and who uses it. I will be exploring the range of media types that cross platform advertising is used, for example on the TV, Radio, social media and print media like bus advertising and billboards.

Cross Platform advertising on the Tv

This is, in my opinion the most effective and most used form advertising. All the high business and companies advertise their brand, idea, product on advert breaks during TV programmes. ITV is funded by advertising. On all ITV programmes they have advert breaks during and after the programme. The idea behind is that viewers of hit shows like Coronation street  and This Morning watch the adverts, whilst waiting for the programme to come back on, they are persuade to buy the product that is being advertised. Lots of companies advertise their products on the screen. For example McDonalds advertise their business on the Tv to persuade people to come to eat in the restaurant.

Most of their adverts are humorous or tell a story. There are always different McDonald’s adverts on in the same year. They all have a different message. For example this year their adverts theme has as followed:

·         McCafe madness

·         Big Flavour Wrap

·         like to get your money’s worth

·         Carving for gherkins

As I have already mentioned McDonald’s have two categories for their adverts sentimental, with a story of real people’s lives and a humorous ordeal. Examples pf the sentimental adverts is the ‘cravings for gherkins’ advert. This advert is about a pregnant mother and her partner who struggling to cope with the difficulties of pregnancy. In the end the partner gets her gherkins to tackle her food cravings. This sort of advert helps the viewers in a similar scenario to connect with the item being sold. The other category is a humorous element, an   example is the common theme of ‘like to get your money’s worth’ they express this idea in different scenarios. For example:

·         Wearing wedding dress to work

·         Wearing Halloween costume other than Halloween

·         Using leaf blower to dry wife’s hair

These humorous adverts allow the viewer to be entertained which also is a technique to make the viewer go into the restaurant. These adverts are also advertised on Social Media, Radio and print.

Cross Platform advertising on the Radio

Advertising on radio stations like Capital, Heart and Smooth, is another popular way of advertising. Most companies who advertise on the radio often also advertise on the TV as well, this is an example of cross platform advertising.

A radio advert must be more descriptive than acted. As listeners can only hear not see what’s going on.  Often adverts they have one or more people talking together and they explain what is going on. Companies who advertise on the radio often use the same script as their Tv advert, but they re–word it so listeners can understand the advert without physical acting.    

This is a script from a McDonalds radio advert in 2016 (found from campaign website).

In this script we can see McDonald’s main message in this advert is that they are open 24hrs, which is informed to the audience at the end of the advert.  The advert again contains a person who is an everyday scenario. If this was an tv advert there would be less talking and the man in the car would be shown. But as this is an radio advert the ‘male driver’ explains the scenario. After this the narrator ends with the idea of the advert.

Cross Platform advertising on  Social media

Companies whose target audience are young people often advertise on social media platform like Instagram and Snapchat, as most young people use these. For example H&M and NIKE. On Instagram adverts are shown on users feed as they scroll down, they will come across. The advert will often be a poster or a short video, including key information about the selling point. It is the same thing on snapchat. A short video appears after looking at their stories.   Also lots of companies create their own social media pages so people can follow them and keep up to date with the company

This advertising platform is used to promote their product to a younger audience so they get them to use their product. The advert also contains a link to the website of the company, which helps to get the person to buy the product as it makes it easier for them. Most of companies who promote on social media often advertise on the tv and other media platform.

Cross Platform advertising on print

When we use the term ‘print’ in media we mean publishing products on items like, magazines, billboards, prints on buses. This media form of advertising is used so mostly everyone can see it. As of the majority of world travel everyday by public transport, they are almost certain to come across this form of advertising.

Examples include in many train stations there are digital or paper billboards that feature a poster of a particular company. Another form is on the sides of buses, most double decker buses have advert strips on either side of the bus, they mostly advert upcoming films, however they also advertise big companies like, McDonalds, coca cola and reed.co.uk.  Most companies who advertise using print also advertise on the TV and the radio.

Cross Platform advertising digitally

Finally lots of smaller companies and some big ones. Display their advert posters on some websites. For example when a child is doing their homework they may click on a website and on the top or side of the page there will be an advert, containing a link the website, which is very similar to social media advertising.  The more people who click on the link the more money the host website gets, this is called pay-per-click.

Conclusion

To conclude lots of companies market their products on a range of different media platforms, which is called Cross platform advertising. Each platform attracts a different type of user and is used in different ways. There is no official study to suggest the best form of media advertising. But the company would try to use a form that best suits the product. But most companies use a range of media advertising.

Bibliography

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·         Unknown. (2018). McDonald’s Advert Songs (2018) . Available: https://www.tvadsongs.uk/tag/mcdonalds/. Last accessed 27th sept 2018.

·         Staff. (2016). Top 10 radio ads of 2016. Available: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/top-10-radio-ads-2016/1418495. Last accessed 27th sept 2018.

·         Unknown. (Unknown). Bus Advertising. Available: https://www.exterionmedia.com/uk/our-products/bus-advertising. Last accessed 27th sept 2018.

·         Jason in Hollywood. (2013). Apple ipad mini billboards. Available: https://www.dailybillboardblog.com/2012/11/apple-ipad-mini-billboards.html. Last accessed 27th sept 2018.

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By Jake De Souza